Customer Reviews

The Last Mortal Man: Book One Of the Deathless

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

 

 

The twenty fourth century is a whole new world where nano-biology has advanced to the point where cities can be grown and those who can afford it can be converted to the Deathless, immortals who never age, fall ill or need sleep or food. Lucius Sterling founded the nano-biology firm and he decides who will be immortal or not depending on if they can meet his price and if they are useful. His most trusted employee is Alexia, a Deathless who once tried to kill him but now watches his back against his many enemies.

Lucius had the scientist who created mano-biology grow his own nation island Elysium where he is the ruler. While Alexa is the one person he trusts, Jack, his great-grandson is the one being he loves. Jack develops an allergy to nano-biology and must live in a dead zone in Watershed Valley, Montana a place free of the Deathless. He is called back to Elysium because Lucius has discovered that someone has created a dissembler that destroys nano-biology. He wants Alexa and Jack to find where it is being produced and stop it. While they search for it, whole cities are destroyed and millions of people die. Unless they can stop it from being used, civilization and most of the world's population will be destroyed.

Syne Mitchell's opening book in her new series "The Deathless" is an exciting seat of your pants, science fiction thriller. The two protagonists are likeable and understandable characters who together make a team that is capable of solving the impossible. The wonders of future civilization in the twenty forth century dazzle the audiences with its advancements and higher standards of living. There are few authors who can match Ms. Mitchell's believable world building.

Harriet Klausner

"The Last Mortal Man" book by Syne Mitchell is the first book in the Deathless series. It was a really strange one...

It's a sci-fi set in a not so distant future on Earth. The Sterling company has developed nano-technology that allows people to become Deathless, virtually Immortal. For almost two hundreds years everything worked just fine, but then, the disassemblers appeared, a tiny, new-generation nano-technology, that destroyes the old one. The world started to crumble and hundreds of thousands of people died in a matter of seconds. And that's the beginning of the story...

The main heroes are Alexa DuBois and Jack Sterling, the great-grandson of Lucius Sterling, the founder of the Sterling company.
The Immortals can't have children, but Lucius decided to have one anyway and thanks to an artificial insemination, he really did have a kid with his current flame. His great-grandson Jack
is allergic to nano-technology though, and has to live in the so called Dead Zone where there is no nano-technology present. He lives in Watershed Valley in the religious community of the Mennonites.
Alexa is a dying girl who wanted to kill Lucius Sterling but he makes her his best weapon and bodyguard, turning her into a ruthless Deathless who is ordered to protect the Sterling children above everything else.

And then there is the little girl, Isobel... But that would spoil the main plot :)

The actual story is set in an apocalyptic world and opens the question if it's right to save one individual at the cost of millions of other lives - and that's the main problem of the story too. You can't feel sorry for anything that happens to the main heroes because through their so called humanity they spread death around ruthlessly. To save one village, Jack kills thousands of people by blowing up an airport... To save one girl, Jack sacrifices at least a dozen children younger than she...

I have never encountered a book that was so full of betrayal, selfishness, mistrust and ruthless killing where one wasn't needed and indecision where a merciless strike really was needed. And I'm not even talking about the Mennonite with their Old Ways and Bible preaching; they treated women like rags, beating them and denying them their rights - with Jack just looking away to "not make it even worse". Alexa doesn't trust anyone, not even Jack, and she has all the bones in her body crushed, looses legs and arms like she is shagging hair. Jack doesn't trust anybody, not even Alexa and survives time and time again severe allergic reactions... etc.

Yeah, it wasn't bad per se, but I will have to think really hard before buying the second book :(

In "The Last Mortal Man," Syne Mitchell combines her interest in nanotechnology with her love for the space operatic epics of the middle of the last century.

This tale, first of a series, begins with an assassination attempt that will keep you on edge, and then hurtles forward into the mid future, where the "deathless," people who've been genetically and nanotechnally modified to live forever, have the power. (I mean really, really live for ever--they can apparently recover from being buried alive under a building.)

Now, the people who don't have the money to live forever naturally resent the deathless more than somewhat, and the deathless themselves resent the entrepreneur, Lucius Sterling, who holds the patents, and who is protected by his deathless bodyguard, Alexa Dubois.

Then, trouble starts. Somebody has found a way to destroy the nanotechnically grown glittering new cities of the future (fear not, Art Deco fans, this time when New York goes, the Chrysler Building stays), and for reasons you'll learn, only Lucius's heir Jack, aided of course by Alexa, can save the day.

The tale is well written and moves swiftly--so swiftly in fact that you'll probably enjoy the read (you can have fun along the way figuring out where John W. Campbell would have placed the "continued next month" break when he serialized it in "Analog" before publication) and willingly suspend your disbelief.

Count me in for the next volume when it appears.

Despite my disappointment in End In Fire, I decided to give this new book a go, as the blurb sounded promising. I am glad to report that this book is a return to form for the author and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Syne Mitchell paints a detailed vision of a future society transformed by new technology. In it she places interesting, believable characters faced with a shocking scenario that could devastate said future society. All good stuff for a rollickin' ride, which is delivered with gusto.

I was somewhat annoyed with repetition of some descriptions, but that is explained away by the fact that parts of the book were serialised. It might have been nice however, if some of that had been edited out when it was all stuck together. And yes, there are a few quibbles about the consistency of the science but they are minor and do not, for a second, detract from the enjoyment of this fast-paced, action-packed thrill-ride. But the nanobiology is an interesting take on the whole "nano" thing that, by and large, is dealt with deftly by the author. Her extrapolations are reasonable and I found it all perfectly believable.

