Customer Reviews

Immortal

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I did not find "Immortal" to be a "thriller".
Admittedly, I don't enjoy murder and mayhem and I
especially don't like seeing cryonicists depicted
as murderers and thieves. A thriller would contain
some suspense, but one predictable murder after
another quickly became boring and repetitious.

Readers may mistakenly think there is something to
be learned aboutcryonics in this book. The introduction
contains a confused distinction between "cryonics" and
"cryogenics" (terms that are misused throughout the book)
as well as gross misinformation about the number of people
who have been cryonically preserved. Anyone wanting to
learn about cryonics would do far, far better to Google
the term or read the Wikipedia entry on the subject. To
learn about cryonics from a novel, read "The First Immortal"
by James Halperin.

If someone is going to write a book attacking cutting edge medicine then the least they could do is to do some research. This book is moronic and not even slightly entertaining...At least I didnt waste money on it since I used my local library...but I still cant get back the time I wasted reading it! My recommendation...dont bother there is so many better books on the subject ie, the first immortal, and youniverse ect.

I'm a medical mystery fan and am always searching for new authors/books. I ran across Bill Clem through the "if you liked this you might like...." section of the Fabulous Fiction web site. I've had a hard time finding the books in the library but I was able to read IMMORTAL and liked it a lot. So much so that I'm looking for his other novels. This novel was well written and kept my interest throughout. Maybe not for everyone but certainly great for me. Looking for new books in the near future.

The author has written a scientific thriller that will keep the reader turning the pages of the book until the very last. It is a well-written, suspenseful novel that heralds a novelist whose prose is spare, lean, and taut, moving the story along at a brisk pace. Although it is wholly a plot driven, rather than character driven, book, the two main characters are sufficiently fleshed out. Fans of Michael Crichton and Robin Cook will, undoubtedly, enjoy this well-paced thriller, as will anyone who appreciates a good story.
This novel is multi-layered and well-researched, providing a fairly engrossing read, while proffering a whole host of ethical and public policy dilemmas for consideration. This thriller provides much food for thought, buried between its lines, and is a book that educates, as well as entertains.

Not a thriller at all. Characters were not very well developed. Chapters were very choppy. One would end and never pick up again. Short book, read it in an evening.

Cryogenics to preserve people. Private company and doctor going overboard to preserve people- mostly so one older man can have ready clones to replace his dying organs. (Robin Cook has done this several times before.)

A good action story, but like his other books, too short. A little expansion wouild make it a better read.

The Kindle edition was well formatted with minimal typos.

Makes you wonder when and how this to be possible for all Human Beings, to be preserved thru Freezing. Our Future ????

If after reading the horrible reviews this book has gotten and you still want to read it, then don't read my review as it may have some spoilers....

I got sucked into this novel because it was at the end of Clem's "Microbe", which wasn't that good of a story either... I figured it was cheap and might waste some of my time... WASTE INDEED... I thought maybe "Microbe" was just edited horribly, but Immortal was even worse, on top of having a stupid story. Like Microbe, it starts off written fairly well with no major errors... But then it's so spastically written you'd swear you were reading a story written by some 15 year old for his Language arts class. In fact I think 15 year olds might do a better job... there are massive plot holes in this story, you feel ripped off, like buying a used book and realizing it's missing a few pages... Clem talks about this organization, the GPO, as if the reader is supposed to know what he's talking about... Then he blurts out at the end of one chapter that it stands for Grieving parents organization... Then at the beginning of the next chapter, the bad guy of the book (who you just found out was indeed bad) says something along the lines, "Oh and GPO stands for Grieving parents association..." like Clem completely forgot he just told you... There are a lot of other redundancies as well... Like saying the character's whole name every time they are mentioned... and changing a character's name in mid sentence!!! It's almost like he decided to change the name, and then just used the "Replace" button in Word, but missed a few. There's even one sentence where he talks about the character Danny, and then says David in the next! Is it Danny or David? Not to mention I must have come across at least a half a dozen typos as well... The editor of the book must have been drunk or high while going through this book... Use the spell check for crying out loud! Maybe if the story was well developed or interesting, I could forgive the bad editing... but sigh.... It's really short, I read it in just over an hour. I'm glad this book is over with and I've moved onto another which fortunately doesn't suck...

A very boring book that gets many of its facts wrong. Don't bother with it (and ignore the reviews giving it 5 stars, that's the result of the authors friends helping him out)

This really is a terrific book. Although similar to some of Clem's earlier novels, such as Skin Deep and Diencephalon in that it focuses on medical science, Immortal has more complex story elements of thriller, of mystery and of drama related to medical and corporate ethics. There are really two stories here - related, but seemingly distinct. I won't spoil it for others, but as you might suspect, they do converge and in ways that I, at least, didn't see coming. Besides being chilling entertainment it raises some of the most important ethical questions of the 21st century.
Very enjoyable read!