The First Immortal [Hardcover]

The characters in this book are the same lineup of wealthy leaders of society we saw in The Truth Machine - doctors, lawyers, artists [a successful one, anyway]. Politicians are blessedly overlooked, or perhaps denied the option. We may view Ass't DA Butters as a special case, since the position isn't elective. Their motivations are incredibly narrow and selfish. The doctor doesn't return to healing after 'reviv'. The women are more concerned with family than any social questions. Indeed, the social impact of this concept is conveniently ignored. We are offered not a glimpse of how this technology would truly impact society at large. There is some discussion of new forms of addictions. Internet surfers are replaced by people withdrawing into Virtual Reality environments. Again, these are realms of the affluent, not for some grunt living on Main Street.

As he did in The Truth Machine, Halperin is here expressing the world view of the American Protestant conservative. If their is a humorous part of this book, it's the video conference between the Pope and a group of cardinals. Why the church would so readily accept the idea of human immortality with such aplomb beggars understanding. Again, the impact of this new technology on other cultures is totally ignored. Human beings fear of death is the basis for every religion. Christianity, almost alone among religions, has removed dignity from death with its stress on afterlife punishment. It would be interesting to see a review here by someone of another culture.

The ideas contained in this book must be considered, neither ignored nor rejected out of hand. Read this book for its ideas. But take it out of the library, don't insult your own collection by giving it a permanent place on your shelves. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

The First Immortal felt more like a very dry documentary than fiction. That may actually be the redeeming factor - it's an almost-plausible extrapolation for the next few years.

Dialogue was very banal. There was alot of preaching and people giving speeches at the drop of a hat.

Significant repeat of the previous novel - the truth machine. Similar feel. I believe the concept of a widely accepted and infallible truth machine is extremely unlikely in the near future. Since both books rely on this premise, they are both flawed. I should also say that I find the idea repulsive - the potential for abuse and oppression is tremenduous.

First, to clear up any misconceptions, this book is not part of a series with the same characters as in The Truth Machine. However, fans of that book will be interested to note that its protagonist, Randall Petersen Armstrong, does play a peripheral part in this story, albeit one in which he never makes an actual appearance. His truth machine is very much a part of the future.

That's when most of this story takes place. Although it begins in 1925, the time span of the tale extends all the way to the year 2125. The book is based on the science of cryonics, that is, the science of freezing people just before death and then reviving them at a later date when cures for whatever had ailed them are found.

But that's not the whole premise, as you may surmise from the title. Halperin also deals with extending the human life span, until we reach a point where the only deaths that occur are accidental.

The book's main protagonist is Benjamin Smith. A wealthy physician, Smith arranges to have his body frozen right before he dies. He does this due to deep emotional and psychological factors, which Halperin sets up nicely.

This sets up a court battle as his surviving children fight over the large trust fund he has set up for his body's maintenance and to give him funds to live on after revivification. Again, Halperin sets this up well, accurately depicting the conflicting emotions of an inheritance battle.

Needless to say, Smith survives and is revived in the future , eighty-three years in the future to be precise. He finds the world quite a different place than the one he left behind. Not only has cryonics become a viable science, but disease has been eradicated, and the aging process can be reversed or halted at the point the subject desires. Human cloning is also practiced.

While this part of the story is interesting, Halperin at times dwells too much on the science side of things. Not being particularly science-oriented myself, I found myself skipping over extended passages that were overly scientific.

You may think all this science creates the immortality implied in the title. Not so. The real breakthrough to immortality comes through nanotechnology, which allows perfect copying of the human brain.

Until that point, revivification only works well if the subject is frozen quickly enough. Otherwise, memory degradation occurs. Cloning doesn't restore memory at all, but earlier nanotechnology had allowed partial memory restoration.

With the new scientific technology, even if people are accidentally killed, they can be cloned and have all their memories restored, at least up to the point when the recording of their brain was made.

This new immortality doesn't solve all human problems. Halperin actually demonstrates how it could create new ones. That's what keeps the reader riveted, as opposed to the science.

Halperin also, as in The Truth Machine, gives the reader believable characters. The reason they're believable is because they're complex. Halperin's characters are multidimensional, and he excellently sets up their emotional conflict and psychological motivations.

That's Halperin's true strength. The story concept is intriguing, but without his topnotch characterization, it would be just another science fiction novel. Although at times a little too heavy on the science end of things, that's only a small part of the book, leaving you with a real page-turner, and a most recommended read.