The Afterlife Project: A Novel
The Afterlife Project: A Novel
by Tim Weed
Released June 3, 2025
With humanity facing imminent extinction, Centauri Project scientists use 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 for evidence of remnant populations. He has a protocol to follow and is determined to do so to the bitter end--though he knows he's probably searching in vain, stranded on an empty planet silently orbiting the sun.
Meanwhile, back in 2068 AD, a devastating hyperpandemic has quelled all talk of interstellar travel and thrown the future of humanity into grave doubt. Four surviving members of the Centauri team board a vintage solar-powered sailing yacht for a harrowing journey in search of a second test subject. Their destination is a small volcanic island north of Sicily rumored to harbor that rarest of creatures: a woman capable of getting pregnant, thereby ensuring this generation of Homo sapiens isn't the last. But first they must make it halfway across the post-apocalyptic globe, risking heatwaves, oceanic megastorms, murderous gangs, deranged cult leaders, a volcanic eruption, and the dangerous microbes that continue to circulate through the planet's atmosphere.
Tim Weed is the author of A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing, Will Poole's Island, and The Afterlife Project. A former international travel guide, Weed serves on Salve Regina University's core faculty for the Newport MFA in creative writing and is a cofounder of the Cuba Writers Program. When not at his writing desk, he can most often be found skiing, fishing, or tending to his trees. Weed is based in Vermont but also spends time in Nantucket, Colorado, and the greater Boston area.
