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What If? #2
London 2012: What If?
Contemplating having an affair, bored with work, and convinced there must be something more to it all, James Quinn is a man just about to enter a mid-life crisis. James leads a successful life. But is it the right life? Instead of a Product Manager in Telecoms, should he have been a plumber, an Olympic athlete, or an artist? Life, as they say, isn't a practice run. This is it.
Convinced the 'grass is greener' everywhere else, and worried that he may be missing out, James Quinn is a man full of doubts.
It's not that he hates his own life. Far from it. His 'life', as others may call it, is good. It's just that, nowadays he can't stop looking at other people and wondering if he is living the right one? What if James has got it wrong?
And then there's Jane, the first girl he kissed at school, and the one that got away. What would life have been like if he had married her instead of his wife? Unable to control his curiosity he tracks her down through Facebook and discovers that she is now a beautiful woman, living in London, and unhappy in her marriage: like a moth drawn to a flame James finds himself heading for infidelity and feels powerless to stop.
Then one day, during the normal underground commute to work in London, he looks up from his book and doesn't recognise the station name on the Jubilee Line, …and in a split-second, everything changes.
Emerging onto a platform at "New Cross Gate North", a station that shouldn't exist, James finds that Canary Wharf has vanished. Gone. And so have Selfridges and mobile phones.
Instead, James finds himself in a parallel world, where the city he lived in has changed, and every moment is now a voyage of discovery into a new life: a new career in advertising, a new house, and a new wife: Jane-the object of all his fantasies.
In this new world, James discovers that he is a flamboyant, intelligent, charismatic, successful businessman. Yet, even though he now has everything he has always dreamt of, he finds that he longs for everything else that he used to have but has now lost: his two children, Keira and Nicole, and his wife Sarah. Sarah, the woman he loved but took for granted.
Convinced that both the past and present are real, he realises that somewhere Sarah must be as real in this world as she was in the last. Longing to hold her in his arms again, and with no apparent way back to his old world, he sets out to find Sarah in his new world. Wherever she is.
Using knowledge from their previous life together, he manages to track her down. But James realises that before he can truly be together with Sarah once again, he must first understand what went wrong between them in the other world to avoid it happening again.
What is the secret that his subconscious has hidden from his conscious mind, and which made him want to turn away from Sarah and into the arms of another woman? Will it be possible for Sarah to fall in love with him again in this new world? And is it too late to find a way back to the old world, and his old life?
Convinced the 'grass is greener' everywhere else, and worried that he may be missing out, James Quinn is a man full of doubts.
It's not that he hates his own life. Far from it. His 'life', as others may call it, is good. It's just that, nowadays he can't stop looking at other people and wondering if he is living the right one? What if James has got it wrong?
And then there's Jane, the first girl he kissed at school, and the one that got away. What would life have been like if he had married her instead of his wife? Unable to control his curiosity he tracks her down through Facebook and discovers that she is now a beautiful woman, living in London, and unhappy in her marriage: like a moth drawn to a flame James finds himself heading for infidelity and feels powerless to stop.
Then one day, during the normal underground commute to work in London, he looks up from his book and doesn't recognise the station name on the Jubilee Line, …and in a split-second, everything changes.
Emerging onto a platform at "New Cross Gate North", a station that shouldn't exist, James finds that Canary Wharf has vanished. Gone. And so have Selfridges and mobile phones.
Instead, James finds himself in a parallel world, where the city he lived in has changed, and every moment is now a voyage of discovery into a new life: a new career in advertising, a new house, and a new wife: Jane-the object of all his fantasies.
In this new world, James discovers that he is a flamboyant, intelligent, charismatic, successful businessman. Yet, even though he now has everything he has always dreamt of, he finds that he longs for everything else that he used to have but has now lost: his two children, Keira and Nicole, and his wife Sarah. Sarah, the woman he loved but took for granted.
Convinced that both the past and present are real, he realises that somewhere Sarah must be as real in this world as she was in the last. Longing to hold her in his arms again, and with no apparent way back to his old world, he sets out to find Sarah in his new world. Wherever she is.
Using knowledge from their previous life together, he manages to track her down. But James realises that before he can truly be together with Sarah once again, he must first understand what went wrong between them in the other world to avoid it happening again.
What is the secret that his subconscious has hidden from his conscious mind, and which made him want to turn away from Sarah and into the arms of another woman? Will it be possible for Sarah to fall in love with him again in this new world? And is it too late to find a way back to the old world, and his old life?
