The First Immortal: A Novel of the Future – James L. Halperin (1998)

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Classification: Future Reality

 

The First Immortal is a speculative, 200 year saga, describing events that take place between the years 1925 and 2125.

 

It is the end of the 20th century. Dr. Ben Smith, suffers a terrible heart attack which does not kill him, but leaves him in a fragile state. Refusing to accept the fact his days are numbered, and a firm believer in cryogenics, Ben decides to have himself frozen until a future time which will be able to fix his heart. After Ben is frozen, a legal battle ensues because his children each claims to get his trust fund that is supposed to take care of Ben’s body and pay for his future revival.

 

[As you probably know, Cryogenics aims to do just that: have people freeze their bodies or only their heads (the price is different), in the hope that at some time in the future, the technology – and the willingness – to revive them will exist. The Author, James Halperin, appears to be a big believer in Cryogenics. Anyway, I digress.]

 

83 years pass and Ben wakes up, a mechanical heart ticking in his chest. The world he finds is very different from the place he left: disease has been conquered and people no longer need to age. Thus, he becomes what is described in the book’s title: The First Immortal.

 

The book is very well written. The plot is strong, and the characters are fully fleshed. I liked the sheer scope of the novel, which follows Ben’s family for several generations. That being said, what I particularly liked is the future it paints. Clearly the author has done his research on cryogenics, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Although probably too optimistic, the future he describes sound generally plausible, and I could really imagine it eventually happening. In many ways it reminded me of some parts of Ray Kurzweil’s wonderful The Age of Spiritual Machine (unsurprising consider the author is an aspiring futurist).

 

I know some people felt the book is just a way for preaching cryogenics, and as a result, did not enjoy the book at all. Although I agree with the claim that the book preaches cryogenics, I can’t say it bothered (or convinced) me – I simply enjoyed the entire package.

 

To summarize: if you like books that combine technology, science and story, and you are not turned off by the concept of cryogenics, you’ll probably find this book appealing.

 


Link to the book’s details on Amazon.com

 

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