“Spiritual Combat in a Gritty Thriller”: A Review of The Karma Factor by Thomas Lane

 

“Spiritual Combat in a Gritty Thriller”: A Review of The Karma Factor by Thomas Lane (2023). ISBN: 978-1-958848-21-0

Beautifully bound in a 7.5 × 9.25 inch hardcover edition, Thomas Lane’s debut novel is a fast-paced thriller with deep, compelling roots in the spiritual realms of Karma, reincarnation, and the Akashic Record.

With the popularity of the timeline-jumping, what’s-the-nature-of-reality, can-you-change-the-future programming created by the likes of JJ Abrams, Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, and Steven Moffat, audiences in the 2020s are more knowledgeable about nontraditional storytelling than ever and are eager to take the leap into the dark, churning waters at the nexus of spirituality, philosophy, and advanced technology. Netflix series like Russian Doll, Archive 81, and the German-language Dark and 1899 rely on this audience education and interest, pulling no punches on the profound implications of our choices, the nature of reality, and the dangers of manipulating time and space. As we enter an age where advanced technology is changing the fabric of society and the wiring of hundreds of millions of minds, we must carefully choose between the Dark and the Light.

This classic battle is at the core of The Karma Factor. Can we atone for past mistakes? Can evil be rehabilitated, or must it be destroyed? These are longtime debates about evil and the nature of divinity that over the centuries have caused innumerable deaths. Think of the Inquisition, the massacres of the Albigensian Crusade (the Cathar heresy), and the slaughter of Tibetan monks at the hands of the Chinese army. This battle still resonates today as certain sectors of society champion the cause of Transhumanism, where Homo sapiens become Homo Deus through the bodily incorporation of advanced technologies.

A poet, musician, playwright, and activist, Thomas Lane gives us a thought-provoking and at times heart-wrenching story that reads like a screenplay treatment—especially the first third, as the initial characters are being introduced and the stakes are being set. Heavy in provocative images and sparse in descriptive text, the novel moves along at a blistering, semi-surreal pace, frequently jumping locations and time periods as it elaborates on the stakes, and its hero, a jaded New York City police detective named James Early (think Mickey Rourke or Bruce Willis in their late 30s), answers the call to (a cosmic) adventure. The pace slows only slightly in the second act, as the text thickens as the targets of the villain are introduced and inciting incidents lead to larger actions.

If you love crime procedurals, The Karma Factor has all the requisite tropes for which you could ask. Early and his partner don’t always get along—the tension in their fracturing relationship is palpable, fueling act one’s turbo-charged story engine and helping to set the stakes outside of the main arc involving the central antagonist. There is also a stripper with a heart, the always angry and ready to have a conniption fit police chief, spiritually ascended teachers operating from the shadows, two Dan Brown–esque villains (I mean that as a compliment), and a beautifully odd street musician named Trakker who, according to Lane’s bio, is the author’s analog. The dialogue is appropriately terse and edgy, and the landscapes are evocatively rendered.

Lane moves the story back and forth through time and space with ease. He employs no gimmicks or red herrings, which some of the writers I referenced above take great delight in using to show off their outlining skills at the storyboard. Information is delivered as needed to keep the mystery intact but without any needless confusion. The spiritual messages of the novel are clearly too important to be obscured and diluted by mere clever writing. The tone and syntax of the writing also subtly change based on the time and place.

Let’s get back to our hero, Detective James Early. While the extremes on either end of the character continuum of Dark and Light machinate, manipulate, and meditate—moving pieces on the board of human existence in their eternal cosmic gamesmanship—Early is the character with whom we most closely identify and empathize. A good son with a devoted, likeable mother, Early reconnects with a long-forgotten energetic past at a point in his life and career when he has nearly lost all hope. His resistance—or initial refusal of the call, to use a term from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey—is not outsized, as is all too often the case with detective redemption stories, but appropriate to the present narrative. We all must pause a moment to consider the stakes and when the doubt remains even as the call is accepted… Well… isn’t that at the core of what we define as courage?      

If you are familiar with New York, the scenes in Gramercy Park, Yankee Stadium, Coney Island, Spanish Harlem, and the New York Public Library will resonate extra strongly with you. Lane gives us the Big Apple in all its complex, outsized range, from the poorest of the poor to penthouses and multimillion-dollar gated horse stables a few hours’ drive upstate. If you’ve done much in the way of spiritual study and practice—astral travel, lucid dreaming, drum journeying, sweat lodge, or transcendental meditation—the scenes in the Akashic Realm will also resonate with additional light. Lane’s conceptions of Karma, reincarnation, and accessing the Akashic Realm are solid and no doubt based on considerable research and practice. His description of Bardo—the Tibetan Buddhist version of purgatory—is spot on and appropriately chilling. Once again, the visual imagery that would be at the center of a screen version of The Karma Factor would be breathtaking and deeply moving.

With an action-packed act three and an ending that subtly hints at a sequel, The Karma Factor not only delivers on all of its IOUs—it provides ample food for thought as to how we live our lives, what poisons of the past we ingest, our connections to the cosmos, and why each and every one of our decisions matter. And, if this review is not enough to convince you, the back cover offers blurbs from two of Hollywood’s most talented storytellers—David O. Russell and Marc Forster.

I want to take a moment to say again that Thomas Lane is not just a writer and musician. He founded The Helen Hudson Foundation, a charitable organization focused on social issues, including homelessness, racism, and the environment. Further, The Karma Factor is dedicated to “those who have outgrown denial and are rising up with courage and kindness to face a world in crisis.”

What more reason could you need for engaging with this work?