Three men, three midlife crises, a road trip to Chicago, and a bunch of sci fi references. Pretty much Relativity in a nutshell.

Quirky and entertaining, but not really my cup of tea. I can see people liking this one - might be a case of "wrong book, wrong time."

Harry has been obsessed with writing his dissertation on Omnicalculetry for years. He dropped out of college when his then girlfriend got pregnant but is convinced he can prove Albert Einstein had it all wrong.

Dennis owns some car dealerships and is Harry's ex-wife's (Amanda) current boyfriend. He mostly just does the same thing everyday. Go to work, come home, drink in his basement man cave & half listen to Amanda.

Timothy is Harry's best friend. He teaches chemistry at University of Indiana and spends most of his free time online playing 'Cape Canaveral: Galactic Empire'. His wife is an unemployed alcoholic so he ends up with a massive crush on one of his teammates on the game, Lexlitha.

The story winds through the mediocrity of these 3 men's lives. Harry is completely clueless about real life and is convinced once his dissertation is published he will be rich & famous. Dennis decides he isn't happy and sends a friend request to his high school crush, who responds and they start a "texting" relationship he thinks will lead to them being together & living happily ever after. Timothy is sure if he can be brave enough to tell Lexlitha his true feelings she will confess she feels the same and they will end up together.

There is humor and some things I can't begin to describe but overall this is a quirky book about letting your secret (or not so secret in Harry's case) dreams take over your reality.

Struggled to get into this novel, confusingly written, found myself skipping over large swaths of conversations from Henry. I didn't find I could relate to the characters or find empathy as a reader for them either.

This was an interesting read to say the least, and it is not something I would normally read.

The characters were all interesting, but their backstories were very long and tedious to get through. Harry had a lot of science and science terminology that was frankly over my head, and I tended to skim over his parts. Timothy, while interesting, had a bit much science fiction going on. I felt very bad with how his parents treated him during his childhood.
My favorite character was Dennis because his story was very simple and not at all complicated.
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It took me a while to figure out what exactly was making this such a hard read for me, and I finally came to the realization that it was because it was a story about 3 men and their POV about life and marriage in general. Not that this is a bad thing, it was just the first time I have read a book from this viewpoint. I would classify this as Men's Fiction (Is there even such a category??)
Lighthearted, with a few laughs thrown in, I would recommend this to my male friends going through their own mid-life crisis.
I enjoyed how all their stories were interconnected and I was happy with the ending.
Thank you to Let's Talk Book Promo and the publisher for my eArc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Relativity is the story of middle=aged men figuring out their life. The narration of the story is comedic as you understand the midlife crisis each of them is facing. We meet Harry, Dennis and Timothy, each in their version of being misunderstood in their 40's.

Harry - he lives in a fantastical realm that is detached from reality. He is out to disprove the laws of physics by writing a 2000+ paper that he believes will revolutionize his way of being. If ONLY he can get someone to read it.

Dennis - he's dating Harry's ex-wife and has rekindled an online relationship with his high school crush. .

Timothy - he thought he married the love of life, but his true love is his online partner from his gaming world. Timothy harbors a unique fetish he developed in his youth.

Together these men form a special bond when they travel to Chicago, each with a special purpose for being in the city. Basically this is Men's Fiction that is off-the-wall. The last 1/4 of the book is the best, especially when they these 3 make it to the city.

Thank you BHC for the advance reader copy.

Thank you Netgalley for this ACR for an exchange for an honest review.

Excellent book, nicely written.

Thank you to the publishers at BHC Press and Netgalley for this e-ARC of Relativity. And a special thanks to @letstalkbookpromos for having me on this tour!

Relativity is the story of three men, all leading extremely different lives in the same small town of Bloomington, Indiana.

Harry, a college dropout and divorced from the only woman he ever loved, has been working on a thesis paper for the last 8 years, disproving Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Excited about the prospects this proposal will bring him, Harry daydreams his days away with visions of the future.

Dennis is dating Amanda, Harry’s ex-wife, but he’s not happy. As he reminisces on the past, Dennis decides to reach out to a woman he had a crush on during high school. When she actually replies, Dennis begins to imagine a new life with her and slowly begins pushing Amanda away.

Timothy, Harry’s best friend, spends most of his time living vicariously through his RPG character, Derek Storm. Playing with a group of friends he met online, Timothy avoids his alcoholic wife as she drinks the day away. But Timothy has found love again, in the form of his teammate, Lexlitha. Determined to win her heart, he makes plans to see her during the gaming tournament in Chicago.

When all three men find themselves needing to head to Chicago on the same weekend, an unlikely friendship forms.

