The Last Mortal Man
The Deathless, Book 1
by Syne Mitchell
Nanotechnology rules. Almost the entire world incorporates nanotechnology to provide cheap, versatile, and easy access
to everything from fashion to health care. Some even use it to cheat death. In a world where nano makes seemingly anything
possible, for $10million or so you can be converted into one of the Deathless - a custom designed, self-repairing,
nano-you. So long as Lucius Sterling, who controls the technology, approves your conversion. Not surprisingly, he's
a man with a lot of enemies, created through general resentment about his hands on the nano-purse stings, but also through
personal arrogance and ruthlessness. The inevitable assassination attempts he can neutralize, but someone seems to
have created a new technology that turns anything incorporating Sterling's nanotechnologies into nothingness. And nearly
everything is at least part nanomaterial - buildings, clothes, repaired heart valves, Lucius himself... Which
means the best weapon at hand to deal with the threat is one of Lucius' descendants whose ironic allergy to
nanomaterial means the new technology can't hurt him. Well, not directly anyway...
This was a rapid paced, exciting story, and fascinating to read. Ironically enough, not primarily because of the
nanotechnology at its core, since, for much of the book, it was little explained and treated almost like background
magic (Clarke's Law in action). I enjoyed when they did go into more detail at the end, but the fascination
through most of the book was with the changes new technologies brought about in people and society. Things such as
isolationist religions based on being "natural". Or the Gaia-Net, through which everyone is connected mentally to
everyone else, networking off the nanoparticles around them, and how that affects attitudes toward privacy and even
oral speech, which some have decided is no longer necessary. It also means that when the rogue technology starts bringing
entire cities crashing down and deleting people in part or in whole, the horror and pain is experienced directly by
others around the world. This may be a story based on a new technology, but there's a lot of humanity in it too. It's
a book that will linger for a while. Recommended. |
The Book |
ROC |
June 2006 |
Mass Market Paperback |
0451460944 |
Science Fiction |
More
at Amazon.com |
Excerpt |
NOTE: Some swearing, violence, sexual references |
The Reviewer |
Kim Malo |
Reviewed 2006 |
NOTE: |
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