★★★★½ 
The year is 2031, and while technology has advanced every field of science, there’s still many mysteries to solve and theories to prove. Enter Dr. Jake Love: a renowned obstetrician, a specialist in delivery, childbirth, and natal care. Dr. Love isn’t just lucky in the name department either, as by some kind of happenstance he is granted the chance to spend just one day with anyone in history.
With great power comes great responsibility: who would you choose? Who should you choose? Of course, Jake has to aim for the most unimaginable target, and he just has to ask the biggest questions possible. Witness the grand absurdity of time, space, and everything in Just Love Everybody: Father Time is Running Out on Mother Nature by Greg Ware.
Just Love Everybody is an exciting affair with a lovable rogue type at the helm of a ship merrily ready to cruise straight through the icy waters of time. It’s got a sort of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or Discworld nihilistic humor to it, though certainly to a lesser extent than either; when the most concrete impossible of our time is possible by someone like Jake Love, there’s got to be a cosmic joke going on somewhere, if not some staggering incompetence.
Still, the story presents itself with a bit more restraint than you might expect, choosing the dry and smart jokes over the nonsensical or low-hanging, and this is to Ware’s credit. Having some clear-cut charisma in the cast helps a lot in balancing the feel of the entire piece, too. It’s an entertaining and well-considered story and doesn’t make the mistake of jumping the space-shark despite its wacky premise and playful execution. The core of this fable is a universal truth we all must consider as human beings.
Ware really speeds through some sections as it swings from strength to strength, sometimes forgetting to leave breathing room for each non-stop blow to be really sink in and felt. The book takes a tiny bit more time on its particulars and slows enough to take the odd smell-of-the-flowers moment as the meat of the read comes out, and the speedier sections would have benefited from the same approach.
Just Love Everybody is a quirky tale with a really big message that takes Nietzche, Dawkins, and a fair amount of 80s sci-fi to the blender for one blast of a visionary cocktail. It’s a light read for a book with about 300 pages to its name, sojourning on all kinds of ideas and questions but never overstaying, which will mean readers can understand the more philosophical ideas with ease. It’s one of the best reads of an under-used genre in a while and totally deserves your attention if you can handle the rollercoaster ride!
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