The Afterlife Project
A Novel
by Tim Weed
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Pub Date Jun 03 2025 | Archive Date Mar 31 2025
Podium Entertainment | Podium Publishing
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Description
With humanity facing imminent extinction, a team of scientists uses technology originally designed for interstellar travel to send a test subject ten millennia into Earth’s future. Marooned in an uninhabited wilderness, microbiologist Nicholas Hindman searches in vain for remnants of the human race. Meanwhile, back in 2068 A.D., the team’s head physicist and its doctor lead a small crew of survivors on a sailing voyage to a small volcanic island north of Sicily on a harrowing quest for a second viable test subject. The Afterlife Project, a finalist for the 2023 Prism Prize for Climate Literature, is a darkly immersive work of literary speculative fiction that will appeal to readers of Andy Weir, Cormac McCarthy, Emily St John Mandel, and Peter Heller.
A Note From the Publisher
Tim Weed is the author of three books of fiction. His story collection, A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing, was named to the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize Shortlist, and his first novel, Will Poole’s Island, was one of Bank Street College of Education’s Best Books of the Year. He’s a two-time winner of the Writer’s Digest Annual Fiction Awards and has been shortlisted for the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, the Fish International Short Story Award, the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award for a Novel-in-Progress, the New Rivers Many Voices Project, and many others. His essays and articles have appeared in Literary Hub, The Millions, The Writer’s Chronicle, Talking Points Memo, and elsewhere. His new novel, The Afterlife Project, finalist for the Prism Prize in Climate Fiction, will be released in print, audio, and ebook on June 3, 2025.
Tim serves on the core faculty of the Newport MFA in Creative Writing and is the co-founder of the Cuba Writers Program. A former featured expert for National Geographic Expeditions, he spent the first part of his career directing international educational programs throughout Latin America and in Spain, Portugal, Australia, Iceland, and other locations around the globe. He holds a BA in Spanish from Middlebury, a master’s in international affairs from the University of California, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College. Dividing his time between southern Vermont and Nantucket, Tim is a member of the Vermont Humanities Council Speakers’ Bureau and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. He occasionally leads international travel programs and appears at writing conferences and other events in the U.S. and abroad.
Advance Praise
“Tim Weed’s The Afterlife Project is smart, achingly beautiful, and (yes) important: a gripping novel of climate cataclysm with a cast of characters I cared about deeply.” — Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Flight Attendant
“The Afterlife Project isn’t just a story about the end of the world as we know it – it’s an exploration of beauty, and love, and hope in the darkness. If you were a fan of Cloud Atlas, you won’t want to miss this one.” — Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author of What Kind of Paradise.
“A brave and brilliant imagining of Earth in the years just after a mega pandemic has killed almost everyone; and ten thousand years hence, when a test subject emerges from suspension to explore a wilderness echoing with solitude. The tale is riveting and wrenching and suffused with beauty—the haunting and intimate beauty of the natural world rendered by a master.”
— Peter Heller, bestselling author of The Dog Stars
“Tim Weed’s The Afterlife Project is smart, achingly beautiful, and (yes) important: a gripping novel of climate cataclysm with a cast of characters I cared about deeply.” — Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Flight Attendant
“The Afterlife Project isn’t just a story about the end of the world as we know it – it’s an exploration of beauty, and love, and hope in the darkness. If you were a fan of Cloud Atlas, you won’t want to miss this one.” — Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author of What Kind of Paradise.
“A brave and brilliant imagining of Earth in the years just after a mega pandemic has killed almost everyone; and ten thousand years hence, when a test subject emerges from suspension to explore a wilderness echoing with solitude. The tale is riveting and wrenching and suffused with beauty—the haunting and intimate beauty of the natural world rendered by a master.”
— Peter Heller, bestselling author of The Dog Stars
The Afterlife Project will be published in print, audio, and ebook versions on June 3, 2025, as Podium Publishing’s lead spring title. Preorder it now at your own independent bookstore or via Bookshop.org, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or (for audiobook) Audible
With humanity facing imminent extinction, a team of scientists uses technology originally designed for interstellar travel to send a test subject ten millennia into Earth’s future. Marooned in an uninhabited wilderness, microbiologist Nicholas Hindman searches in vain for remnants of the human race. Meanwhile, back in 2068 A.D., the team’s head physicist and its doctor lead a small crew of survivors on a sailing voyage to a small volcanic island north of Sicily on a harrowing quest for a second viable test subject. The Afterlife Project, a finalist for the 2023 Prism Prize for Climate Literature, is a darkly immersive work of literary speculative fiction that will appeal to readers of Andy Weir, Cormac McCarthy, Emily St John Mandel, and Peter Heller.
