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"The Last Mortal Man" by Syne Mitchell
Jul. 16th, 2006 08:31 pmToday, I finished reading the "The Last Mortal Man" book by Syne Mitchell, 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 :(
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 :(
