Book Review- Anyone by Charles Soule

One of the joys of being a comic book journalist for over a decade is watching writers develop and really come into their own. I’ve had that experience with a number of writers, but it’s been rare for me to see a writer bring all he’s learned from writing comics to a new medium like prose. When it happens though it’s astounding, and it’s happened with writer Charles Soule.

I know Soule best from the work he’s done for Marvel Comics with their superhero and Star Wars titles. I’ve also enjoyed his creator owned books like Letter 44 and Curse Words. So, I was very curious about his 2018 debut prose novel, The Oracle Year. I loved it. It’s clear the world building and character development muscles that Soule had perfected writing comics carried over to the medium of prose. As good as The Oracle Year was though it was clear Soule had bigger and even more immersive tales to tell.

Anyone, Soule’s latest prose novel, which came out in December of last year, is just such a novel. It’s a big, bold, futurist sci-fi tale in that it takes a speculative piece of technology and imagines all the ways said tech could revolutionize our world for both good and ill. Our guides through this world are some fascinating and flawed characters.

The technology at the root of Anyone is so staggering and thought provoking that your mind reels at the possibilities. That’s because the story revolves around “The Flash” a piece of tech that allows a person’s consciousness to literally inhabit someone else’s body. The ramifications remind me of Richard K Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs’ novels (The first of which, Altered Carbon, is the inspiration for the Netflix series of the same name). Soule has thoroughly thought through these ramifications too. He creates a believable world where ideas about travel, work, and how we relate to each other on both an individual and group level have been changed dramatically.

He does that though by examining both the intended effects of the tech and how it’s used illicitly. A large part of the book follows the exploits of someone who does darkshares; they rent out their body, no questions asked, for people to use in any number of seedy and often illegal schemes. So, Anyone gives readers a nuanced look at how a piece of sci-fi style tech can change our world.

The settings that are explored in depth in Anyone are two places Soule knows very well, the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas of Michigan and New York. He used to live in the former and currently resides in the latter. His knowledge of both areas shines too, and adds to the book. I say this as someone who was born, raised, and still currently lives in the suburban areas around Detroit and Ann Arbor. So, the book is set in my home state and it feels very authentic.

The Michigan set portions of Anyone take place a few years from now and follow the exploits of Gabrielle White, who accidentally creates the Flash technology. We see her struggle with the realities of funding scientific research and the intrigues that come with trying to retain control of what she invented.

The New York portions of the novel are set 25 years in the future and chronicles the tale of Annami, a person who is engaging in darkshare flashes to finance some pretty far reaching schemes. As her story unfolds we learn more about her machinations.

Soule makes great use of his dual narratives too. Each chapter rotates protagonists, time periods, and usually ends with a pretty riveting cliff hanger. So there’s a sense of momentum to Anyone that makes it even more enjoyable to read. Plus, there’s a whole host of great characters in both stories. There are protagonists you root for, villains you hate, and some fascinating nuanced characters who you’ll have mixed feelings for.

I’ve kept quiet about a lot of the twists, turns, and details of Anyone because part of the fun of the book is discovering these things on our own. I will say the details, both small and large are stunning. They add so much power to an already wonderful book.

With Anyone, Soule clearly challenged himself and took his already stellar prose writing game to a whole new level. It was exciting to see, and I’m even more excited to see where he goes next as both a writer of prose and comics.