That Was Us Again

What if the number of souls on Earth has never changed?
In That Was Us Again, Ian McLean weaves a provocative and deeply human novel around a single, unsettling idea: that when a life ends, its animating soul does not disappear—but is immediately reborn into another form. Human, animal, or otherwise. The ledger of souls never shrinks. It only redistributes.
Set initially within the halls of Oxford University, the story follows a small group of scholars who dare to examine a theory most would dismiss as heresy or fantasy. As they trace patterns across centuries of war, extinction, and rebirth, they uncover a disturbing rhythm beneath history itself. Generations rise, clash, and fall not merely because of politics or chance—but because the same souls may be returning again and again, carrying instincts, vocations, and unfinished burdens forward through time.
From the battlefields of Waterloo, Verdun, and the Somme to the decks of warships, the skies of aerial combat, and the quiet corridors of modern hospitals, That Was Us Again blends historical reconstruction with speculative insight. Soldiers, nurses, civilians, and even animals are drawn into a sweeping narrative that challenges the boundary between past and present, life and death, human and non-human.
At its heart, this is not a novel about reincarnation as comfort—but about responsibility. If the same souls return, then war is not an abstract tragedy; it is something we do to ourselves, again and again. If extinction merely redistributes life, then humanity’s growth may be built on the disappearance of countless other forms. And if memory can survive death, what obligation do the living have to listen?
Thought-provoking, meticulously researched, and emotionally resonant, That Was Us Again is a work of speculative fiction that reads like a historical investigation and lingers like a philosophical challenge. It asks readers to reconsider history’s cycles, humanity’s relationship with the natural world, and the possibility that those we have lost are not gone—only waiting to be found again.
For readers of intelligent speculative fiction, philosophical novels, and history-infused storytelling, That Was Us Again poses a single, haunting question:
What if that was us again?