ALT.SF4M

  Review: _Holy Fire_ by Bruce Sterling

   • s**....@**.com
     19/10/1996 00:00:000 UTC

     Available now in a Bantam Spectra hardcover.

     It's 2094, and the world is ruled by the old folks. Some nasty plagues

     and social dislocation in the '30s and '40s has defused the population

     bomb, and growing prosperity and dropping birthrates have pushed the

     average age well above fourty. A benign, decentralized government

     offers fantastic medical care, safe streets and a decent living . . .

     to anyone willing to toe the line. Civil Service volunteers make

     sure you eat right and take bacteria counts in your shower; society

     is polite and conservative and oh so considerate. Young people are rare

     and socially and economically marginalized. Technology is making

     things damn peculiar on all fronts.

     Enter Mia Ziemann, a 94 year old medical economist. After the death of

     an old friend, and an encounter with a young lady struggling to become

     recognized for her clothing designs, Mia volunteers to undergo a radical

     rejuvenation therapy. She comes out of it with memory problems (fifteen

     percent of her brain is new tissue), gushing hormones, and the
     appearance

     of a 20 year old. Within a few days of being released from hospital she

     bugs out for Europe.

     Over the course of the next few months "Maya" has run-ins with young

     criminals, bohemians, the fashion industry (where all of the models

     are over 50), talking dogs, despair-drug addicts, and other marginal
     types.

     Some of these adventures are right - on; others (like the fashion stuff)
     are

     puzzling and borderline tedious.

     Eventually, Maya/Mia begins to come to sort things out; she teams up

     with a band of radicals who are planning ahead for the Singularity

     (defined here as the point when life extension technology allows

     practical immortality) and apprentices herself to a master photographer.

     Just as things begin to look bright her past, in the form of the

     health cops and the forces of social conservatism.

     This is not a traditional SF novel. While there's plenty of high tech,

     it's really peculiar and low-key. The heroes (well, the protagonists)

     are artists and "artificers" and clothing designers. The very theme

     of the book is bizarre; simply put, it ponders whether humans can

     become post-human *with style*.

     If you're into this kind of thing, well, you couldn't do better than

     _Holy Fire_. It's kind of like a shiatsu frontal lobe massage. If the

     above sounds too pretentious to possibly be interesting, avoid it like

     the plague.

     --Stefan Jones

     --

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