Holy Fire (Bantam Spectra Book) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Mia Ziemann needed to know what to wear at a deathbed..." (more)
Key Phrases: tincture set, curtain unit, artifice people, Bruce Sterling, Mia Ziemann, Josef Novak (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In an era when life expectancies stretch 100 years or more and adhering to healthy habits is the only way to earn better medical treatments, ancient "post humans" dominate society with their ubiquitous wealth and power. By embracing the safe and secure, 94-year-old Mia Ziemann has lived a long and quiet life. Too quiet, as she comes to realize, for Mia has lost the creative drive and ability to love--the holy fire--of the young. But when a radical new procedure makes Mia young again, she has the chance to break free of society's cloying grasp. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Humanity's ancient dream of immortality is on the verge of becoming reality in the challenging new novel from erstwhile William Gibson (see below) collaborator Sterling (Heavy Weather, 1994, etc.). In Sterling's late 21st century, advances in cybernetics, nano- and virtual technology and medicine have transformed Earth into a near paradise. Vice and illness still exist, but they're largely voluntary or self-created, the result of not controlling one's appetites and not using the medical facilities provided free to those who live socially acceptable lifestyles. Mia Ziemann is a 94-year-old medical economist in a world ruled by a "post-human" gerontocracy. Life-extension technology is the world's major growth industry and Mia, like many of the elderly, has invested everything into qualifying for new and experimental rejuvenation techniques. After undergoing one of the most radical such procedures, Mia can now pass for 20 but is borderline psychotic. She trades her careful, upscale existence for life on the streets with the restless young, wandering through Europe in search of stimulus and meaning. There, she finds herself surrounded by artists, anarchists and bohemians who, frustrated by their powerlessness, want to involve her in a radical scheme to change the world. Sterling is never an easy writer, especially for casual fans of SF. Here, as usual, he offers intellectual rather than action fare, as discussions of the morality of immortality alternate with debates over aesthetics and the future of high fashion. The future Sterling traces is plausible and provocative, particularly his consideration of several contrasting cultures, and of the disenfranchised who are unable to become "post-human." Those interested in serious speculative conversation set within a very strange near-future will find this much to their taste. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Spectra; 1st THUS edition (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055357549X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553575491
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #496,906 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your typical science fiction., November 21, 1999

By	C. Gilbert "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book has a lot of the trappings of science fiction-- life extending technology, genetically engineered pets, virtual reality games-- but the center, in the end, is the search for emotional completion engaged upon by Mia Ziemann, the protagonist of the book.

Ziemann goes through a radical life extension procedure that pushes her past the life of the young and vivid and out the other side through to the Holy Fire. She embarks on a quest for completion that is not aided by hidden magical talents, destiny, or instant success. Instead, she becomes a person who can live her own life with will and sustained follow-through.

Many things impressed me about this book, and I found it very hard to put down, but one of the things I liked the most was the high quality of the characters, and their very real emotional responses. I have some minor quibbles-- there were some loose ends in the book (I felt like the memory palace and the Plato sequences were never developed fully enough) but the book itself was strong enough to carry them. Definitely recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Excellent, May 31, 2005

By	Sedusa (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This book was a big surprise to me. I have been a fan of the Cyberpunk or Movement genre since the 80's, and while Gibson and Rucker have captivated me with almost every book they write, Sterling's work has always... lacked something for me. I've enjoyed his short stories more than I have his novels, and have given them a fair shot. Most of them I would rate about a 3.

This novel however, I place squarely in the full 5 star category. The best works of fiction, be they SciFi, Horror, Literature or what have you, are those which make one reflect upon oneself and the nature of existence. This book falls into such august company. A few of the reviews here mention the lack of action or resolution, but I think that they have missed the point. Mia/Maya is discovering both what it means to be an individual and what the nature of life is. She is both an observer and a participant as she is neither truly old or young. Her "wanderjahr" is an exploration and evolution of self and as such, despite the futuristic trappings resonates with the individual quest for the self and what lies beyond it in all of our lives no matter where we are on life's journey. I would hope that everyone makes such a journey in their lives (whether literally or metaphorically), or better yet, experiences life as a continuous unfoldment of same. Highly recommended, in my opinon Sterling's absolute best.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sterling's best novel -- "A+", January 25, 2005

By	Peter D. Tillman (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

_____________________________________________
Mia, a 94-yr old woman at the close of the 21st C., tries a new life-
extension treatment. She emerges in the body of a thrill-seeking
20-yr-old. . . you say you've seen this story before? Not as
related by master extrapolationist, storyteller & all-around fine
writer Bruce Sterling.

Let's go into the polity, the medical-industrial complex that rules the
world, where "the whip-hand of coercive power is held by
smiling & stout-hearted medical rescue personnel. And by social
workers. And by very nice old people. . ."

"There were, of course, some people who disagreed with
the entire idea of life extension. Their moral decision was
respected & they were perfectly free to drop dead."

The story-line is simple: a bildungsroman, the wanderjahr of a
95-yr-old girl thru 21st C. Europe.

We're at a fashion show in fin-de-siecle Roma. Mia is getting ready:


..they put the wig on & she left human perfection for a
higher realm. It was a very smart wig. This wig could have leapt from
her scalp like a supersonic octopus & flung its piercing tendrils right
thru a plaster wall... It was a staggeringly pretty wig, a wig in rich,
solid, deeply convincing, faintly luminescsent auburn, a wig as
expensive, as cozy & as well-designed as a limousine... When it
curled lustrously about her neck & shoulders it behaved the way a
woman's hair behaved in daydreams...

The models were old women, and they looked the way that modern
old women looked when they were in truly superb condition ...
They showed none of the natural signs of human aging, but they were
just a little crispy, a little taut. The models were solemn and sloe-eyed
and dainty and extremely strong...

Their clothes were decorative and columnar and slender hipped and
without much in the way of a bustline... The clothes were
splendidly cut... Rather ecclesiastical, rather bankerly, rather like the
court dress of high-powered palace eunuchs from the Manchu
Forbidden City...


Well. I could go on, & probably would if I had a scanner, or was a better
typist.... but you should be picking up the flavor of the book, the
richness and density of invention. Sterling at his best reads something
like a collaboration between Tom Wolfe & John McPhee. Folks, I've
been reading this stuff for 40 years. and I'm hear to tell you, it don't get
much better than this.

Highly recommended.

Review copyright 1996 by Peter D. Tillman