I was disappointed to read that the publisher has not opted for future titles in this series when it seems to me that it has not been promoted well. I always look out for new works by Syne Mitchell when I visit my local sci-fi bookstore but this seemed to take more than a year after publication to appear in Australia. Maybe sluggish sales are not the fault of the book itself?

The world of the 22nd century has been transformed by nano technology - even immortality is within the reach of the very rich. Jack Sterling is the grandson of the man whose company made all this possible. Unfortunately for Jack, he is also allergic to all nano-life which forces him to live in an old fashioned 'dead zone'.

When someone secretly develops technology that destroys everything built by nanos Jack is recalled by his grandfather to investigate its causes along with his most loyal and long serving bodyguard Alexa.

This book shows us a well developed future that has suddenly come unstuck. The main characters of the novel are mostly likeable, and the action takes place at a good pace throughout the book. I have to say I'm looking forward to the next instalment of this series if it lives up to this first book.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Nanotechnology sci-fi may become one of my favorite genres. Why wasn't the author able to get the remainder of the series published? What a shame. The level of technical research that went into the story seems to have been more than adequate.

Let's get a few things straight: There is no "last mortal man" and despite the blurb on the back, it's the 22nd (not 24th) century. "Last Mortal Man" is a dumbed-down version of "Accelerando" (Stross) without the research or science or character development. Yes, characters age (well, some do - lol) but they don't really develop.

What stands out are the jarring discontinuities in all areas but particularly two: Human motivations and scientific progress. Taking the later first, the author makes a frequent literary mistake in assigning too much progress too soon and then not continuing in a logical manner. So, by 2037, we have immortality, smart material (or nanobiology - a rather confusing term) but by the dawn of the 23rd century soldiers still use machine guns and fight with bare hands! And all those characters just can't make up their minds: Someone attempts an assassination but decides the target is a good guy. Then, after a few years, he's bad again, then good. A loyal employee turns traitor for obscure reasons. Characters leave infuriated only to return and confess their love. Things don't add up.

Quickly, it's the future and there's progress but no computer, robotic or AI discussion. There is some rather lame nano talk but it involves biology. One guy owns the rights to immortality and becomes a trillionaire with his own island. He hires his would-be assassin, Alexa, a black woman from New Orleans, who is the real star of the book. She is Wonder Woman, Mother Theresa and Madonna rolled into one. Despite her superiority and new immortality she agrees to guard Mr. Big for 234 years. The plot centers around an heir who (absurdly) cannot be around nano. He is mortal, thus the title - get it? He flees and ends up with the Mennonites in Montana alongn with the requisite innocent lass. He also has the hots for the eternally sexy Alexa but alas, he must return to battle an evil minion who has created an anti-nano device in the form of his artificial daughter. (Hold the smile.) After a zillion battles and a destroyed world, the book ends in a standoff. Which means, stay tuned for Part II.

A story this long only works if things are dumb downed which, unfortunately, they are in this case. The science is glossed over, the rate of progress is conveniently uneven, the characters are either supermen or superwomen and say things that make no sense. Other than that it was a good read - C+

First of all even though this is science fiction, there has to be something to sell you on the idea that this could really happen. Some of it is believable, but some of it is just too much to swallow. Clothing that will totally reconfigure and rooms that do the same are two small examples. And even some of that contradicts itself. You can't root for the main character. It's the supporting character Alexa that "steals" the book. The main character Jack Sterling is shallow, feable, and selfish. How can you care about someone like that. So many people die because of him for no real reason.
The idea behind the story is pretty good, and for that I give it a couple of stars.

This book, while dauntiling long, is easy to devour. I spent a single day just sitting in bed, reading the entire story 'til the end.

The beginning of the book was very interesting; a group of young adults about to sacrafice themselves in effort to destroy some evil corporate villian. Then, a bit of mayhem ensues and Alexa (a girl dying of cancer and willing to lose her life for a cause) saves this villian and eventually becomes his bodyguard.

This villian made his fortune off of nanabiology; revolutionized all constructs and culture in society to the point that the world very much depends almost solely on this technology. Then speed forward a couple hundred years, and something has emerged that will destroy this, and all of civilization, with it.

Towards the last hundred or less pages of the book, the story is extremely fast paced and a lot of murder and other sordid afairs occur. Then it leaves you at a cliffhanger, but oddly, it also allows you to feel that the story, (at least this chapter of it) is complete.

One thing it reminded me of is the writing of Michael Chrighton. The story slowly developed with plenty of attention to detail in the beginning. But towards the end, the rushed pace gives you the feeling that the author was hurrying to finish the story. Overall, a worthwhile read - even for non-science fiction fans.

Enjoying good science fiction depends on suspension of the readers disbelief. Even though someone has a hyperdrive spaceship there are still internal rules to a book's universe that allow for this disbelief. Same goes for character developement and motivations. This author does a good job of building her world but then let me down with highly questionable character decisions that come out of nowhere. Her main characters make several bizarre choices that left me irritated beyond belief and rendered them unsympathetic. *(Spoiler alert)* For example: "This child whom I've known for five minutes is going to destroy me and civilization completely but I have decided to protect her at all cost including murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens personally. Why? No reason. This sort of thing happens repeatedly. Bleagh! No thank you! I want my $7 and the last five hours of my life back.