The BookViral Review:
Andrew Charles’s Can You See What’s Coming? is a remarkable and wide-ranging collection of stories that celebrates the power of imagination, resilience, and the human heart. Blending romance, drama, adventure, and science fiction, Charles creates a literary journey that is as diverse as it is engaging. The book is not just a series of tales—it is a testament to the creativity that can emerge from life’s greatest challenges.
The opening novella, Catfish!, immediately sets the tone with a deeply human story of Ricardo, a shy but brilliant young man navigating life, friendship, and the complexities of love. His journey takes the reader through university years, first romances, heartbreaks, marriages, and the enduring hope of finding true love. It is tender, cinematic, and emotionally authentic. For anyone who has ever wondered about the one who got away, this story resonates with warmth and honesty.
Charles then takes the reader in a completely different direction with Timeshare, a bold speculative tale set at the end of the 21st century. Here, humanity has turned to cryogenic sleep to balance population growth and environmental survival. The concept is original and thought-provoking, filled with ethical dilemmas about life, death, and progress. What makes this piece stand out is the way Charles manages to weave futuristic technology with timeless questions of morality, hope, and sacrifice.
The collection continues with Karma Sucks?, The Magic Carpet, What Goes Around Comes Around!, Man’s Best Friend, and many others—each offering a fresh setting, new characters, and a unique theme. Whether he is exploring the bonds of friendship, the mysteries of fate, or the beauty of second chances, Charles demonstrates a gift for creating memorable characters and vivid situations. His stories are infused with energy, humour, and a love for cinema, often carrying a visual, almost film-like quality that makes them easy to picture unfolding on screen.
One of the most inspiring aspects of this book lies beyond the stories themselves. In his introduction, Charles shares his own journey: surviving cancer, a stroke that affected his brain, and a series of epileptic episodes. From those hardships came an extraordinary burst of creativity—seventy books written in just four years. Knowing this background adds a powerful layer of meaning to the stories. They are not only imaginative works of fiction but also living proof of human resilience, a reminder that creativity can flourish even in adversity.
What makes Can You See What’s Coming? especially enjoyable is its scope. Rather than confining himself to a single genre or theme, Charles offers a literary banquet—romance for the dreamers, science fiction for the futurists, drama for those who enjoy emotional depth, and humour for those who simply want to be entertained. The variety keeps the reading experience fresh, with each story feeling like a new adventure.
Our Verdict Can You See What’s Coming? is ambitious, heartfelt, and endlessly imaginative. Andrew Charles proves himself to be not only a gifted storyteller but also an inspiring figure whose life experience brings depth and authenticity to his writing. This collection has something for every reader—whether you crave romance, philosophy, adventure, or speculative fiction, you will find it here. A bold, uplifting, and highly entertaining work.
It is highly recommended!