446 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 21, 2012
124 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Ian C.P. Irvine
64 books146 followersIan Irvine was brought up in Scotland, and studied Physics for far too many years, before travelling the world working for high-technology companies. Ian has spent a career helping build the internet and delivering its benefits to users throughout the world,...as well as helping to bring up a family. Ian enjoys writing, painting and composing in his spare time. His particular joy is found in taking scientific fact and creating a thrilling story around it in such a way that readers learn science whilst enjoying the thrill of the ride. It is Ian's hope that everyone who reads an I.C.P.Irvine novel will come away learning something interesting that they would never otherwise have found an interest in. Never Science fiction. Always science fact. With a twist.
The first of Ian's novels is a Genetic Conspiracy Thriller which explores the world of Stem Cell Research and encourages us all to ask some very searching questions about the advances that science is making, and how much we, or others, should let it affect society. A contemporary adventure, "The Orlando File" takes the reader around the world and back, and creates a unique moral dilemma that the reader cannot help but get embroiled in: at the end, the reader must ask themself, what would they do in that situation?
His second novel "The Crown of Thorns" explores the power of genetics, explores the questions that the potential to clone humans will raise, and asks the ultimate question...what would happen if a scientist found a way to clone Jesus Christ?
Ian's third novel "London 2012 : What If?" departs from the world of genetics and explores an interesting possibility that Quantum Physics raises:the possibility for parallel worlds to exist alongside each other...and what would happen if a man who wondered what other types of lives he could be living had he made other choices, where unexpectedly to step from one world into another parallel world. "What If" is also an interesting voyage through human emotions, and many readers will find themselves asking themselves similar questions that the lead character does as they read the book. As with both "The Crown of Thorns" and "The Orlando File", at the end of the book the reader is left thinking...and different readers may take away different views on how the novels did, or should have ended... It is hoped that in this way, the novels will make themselves ideal subjects for reading clubs or book clubs.
Ian hopes that if you honour him by spending the time reading one his novels, that you will find it a positive experience, and enjoy it. He also invites you to email him and let him know if you did or did not enjoy the novel. And if you did, what were your favourite parts?
Happy Reading!
The first of Ian's novels is a Genetic Conspiracy Thriller which explores the world of Stem Cell Research and encourages us all to ask some very searching questions about the advances that science is making, and how much we, or others, should let it affect society. A contemporary adventure, "The Orlando File" takes the reader around the world and back, and creates a unique moral dilemma that the reader cannot help but get embroiled in: at the end, the reader must ask themself, what would they do in that situation?
His second novel "The Crown of Thorns" explores the power of genetics, explores the questions that the potential to clone humans will raise, and asks the ultimate question...what would happen if a scientist found a way to clone Jesus Christ?
Ian's third novel "London 2012 : What If?" departs from the world of genetics and explores an interesting possibility that Quantum Physics raises:the possibility for parallel worlds to exist alongside each other...and what would happen if a man who wondered what other types of lives he could be living had he made other choices, where unexpectedly to step from one world into another parallel world. "What If" is also an interesting voyage through human emotions, and many readers will find themselves asking themselves similar questions that the lead character does as they read the book. As with both "The Crown of Thorns" and "The Orlando File", at the end of the book the reader is left thinking...and different readers may take away different views on how the novels did, or should have ended... It is hoped that in this way, the novels will make themselves ideal subjects for reading clubs or book clubs.
Ian hopes that if you honour him by spending the time reading one his novels, that you will find it a positive experience, and enjoy it. He also invites you to email him and let him know if you did or did not enjoy the novel. And if you did, what were your favourite parts?
Happy Reading!
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 27, 2021
I hate books written in present 1st person ( I am going…I see…etc')
In regard to its content , it has the banal concept of a guy traveling into a parallel world. This parallel world is similar to the current one, but with lots of differences. The whole story is based on long tiring descriptions about the difference between theses to worlds.
Some close people from the current world, switched roles in the new world. Some disappeared, and the story is about the continues search from them. Again, long long long descriptions.
There are no real twists in the story. It is most defiantly a thriller.
The original book was named " London 2012 : What If?" it was published in 2 parts, for marketing purposes, so you buy the 2nd one as well ) Better price for 2 books than for a single one).
Then, the name was changed into " Two women One Love" again 2 parts, and finally in 2020, it was published as a single book named " Two women One Love"
I skipped lots of pages without loosing anything regarding the main story. I don't need to read 2 pages describing a street in London.
In regard to its content , it has the banal concept of a guy traveling into a parallel world. This parallel world is similar to the current one, but with lots of differences. The whole story is based on long tiring descriptions about the difference between theses to worlds.
Some close people from the current world, switched roles in the new world. Some disappeared, and the story is about the continues search from them. Again, long long long descriptions.
There are no real twists in the story. It is most defiantly a thriller.
