Architects of Emortality (Future History) [Mass Market Paperback]

Brian Stableford (Author)

Book Description

Series: Future History | Publication Date: May 15, 2000

Brian Stableford launched an ambitious future history series with Inherit the Earth, to widespread praise. "Stableford has created in this novel a totally believable world, and wrapped it around a series of mysterious events, surprise revelations, double crosses, confused motivations, rumors, lies, plots, and counterplots. . . . Tightly controlled and suspenseful throughout," said Science Fiction Chronicle.

Library Journal said, "The ethical questions posed by the prospect of conquering the aging process underscore this fast-paced SF adventure, adding depth to a story that will appeal to fans of high-tech SF and conspiracy theories." This future world is a complex society obsessed with the technology of life extension and on the brink of creating true immortals.

Now, in Architects of Emortality, Stableford gives us a story set hundreds of years in the future, filled with people who can hope for 300-year lifespans and a fortunate few whose lives will be in the thousands of years. This society is on the edge of radical change, where people have the time to develop eccentric lifestyles and personal obsessions, a world sometimes reminiscent of the distant future of Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time series. And there has been a series of murders that threaten the future stability of the world, murders executed by bioengineered flowers. Police officers Watson and Holmes investigate, but the central figure quickly becomes the amateur detective Oscar Wilde, a student of history who has taken on the persona of his namesake. And the question is not so much who the murderer is, but how and why.

Filled with memorable characters and powerful and striking images of the richly altered world of the future, Architects of Emortality is a satisfying and complete story that also adds depth and detail to the evolving series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The futuristic biotech world of Stableford's acclaimed SF novella Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil), expanded upon in last year's novel Inherit the Earth, provides the foundation for this sequel. After an ecological collapse brought on by biological warfare and a runaway greenhouse effect, nanotechnology is regrowing lost forests as well as offering near-immortality to those who can afford it. Although the United Nations calls itself a World Government, the true power rests with the MegaMall, a company produced by generations of multinational mergers and buyouts. On this cusp of a new world, someone is murdering the pioneering scientists of the New Human Race, and it's up to Detective Sgt. Charlotte Holmes and Inspector Hal Watson, of the U.N. Police, to stop the killing. Charlotte and Hal are assisted by Michael Lowenthal, a "special investigator" from the MegaMall, and Oscar Wilde, a legendary bioengineer of specialty flowers. Evidence indicates that the murderer, a mysterious young woman, is somehow related to a genetic engineer who calls himself Rappaccini (after a character in a Hawthorne story). As the team investigates the murders, they realize that Rappaccini's taut game of hide-and-seek is leading them to the truth behind a much darker secret. Stableford's skill at creating technologically overwhelmed future worlds is evident here. His narrative teems with vivid, believable descriptions of man-eating flowers, hundred-year-old artists and rampant genetic engineering. His talent for mystery is less sure, featuring characters whose roles blur unconvincingly as the plot picks up speed. Although the novel's ending is weakened by premature revelations of Rappaccini's motives, the scale and audacity of Stableford's vision is a wonder. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The bizarre murder of a prominent architect of the new Decivilization of the world draws New York investigator Charlotte Holmes into a complicated web of murderous intrigue involving death by genetically altered flowers. Aided by a brilliant and occasionally maddening "expert witness" with the unlikely name of Oscar Wilde, Holmes seeks solutions to a series of puzzles rooted in the poets and authors of the 19th century. Set in the same distant future as Inherit the Earth, this literary sf mystery, based on the short story "Flowers of Evil," belongs in most sf collections.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; 1st edition (May 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812576438
• ISBN-13: 978-0812576436
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,768,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strange, New World, March 13, 2008

By 

David Brockert "constant reader" (Madison, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Architects of Emortality (Hardcover)

"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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reminds me of Jane Austen, May 26, 2000

By 

Doug De Bono - See all my reviews

This review is from: Architects of Emortality (Hardcover)

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.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful extrapolation, okay mystery plot, August 24, 2000

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Architects of Emortality (Future History) (Mass Market Paperback)

_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.