I thought this novel had a lot of funny lines, but the amount of sci-fi references was a bit much for my taste. I also enjoyed the ending, when each man finally found what he’d been missing. While I wish it had focused more on the road trip (this was just the last 20% or so) I appreciated all of the background information that led these men on this trip.

I wanted to like this book so much. I though the concept was very interesting. I have read “road trip” stories with middle aged women as the main characters and thought seeing this from a man’s perspective would be interesting. Unfortunately, the book did not meet my expectations. I admire authors so much for their creativity and drive of wanting to write a book that readers will love. I try to choose my books carefully so that I am almost always assured I will enjoy them, and usually do not have to write a negative review.

At twenty-five percent of the book, I knew this was not a book for me and I was just reading to the end, just to finish it. The book summary states that the plot is about a men’s road trip, or that is what I understood. That is not accurate. The road trip is a very small part of the book. Also, I want to state that I think the reader of this book needs to be a fan of science fiction. I have watched many science fiction TV series, and have enjoyed them, but to totally be immersed in this story, the reader needs to be more interested in Sci Fi, then I am.

The last one-fourth of the book, I actually enjoyed. It was worth hanging in and continuing to read, even though I really wanted to stop so often. Would I recommend this book to readers since I enjoyed the last part of the book? Sorry to the author, no, I would not.

I looked at the other reviews posted and it seems the readers all enjoy the book, so I am in the minority in my opinion. Every book is not for every person, but I do wish the author of much success with this book.

I want to thank BHC Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read the advanced reader copy with no obligation to write a review. My review is written freely as a hobby, and is totally my own opinion, not influenced by receiving the ARC.

If Douglas Adams Wrote "Men's Fiction". Take the hilarity and wit that *Douglas* Adams was known for in his scifi and apply it instead to a tale of three middle aged men each having distinct mid-life crises that all get wrapped up in each other... and you basically have this book. More of a "men's fiction" tale that explores similar themes as the better known "women's fiction" genre, but focusing on the guys rather than the gals, this is a wild romp with heart - and a relatively short read at under 250 pages to boot. Adams manages to pack quite a tale within that lower page count though, and the laughs are on nearly every page. Truly a more lighthearted and off-the-wall book that many may need in trying times. Very much recommended.

The story is about three men who are taking a chance at their dream, and the journey that brought them to where they are. Harry believes he can disprove the theory of relativity. Timothy, who has a PHD in Chemistry, plays online video games competitively and wants to connect with his gaming partner who he has never met in real life. Dennis inherited the car dealership he owns, is married to Harry's ex-wife, and is hoping to reconnect with that girl from high school he was too afraid to ever talk to. Getting to know these men, how they think, and how they connect together was very interesting. Their dreams have become the sole focus of their lives, and they cling to them, pushing aside and letting go of what doesn't coexist with this focus. I was hoping that each of these men would find a real happiness while I was reading with quiet satire. I especially loved how the author presents these less then perfect men who are doing the best they can, and presents them in a way that allows us to feel for them.

Thank you Netgalley and BHC Press for the digital arc. This is my honest review.

Harry is obsessed with trying to disprove the theory of relativity whose house burns down when he is distracted. Dennis is an alcoholic car salesman who is involved with Harry's ex-wife but also starts texting his high school crush. Timothy is a professor who is in love with an online gaming friend and is invited to participate in a tournament. The three of them and their odd life trajectories come together in a road trip to Chicago. From the plot synopsis, I expected this to be more about the road trip, but it's more about the lead-up to it and that is just the end. Decent story. It seemed a little bit trying too hard to be absurd in some ways, but it wasn't bad. 3 stars.

Harry Erickson has an estranged marriage, a thankless job at an assisted living facility, and a doting daughter who puts up with his eccentricities (just wait till you get to the end of this paragraph). But he also is under an unshakeable conviction that Albert Einstein got his Theory of Relativity completely awry. This stubborn persuasion leads Harry to spend eight years ensconced in a damp basement, allowing his wedding to wither and even maintain an irritable equanimity when his house (sole property) burns down in an unfortunate bout of kitchen and Kiev chicken neglect. But undeterred and undaunted, Harry proceeds to come up with a 2,635 page “self-proclaimed” tour de force rebuttal of Einstein. True to both the length of the research conducted without accosting the help of anyone and the depth of frustration caused in the process to everyone, Harry titles his work, “Omnicalcumetry: The Theory of Everything and its Application for Everyday living by Harry Erickson, a New Science for the New Millennium.”