The original book was named " London 2012 : What If?" it was published in 2 parts, for marketing purposes, so you buy the 2nd one as well ) Better price for 2 books than for a single one).
Then, the name was changed into " Two women One Love" again 2 parts, and finally in 2020, it was published as a single book named " Two women One Love"
I skipped lots of pages without loosing anything regarding the main story. I don't need to read 2 pages describing a street in London.
July 22, 2017
Loved it, bet there are many people who have wished this to happen in their own lives
December 28, 2018
I love the fact that Ian writes with a different slant to the mainstream authors.....there are glimpses of JK Rowling's imaginative talent and you're never quite sure where he will go with a story. I'm going to say upfront that sometimes the plots stray a little too far into far-fetched for my preferred 'keep it real' style [spoiler alerts for earlier books]........clone wars between christ and the anti-christ, an investigative journalist taking on everyone in USA up to the President, etc. However, books about paper clips, car journeys, making the tea and going shopping rarely make for exciting reads. However far-fetched the plot is, Ian - to his credit - has a wonderful story-telling style; simple but still eloquent, great lovable characters and a real page-turner feel to the stories. I stumbled across him via an Amazon free book/Goodreads combo and, unusually for me, I didn't start with his first book (I'm normally obsessive about 'book series in order') as, ultimately, he writes mostly standalones so it doesn't really matter. Anyway Time Ship appealed to me and made me seek out his other works which I am now reading in publication order (natural order restored, phew!). So I have read Time Ship, The Orlando File, Crown of Thorns, London 2012 What If? and The Sleeping Truth so far - the remainder will get read over the next week. For me this is my favourite so far. I'm a quick reader (a full-length novel per day on average) and if a book isn't entirely to my liking I have been known to 'skim' chapters in a hope of getting to something which strikes a chord. However I can honestly say that Ian has introduced me to a new character flaw.........skim reading a book I am loving because I can't stand the intensity of emotion and plot twists and turns! The final sections of What If? had my heart racing, my emotions comprehensively toyed with and I finished the last page and almost went for a lie down to recover - I was buzzing!!! Ian proved that he could write about 'ordinary' and still have you gripped. One of the best books I have ever read (and I have read a lot!). Thank you Ian.
November 12, 2018
That's a lot of Ifs
And indeed, we have a lot of what ifs in life. We want to escape our current reality and live in another without realising that we are who we are today because of the decisions, choices, and actions we've taken in the past. We will always go back to this reality because it is what defined and defines us.
This is what this two-book series is about. How one man was accidentally transferred into another reality in answer to his many what ifs. Only to learn and long to get back to his own.
And indeed, we have a lot of what ifs in life. We want to escape our current reality and live in another without realising that we are who we are today because of the decisions, choices, and actions we've taken in the past. We will always go back to this reality because it is what defined and defines us.
This is what this two-book series is about. How one man was accidentally transferred into another reality in answer to his many what ifs. Only to learn and long to get back to his own.
November 14, 2019
Great book to complete the first
This was a really good book although at times a bit drawn out. It definitely keeps you intrigued and pulling towards reading just ‘one more page’ before you put the book down to do something else. Not sure if I really liked the ending as it was but wasn’t what I expected and what really happened at the choice that was made - it can leave a lot of questions in your mind to ponder. I recommend book one and two. His Time Ship time travel book was great as well!
This was a really good book although at times a bit drawn out. It definitely keeps you intrigued and pulling towards reading just ‘one more page’ before you put the book down to do something else. Not sure if I really liked the ending as it was but wasn’t what I expected and what really happened at the choice that was made - it can leave a lot of questions in your mind to ponder. I recommend book one and two. His Time Ship time travel book was great as well!
May 31, 2018
Crossing the line
If by chance you read my review of book one you will know that I missed the link. However I can tell you now it is so important to read book one as it launches you into the thrill that is book two. I could not put this book down until I found out what happened to Jane-James-Sarah and the intertwined lives. This book keeps you right on the edge and you cannot put it down. Great thriller writing from Ian CP Irvine all be it not typical of the thriller genre.
If by chance you read my review of book one you will know that I missed the link. However I can tell you now it is so important to read book one as it launches you into the thrill that is book two. I could not put this book down until I found out what happened to Jane-James-Sarah and the intertwined lives. This book keeps you right on the edge and you cannot put it down. Great thriller writing from Ian CP Irvine all be it not typical of the thriller genre.
December 9, 2017
Absolutely brilliant!!!
Thank you Ian for writing this story. I don't usually do reviews but just wanted to say it was a great read. I'm now sad that it's ended.
The Sleeping Truth is another brilliant book I couldn't put down.
