Andy Weir: The Egg - short story review

This story (extremely short, you can read it in 5 minutes) is more a psychological exercise than a story. Imagine that you are dead, and now you have met God and have a discussion with him (or her?), but you do not go to Hell or Heaven, but you reincarnate, many times, and of course (as in "Slaughterhouse-Five") time is not linear, in one life you could be Abraham Lincoln, in another a Chinese peasant in the 5th century. Everything you are is actually a soul, who lived many lives without remembering any of them. It's a Hindu idea, obviously, and there's nothing original in this story. But I liked the subtle irony in it.

I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”

“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”

“So what’s the point of it all?”

“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”

“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.

I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”

“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”

“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”

“Just me? What about everyone else?”

“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”

Rating: 3/5