Name: Touch
ISBN: 9780356504575

Touch

"He tried to take my life. Instead I took his. It was a long time ago. I remember it was dark, and I didn't see my killer until it was too late. As I died, my hand touched his. That's when the first switch took place. Suddenly, I was looking through the eyes of my killer, and I was watching myself die. Now switching is easy. I can jump from body to body, have any life, be anyone. Some people touch lives. Others take them. I do both"--Jacket.

What Hacker News says

aaron695Mar 2022

Lots of studies show names matter when getting a job, few suggest you change it, to something less ethnic for instance.

I also know hard names I will not say so I don't make a mistake, so I won't personally address that person, which will make the relationship more difficult.

It's interesting. Changing your name can increase your power. Hollywood has known this for year. Few people do it.

"Touch" by Claire North makes you really think about this in the digital age. IRL you have a body, so names are more detached, but as we go digital, names are all you have... currently. In the book the protagonist has an ephemeral body, so what is a person in that case?

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ceauteryDec 2018

I discovered Claire North this year after she was interviewed on the Imaginary Worlds podcast. I picked up Touch, The Sudden Appearance of Hope, and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, all of which were wonderful.

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stubadubDec 2016

Touch by the same author, Claire North is a great book too.

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anotherevanDec 2025

My reading is largely split between Sci-Fi and Australian crime fiction. So far this year I consumed 16 audiobooks and 68 ebooks. Given the Oz fiction would be a bit more unique to this audience, here are the highlights:

The Fall Between and Burning Mountain by Darcy Tindale recount the investigations of main character Rebecca Giles.

The Survivors by Jane Harper. Seriously, get any book or a shopping list written by Jane and you'll not be able to put it down.

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth. Another author who's complete catalogue is well worth your time.

Black River and Broke Road by Matthew Spencer.

Unbury the Dead by Fiona Hardy.

Other authors worth noting are Margaret Hickey, Chris Hammer and Christian White.

On the sci-fi side of things, I found Infinite Archive by Mur Lafferty quite cozy. Also the Lady Astronauth Universe series by Mary Robinette Kowal, that starts with The Calculating Starts. Flybot by Dennis Taylor (of Bobbi-verse fame).

I was less enamoured with A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine than others are, and don't feel the need to tackle the second in the series.

I also revisited the John Cleaver horror series by Dan Wells that starts with the excellent I Am Not a Serial Killer.

I've just started Slow Gods by Claire North. I find her books a bit hit and miss for me but so far, so good. I absolutely love The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, and Touch was also quite good, but some of her others I could not finish or didn't event start as they were just not for me.

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