I've already downloaded Haunted From Within.
Claire
Thank you Ian for writing this story. I don't usually do reviews but just wanted to say it was a great read. I'm now sad that it's ended.
The Sleeping Truth is another brilliant book I couldn't put down.
I've already downloaded Haunted From Within.
Claire
December 1, 2018
This is the fantastic ending to the first book. I loved it. The plot is gripping I couldn't put it down despite not wanting it to end either. Raises lots of questions about parallel lives. It's very clever and so readable. Only found this author recently but he has fast become my favourite. I'd read anything he writes!
May 11, 2017
This is not Book 2. Don't waste your money or time.
After finishing book 1 of this series, I looked forward to reading Book 2. This isn't it! This is just the second half I'd the first book, all over again. Again, don't waste your money.
After finishing book 1 of this series, I looked forward to reading Book 2. This isn't it! This is just the second half I'd the first book, all over again. Again, don't waste your money.
October 3, 2017
Parallel lives??
The concept of parallel lives has always fascinated me. Book one was a real page turner. Book two began well and greatly improved my interest with the Quantum physics theories. I felt very disappointed with the ending. Too many loose ends. Enjoyable non the less.
The concept of parallel lives has always fascinated me. Book one was a real page turner. Book two began well and greatly improved my interest with the Quantum physics theories. I felt very disappointed with the ending. Too many loose ends. Enjoyable non the less.
February 21, 2018
Very unimaginable story which takes me along and quite interesting quantum physics theory. I wish some day some one will be able to explain the reincarnation/parallel life ?
August 26, 2018
Arresting storyline
This book grabbed my attention from the start. Beautifully written, I couldn't put it down. And what if.... Fabulous read!
This book grabbed my attention from the start. Beautifully written, I couldn't put it down. And what if.... Fabulous read!
October 5, 2018
Great page turner again!
I just love the way Ian C P Irvine writes, always gives you plenty to think about and wonder if it could work gcvhgvhb
I just love the way Ian C P Irvine writes, always gives you plenty to think about and wonder if it could work gcvhgvhb
December 27, 2016
Love it. One of the best book that I've read. I am glad that Mr Irvine divide it into 2 books. Otherwise it will be too long
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This book continue directly from the part one in which James is looking for Sara. I won't tell how it will happen. Just the ending was unpredictable. I really love how Mr Irvine narrated the story. It couldn't have been better. The choice to use first person of view is great. It amplifies the experience and the emotion. The story is all about James and it really focus into that. The encounter with Helen is nice addition even though not really related to the story.
The story really tease us with what may or may not happen. I like the ending. But I can understand if some people don't like the endind because it was an ambiguous one. You can interpret the ending whatever you want. It was win win situation for me, not dealing with debate what's right and what's wrong. It was as if we are really in London together with James and experiencing his life, up and down. I really recommend this book.for anyone.
Rating : 5 of 5
www.sharing55tories.blogspot.com
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This book continue directly from the part one in which James is looking for Sara. I won't tell how it will happen. Just the ending was unpredictable. I really love how Mr Irvine narrated the story. It couldn't have been better. The choice to use first person of view is great. It amplifies the experience and the emotion. The story is all about James and it really focus into that. The encounter with Helen is nice addition even though not really related to the story.
The story really tease us with what may or may not happen. I like the ending. But I can understand if some people don't like the endind because it was an ambiguous one. You can interpret the ending whatever you want. It was win win situation for me, not dealing with debate what's right and what's wrong. It was as if we are really in London together with James and experiencing his life, up and down. I really recommend this book.for anyone.
Rating : 5 of 5
www.sharing55tories.blogspot.com
March 22, 2016
Good story
Good read, good introspection into life and the effects of our decisions and in the lives if others. Being a better person.
Good read, good introspection into life and the effects of our decisions and in the lives if others. Being a better person.
Read
March 2, 2018Best book i have read for a long time
This was the second of two books and both were absolutely gripping. So unusual a tale that I found myself unable to put it down!
This was the second of two books and both were absolutely gripping. So unusual a tale that I found myself unable to put it down!
October 30, 2016
Enjoyable continuation to the first book - some great writing and a decent insight into James's life and emotions. I loved the ending ;)
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October 25, 2018Sci-fi angst
This is the second book of two, I felt obliged to get this one as the first one leaves you wondering what is going on. Still none the wiser as it is sci-first psycho babble. I do know that James is an egotistical selfish git in both worlds.
This is the second book of two, I felt obliged to get this one as the first one leaves you wondering what is going on. Still none the wiser as it is sci-first psycho babble. I do know that James is an egotistical selfish git in both worlds.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews