To Live Again (novel)

To Live Again
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author(s)	Robert Silverberg
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	1969
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	231 pp
ISBN	NA

To Live Again is also a novel by Lurlene McDaniel in the Dawn Rochelle quintet.

To Live Again is a 1969 science fiction novel by Robert Silverberg.

Plot introduction

The book describes a world where all great scientists, economists, thinkers, builders and so on can store a "backup" of their personality (if they can afford the expensive procedure). Most of those who can afford it record their personality once every six months.

These personalities can then be transplanted (upon the person's actual death) to other people, "living" alongside with the Host, providing him or her with a new insight on life, and on their field of expertise. . As the possession of extra personalities can be a mark of prestige, it has become fashionable in high society to buy and possess as many personalities as they have money for. Occasionally, the personalities of strong minded individuals can overwhelm the personalities of their hosts, resulting in the destruction of the host body's personality.

Reception

Algis Budrys, finding the novel "genuinely mov[ing]" despite being indifferently crafted, concluded that it succeeded because "the very best parts of this book are the unwritten ones, the ones that play on the good old half-buried fears and longings, the love-death pushme-pullyou that drives men in the old, old quest whose byproduct is power."