Life's Lottery

Life's Lottery is a science fiction novel written by Kim Newman in 1999. Loosely tied to Newman's The Quorum, Life's Lottery allows the reader to assume the role of the protagonist, an Englishman named Keith Marion, and live his life from birth to death. Interestingly, the reader is given the option of reading the book as they would any other novel, or by making choices that affect the outcome of the story, in traditional gamebook format. The novel is often classified as a "Choose Your Own Adventure book for adults".

Additional recommended knowledge

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Plot Summary - Interactive

The novel begins with Keith's birth in England on October 4, 1959. The reader is first given the responsibility of shuffling a deck of playing cards, drawing a card at random, replacing it, and repeating the process. Under the rare circumstance that they draw the Queen of Spades twice, Keith dies in childbirth, terminating the story prematurely.

Most readers, though, progress to Keith's upbringing. He is raised in England by a successful banker and has, as the author points out, "been dealt a better hand than many". He comes from a family of agnostics, and religion is almost entirely left out of the novel. He has an older sister and a younger brother and is spoiled by his parents, which has recurring consequences later on. He has a love of pirates and robots and the television series Doctor Who.

The first choice Keith is given begins in primary school, where he is confronted and teased by a gang. They ask him who his favorite character on the show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is -- responding with their favorite character immediately gives Keith membership in their club, while guessing incorrectly has inverse consequences. Either way, this choice sets Keith on an irrevocable path that determines his lifelong friends, enemies, and opportunities.

Following this, the plot paths diverge, and Keith is given a few more choices to make in his childhood and teens. Afterwards, the reader skips ahead to see the consequences of Keith's actions in his adult life, be they positive or negative. After this shift, the reader makes a few more choices for Keith that decide how his life will end.

The most notable plot paths involve Keith: winning the lottery, abetting a bomb threat, having an incestual affair with his sister, subsequently murdering her husband and attempting to hide it, becoming a distinguished novelist, making a deal with the devil, and being stalked by a maniac who repeatedly mails him dismembered body parts.

Plot Summary - Non-Interactive

As is the same with the interactive version, the novel opens with Keith's birth and follows his life up until he is confronted by the schoolyard gang. The reader then is given the opportunity to view both immediate outcomes, after which perspective switches to two doctors, who are observing Keith. The head doctor confirms to the other that they are indeed looking at Keith Marion, of "Marion syndrome", and the other remarks that although he is in a coma, he looks "quite ordinary", considering his symptoms.

The reader again shifts to a second-person account of Keith, who is viewing hundreds of scenarios relating to his life in his mind, all of them in a string that seems to make little sense. Throughout this chain of thought, a scene with the doctors occasionally interrupts the flow, where more information is slowly leaked to the reader until they learn that they are not assuming the role of a man named Keith Marion; rather, the protagonist is a woman named Marion Keith, who was upset with her life and locked herself into a coma in which she would view all of the possibilities in being a man.

As the endless stream of possibilities comes to a close, Marion views several exceedingly gruesome deaths. Finally, she settles on one outcome in which she is a man living in Tibet, forced to work and earn all that he owns. Marion decides that this is the only way to properly win "life's lottery".

Sources and external links

• Entry on the official Kim Newman website.
• Interview with Kim Newman regarding the novel at Scorpius Digital.
• Information and excerpt on the book at The Edge.