Shannon
Hillsborough
A review of this — 20 weeks ago
Science fiction meets the hard-boiled detective story in this tale of a future in which humans have moved to other planets and practically conquered death, all by discovering how to download the human personality, memories and perhaps the soul into a microchip that can be transplanted from one body to another (the exact procedure for how this is done is never adequately explained, by the way). Sure, the plot is sometimes a little muddy and disjointed, and sometimes the science is suspect, but the premise is fascinating, and Morgan explores many aspects of it. He introduces us to Meths (short for Methuselahs): emotionless people who have lived hundreds of years in clones of their perpetually young bodies. He shows us the consequences of emerging out of prison, where the punishment is years of suspended animation in cold storage, thrust into a body that is not your own. How much of love is physical or chemical, and how much is mental? Morgan asks. And when death is so meaningless, how much is a life worth?

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