What the hell? I don't get why this book is so highly rated. It's an enjoyable enough read but it definitely did not blow me away. Yeah, yeah, the stories are connected, inhabited by the same soul throughout time, based on, ahem, a comet shaped birthmark. Okay, cool, I can dig it. But the stories really weren't connected all that well, mostly just stand alone short stories, written in differing genres, for example, historical, sci-fi, post apocalyptic fictions, etc... with a clue thrown into the current story to let you know how the story connected to the one before. But the clue was just kind of shoe horned in there, as an aside, and really had nothing to do with the plot of the current story. I guess the idea was pretty original, but the execution was weak, IMHO of course. The stories just didn't seem connected to each other as far as I was concerned. The underlying common theme, as far as I understand it, is man will always strive to be superior to someone else, to enslave someone else for whatever reason. So, as far as there is this inherent "weakness" in the genetic code of humans, this selfishness if you will, there is also this inherent "goodness", this selflessness as well. An undeniable force of will in a human, will compel him/her to strive to rise above tyranny, to make the world a better place, to have one's life make a difference, a connection to future generations. Okay, yeah. Not a ground breaking assertion. But there you have it.