“I can’t think of a single page that didn’t make me pause to admire a sentence, an image, or a particularly fascinating idea. I loved this book.” — Angie Kim, New York Times Bestselling Author of Happiness Falls
“This beautiful and heartbreaking book reminds us of what we have, and what we stand to lose. Unforgettable.” — Danielle Trussoni, NYT and internationally bestselling author of The Puzzle Master
“Weed is a fabulous storyteller working at the top of his game. I predict this novel will become a classic.” —Joseph Monninger, author of The World as We Know It
“This engaging dystopian tale deftly blends enthralling fiction with real-life fears.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Weed delivers a highly intriguing storyline pulled off through creative worldbuilding and plausible technology . . . a tale that feels wholly original and movingly conveys the full weight of the circumstances while providing a riveting read in the process.” — The Booklife Prize (Publisher’s Weekly)
Marketing Plan
Shortlisted for the 2023 Prism Prize for Climate Literature and Uncharted Magazine’s Novel Excerpt Prize, THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT is Podium Publishing’s lead spring title. The novel will be distributed by Ingram's Two Rivers, with a comprehensive national marketing campaign, including a book tour and a nationwide publicity campaign spearheaded by Page One Media. For my own part, I'll be promoting the book to my extensive contact list developed from years of teaching fiction and leading educational travel programs around the world.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781039480452 |
| PRICE | $19.99 (USD) |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Alley M, Reviewer
This book… I’m finding a hard time putting it into words…. It was beautiful. I really felt the writing. I could clearly see the imagery. I was very attached to our characters and their journey, each and every one. The research alone that went into this was 🤯. Reading this in today’s world really triggers my eco anxiety, my feeling of helplessness and the dread. But also the hope, the love, the human connection. It puts a lot of things into perspective. It was truly something special.
Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ahead of publication. I will absolutely be purchasing a copy upon release and I highly recommend it.
Reviewer 230681
Tim Weed is a new writer to me, and as far as I can tell, The Afterlife Project is also his first novel that would qualify as science fiction. It opens with a great hook, as Nick (Dr. Nicholas Hindman) comes to consciousness in a cave in what was once New Hampshire, after a 10,000-year suspension – long enough for the Earth to heal from the climate disaster of the 21st century, an Earth in which he may be the only living human. His survival strategies have been carefully prepared with that contingency in mind, given that essentially no artifacts were contained within his Time Dilation Sphere. I’ve spent time on the AT, and found Weed’s descriptions of the physical environment to be detailed and evocative. As the months go by, Nick struggles to maintain his sanity and sense of purpose in the face of disappointments. It was fascinating to consider that he is in the same location as his prior life, where he recognizes very few features other than a few rock outcroppings.
Meanwhile in alternating chapters we follow Nick’s colleagues in the years after he was suspended, as population declines, and civil society deteriorates. After the events begin, a great deal of the climate disaster background is supplied through flashbacks and memories in both plotlines. That works well. At the same time, the fringe survivalists they encounter seem extreme and contrived for purposes of plot promotion. It is a world where human fertility has gone to near zero, due to a pandemic. They are searching for a fertile companion to send forward with Nick, and a lot of the suspense involves whether that quest will be successful. Nick, in his plot thread has not discovered any other TDS.
In the end, the survival of the human species is at stake, and while the outcome seems actually reasonable, something in the drama was missing for me. Perhaps it involved the sudden switch from two first-person accounts to a third-person omniscient perspective. Sadly, I do not have a preferred ending that I would like to recommend, but I’m afraid that some of the emotional impact I expected was missing. Still, I found this novel overall to be recommended reading.
I read an Advance Review Copy of The Afterlife Project in ebook format, which I received from Podium Publishing through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title is scheduled for release on 3 June 2025.
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