Customer Reviews

Architects of Emortality

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Architects of Emortality" by Brian Stableford, © 1999

The cover does no justice to the story: it has nothing to do with or represents any scene from the book.

The story is a murder mystery set in the far future. People can live for two hundred years with nanotech stuff, but there has been a recent improvement, and now the age limit is unknown. The people who are killed are one hundred ninety three or four years old and due to kick the bucket soon anyway. That becomes the most intriguing part of the mystery: why kill some nearly dead people anyway? Whoever is doing it will probably outlive them.

Another part is the names of the cops on the case, Sergeant Holmes and Ins. Watson. It is something that is lost on no one, even if there has been a rift between now and then, and a lot of history has been lost. There is almost at every turn some mention of the 'gay 90's' era of the last century. Oscar Wilde is part of the team, and books or poems are referred to relentlessly. It gets to be that I felt like I was not really following the story because I was not conversant in these literary allusions.

But I did enjoy reading this book. It was interesting and the murder, while not solved completely, like a lot of them are: who, what, why, where, when, and how are all spelled out finally; it did make you feel the result was what was presented.

If you like the sophistry and eloquence of Jane Austen, then this is the sci-fi book for you. The characters are revealed through extensive dialogue regarding the future and the past.

The author paints a sterile future owned by a conglomerate and controlled by the UN. I'm not sure I would want to go there, but looking at our own world I can see how you could get there.

_Architects of Emortality_ is set in a "future history" that Brian Stableford has been working on for some time. The basic outline of this future history is that in the next century, environmental disasters destroy the ecosystem, and nearly destroy human life. Women become sterile until the development of an artificial womb. The ecosystem is recreated by genetic engineering, in a simpler and more efficient form. Surviving humans have their lifespan radically extended by nanotech, to about 200 years.

This novel, an expansion of the fine novella "Les Fleurs du Mal", is set just after a new advance in genetic engineering: genetic engineering, instead of nanotech, has made young people who may live much longer still: they are essentially "emortal". However, those who have not been engineered in the womb cannot be treated. They will die at about 200. As the novel proper opens, one of the last people not to get the new treatment, Charlotte Holmes, is investigating a rare murder, which occurred in a sort of prologue.

A very old man, a specialist in using nanotech to destroy old buildings, has been infected with a tailored virus, which only works against him, and which turns his remains into a ghoulish plant. Holmes and her superior, Hal Watson (Holmes and Watson: get it? A bit too cute, I thought;) work for the UN: they are soon joined by a young member of the new emortals, who works for the MegaMall, the (not so) secret masters of the world, and by Oscar Wilde, a master genetic engineer. It soon turns out that the prime suspect is another genetic engineer, Rappaccini, and his "daughter" (get it?), a young woman who has infected the victim by having sex with him.

The detectives are led on a wild chase by Rappaccini, as several contemporaries of the first victim, all also experts in one field or another, are murdered as well. The mystery is really "What's the motive?", and the motive is tied, of course, to the nature of Stableford's future. It's pretty well done, with lots of neat extrapolative science. The characters are somewhat flat, especially the nominal viewpoint character, Charlotte Holmes. The eventual solution is a bit strained. It's an enjoyable book, and Stableford's future is interesting and original, but it's only mildly successful as a novel. Worth your time, but no classic to be.

I had wanted to give a 4.5 but rounded up. The biggest question one would ask "Is this a mystery with science fiction or science fiction with mystery?" Regardless, it is a success - an erudite, artistic, novel of the future, simultaneously deep, exploratory and questioning.

What I liked best was the seemingly logical continuation of present trends so unlike many futuristic visions: The increasing reliance on biotechnology - indeed the ultimate supremacy of biotech as opposed to silicone tech is a major theme throughout. The disappearance of religion and the resultant worship of youth and immortality, the loss of the family unit, the triumph of the market economy, the inexorable advance of science, the wars of terror and plagues, the vast eco projects. All of these are simply extensions of current trends.

The inclusion of Oscar Wilde and the literary puzzles from the 19th century was a stroke of genius. In fact, that character seemed to stand out about all others - even the detective heroine who understood that she was condemned to die after only 200 years of life.

And thus the question...when immortality is the norm, how does one view death? What does death mean when it becomes more rare by the day?

The mystery itself was intriguing if a tad week at the end but the methodology of the killer was startingly original. The race and the snappy dialogue (along with the philosophical musings of the author and the characters) more than made up for this small deficiency. In this - the second of the series - the author proves himself a visionary of the first order.

For a similar work, see A PHILOSOPHICAL MURDER, another futuristic detective story with literary and philosophical components.

The amazing "world" that Stabelford lays out in this book is almost like another character, and in many ways is the most interesting character in the book. The actual characters here are, for the most part, little more than brief outlines and seem to be there only to talk about and describe the changes to the earth 300 years on. Only "Oscar Wilde" has any depth, and then only to serve as a link back to 20th century earth's culture and literature.

The mystery here is a mcguffin, serving little more than as a stage on which the marvels of bio-engineering and nanotechnology can unfold.

But, let's not damn this book with faint praise. The description of the earth and what happened from 2000-2400 is very well done and worth the read alone. Like any good (not great, but good) science fiction novel the main joy of reading is finding out how things have changed, how the author thinks problems will be solved and what new problems will come up because of the changes.

Let this author transport you 300 years forward when all births will be ectogenetic-outside the womb. ARCHITECTS OF EMORTALITY rises above being a mere who-done-it murder mystery and soars into realms of philosophy -longevity or emortality. Consider: does man's current mediocrity stem from his short life span? What would people do with lives lasting 200 plus years? Will brain augmentation occur by plugging neurons into external computer memory? Is the brain but a machine to generate virtual milieus for man's body to function in? Will the perfection of virtual reality devalue man's experiences by showing that consciousness is reducible to a mere string of zeros and ones? Will the end of death in man eliminate the need for children? Is man but a wall decoration in history's hallway? So many questions about the now short and then longer lifespans of man are raised that this tome comes close to being great literature.

Finding the perpetrator of five mysterious murders of prominent scientists dominates the plot of the story. Stableford teaches the reader how to commit the perfect murder-make sure your alibi includes being already dead yourself by utilizing a totally exotic murder weapon wielded by a killer robot who cannot be charged with the murder. On the down side the Oscar Wilde character was a pompous [butt] who at times insisted on proving how erudite he was but only slowed the story to a dead halt. All in all, however, a great book to curl up with on a rainy day.

Brian Stableford is an excellent writer who has expertly captured a possible future of humankind. "Architects of Emortality" does seem possible, because of all the genetic advances occuring today. As well, the intrusion of technology in every facet of a person's life is well thought out in this second novel of a series. I have not read the predecessor, "Inherit the Earth", but the second novel is fine to be read on its own. And, as I'm sure it's any human's dream, rejuvenation and emortality make us think of how different humanity could become. I recommend this cerebral novel. Well done, Brain Stableford!