A chance viewing of one episode of the cult Science Fiction series, Cape Canaveral, upends the life of both young Timothy Henderson and his unsuspecting set of parents. Timothy begins doodling with a vengeance, aliens having varying degrees of unnatural sex with willing humans, in various convoluted positions. However things reach a head when Timothy replaces the faces of the procreating beasts and beauties with headshots of his classmates. A confiscation of his exquisite art, a promise to meet a therapist, and a finding of extraterrestrial sex fetish or ETSF later, Timothy’s parents are forced to flee Atlanta by driving 500 odd miles to Bloomington, Indiana, after a spurned therapist (who wanted to use Timothy as the subject of an extravagant study), makes strategic calls to parents of Timothy’s classmates revealing not just the extent of monstrosity and perversion attached to Timothy’s drawings, but the roles and responsibilities of each of their offspring. Timothy gets acquainted with Harry at Indiana, proceeds to get a PhD in Chemistry, gets married and sees it ruined, before spending a greater part of his time matching wits with kids in Massive Multiple Role Playing Online Video Games.

Even if Dennis Drysdale did not know everyone in Bloomington, every resident of Bloomington knew Dennis. You could safely bet that all cars owned by inhabitants of Bloomington invariably rolled out from one of the three dealership outlets owned, or rather inherited by Dennis from his father. Born with a silver spoon or an excellent pair of radial tyres in his mouth, Dennis inherited multiple well established and extremely prosperous car dealership outlets from his father under suspicious if not mysterious circumstances. Such circumstances involved, among other things, causing untold grief to the IRS, making a visit to prison and consequently dropping dead within its confines. Dennis does his own bit to add fuel to the fire by guzzling beer almost every waking moment of the day, and night (when he is not having whiskey that is) and marrying Harry’s divorced wife, Amanda. He even boasts that the day Amanda separated from Harry, Dennis made love to her in a brand new Porsche!

Three men with their own proclivities, penchant and passion. Three men left to rue lost opportunities. Three men with nothing to salvage in life, well almost. On a sunny morning when a trip to Chicago offers a chance for the troika to alter their life in a paradigm shifting manner, they grasp at the opportunity like three drowning men clutching at a solitary straw. But there is a hitch. They would need to make the journey in tandem. Their aspirations would take them to the Physics Department at the University of Chicago, a video game tournament where the best of the best match wits against one another, and a lunch date at a non-descript Panera Bread.

Ben Adams’ “Relativity” is not just a romp. Hidden amidst rib tickling lines that make the reader guffaw, is a beautiful story of life affirming hope. A conviction in the goodness of humanity. A conviction that is as powerful (if not more) as the one nurtured by Harry Erickson towards Omnicalcumetry, the belief nursed by Timothy in the leadership capabilities of Colonel Jackson in Cape Canaveral, and Dennis’ undying obsession towards booze and basketball.

(Relativity by Ben Adams is published by BHC Press and will be available for sale beginning 7th June 2022. Thank you Net Galley for the Advance Reviewer Copy).

I loved reading this book. It was full of the specific quirky humor that reminds me of DFW. Like DFW, a reader can get lost in the middle section details, but here what can seem like an aside is what makes the book a real gem.

Although there were parts of this book that were quite funny I just couldn’t keep myself interested in the characters. The writing was fine but the voice of the characters just left me sort of feeling like I didn’t really want to keep reading. I guess for me the characters were boring and there wasn’t enough to keep me excited about reading. I would suggest others check it out but it wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

What a delightfully quirky book! Three men are all going through a midlife crisis and end up in Chicago trying to get what they think they want. But that doesn't really describe this book, because it's so much more than that.

I really loved the tone and the weirdness, and while Timothy's story was the most interesting to me, I was engaged with Dennis and Henry sections too. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I really enjoyed this one, and I'll probably check out other works from this author!

Middle-aged men in crisis is my weakness. I don’t know what it is about their ridiculous problems but I love them.

Harry, Dennis, and Timothy have…issues. Harry’s house has burned down and he thinks he can disprove Einstein’s theory of relativity. Dennis is now with Harry’s ex-wife but feels like their relationship has gone stale and wonders if he has a chance with a woman from his past. Timothy is Harry’s best friend from childhood. His wife drinks all the time, leaving Timothy to only feel safe within the confines of a computer game he plays constantly. He also harbors a crush on one of his in-game teammates that he’s never met IRL.

The blurb for the book says it’s a road trip of these three traveling to Chicago for individual reasons (side note: they live in Bloomington and this Hoosier was tickled by the very accurate details of living in this state) but the road trip didn’t really happen until the end. It was mostly a series of amusing slice-of-life antics from men who don’t know what they’re doing. I liked the underlying animosity but weird respect that Harry and Dennis felt for each other, and Harry and Timothy’s friendship that has lasted decades. How they all fit together was fun.

I really enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting. It’s a simple, reassuring story of how no one is perfect. We do the best we can but still get it wrong a lot of the time.

What an amazing book!
The book is super exciting and would love to read more from the author!

Thankyou netgalley for the ARC