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| Cover art by Kristian Hammerstad |
| THE POSTMORTAL Drew Magary New York: Penguin Books, August 2011 |
Rating: 4.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-14-311982-1 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-14-311982-6 | 369pp. | SC | $16.00 | |
What would prospective immortality bring to humanity? In this novel, it brings only crime, insanity, and war: a desperate period when the major nations of the world, at least, turn into dystopias and, according to the personal account of protagonist John Farrell, the United States government wages a campaign of extermination that expands over the years from those who tire of living and apply for termination to those who have taken "the cure" in their later years and hence become an intolerable burden on social welfare agencies. John Farrell, after his job as a divorce lawyer1 palls on him, works for twenty years as one of these "end specialists" — only to rebel when it moves to its final phase. Thereafter, like almost everyone else, he struggles to survive.
It is a long and dreary novel, in which John Farrell is more a victim of circumstance than any sort of hero. Yet his intentions for the most part are good, and most of the circumstances are beyond his control: bombings by "pro-death" factions, assaults by vicious "Terra trolls," inundation by hordes of starving people. In fact there are few heroes in this tale; most people are overwhelmed by the ongoing collapse of civilization. The tale ends with Farrell stabbed and barely alive, in temporary sanctuary but facing an uncertain fate.
Drew Magary's writing is gritty but good, the novel is well-constructed, and he certainly has done his homework.2 I detected only one grammatical mistake. However, I did not enjoy the story at all. Perhaps it comes too close to current and emerging realities. I'll give it a good rating, but I do not recommend it.
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