What would a society look like if its population were immortal? How would people adapt to handle the heavy weight of endless time? How would they remain sane knowing that every day was much like the one before and the one after? These are some of the questions that Woodlands author Paul Kieniewicz explores in Immortality Machine, his first novel. Planet Erda is populated by the mortals of Tiga and another group, believed to be aliens, who live in a distant city. The two populations do not intermingle. The Tigans have myths and legends about the immortals that keep them tightly cloistered in their city behind the mountains. The immortals are simply disinterested in the time-bound Tigans, so long as they stay in Tiga and don’t threaten their quiet ways. Gereint of Lorges, a Tigan, is obsessed with mortality. His fiancée died recently and he has turned his studies to understanding life spans and the causes of death. When he is “arrested” by Tigan authorities and ordered to determine the age of a prisoner, he discovers that the man is at least two hundred years old. There have always been rumors of an immortality machine in the alien city, but no one seriously believed them. To leave the city is punishable by death anyway, so the point has been moot. Gereint doesn’t have much reason to live among the mortals, though, so he decides to risk escaping to the alien city, where he hopes to discover the immortality machine and bring it back. Ending death, he believes, will end society’s problems. A dishonored military officer named Marti accompanies Gereint, though not out of any support for the man’s mission. The aliens living in the city of domes have little interest in Gereint’s quest for immortality. He is time sick, so overwhelmingly conscious of yesterday, today and tomorrow that if he were to become immortal he would surely go mad. The immortals have developed a society where the passage of time is extraneous and most people think of themselves as part of a collective rather than as individuals. They are impatient with many of Gereint’s questions because they consider them irrelevant. In their argot, these things “do not relate.” Since their lives can possibly last hundreds of years, barring fatal accident, the immortals have discarded many issues that seem important to Gereint. This isn’t the first time someone has come from Tiga in search of immortality. The city’s residents developed an army of androids to protect them when danger impinges on their society. In a clever reversal of a science fiction trope, Kieniewicz’s artificial beings are more concerned with mortality than the human population of the city of immortals. One android in particular, a sexpot named Zusi, disturbs the immortals by continually jolting them out of their staid and emotionless existences. The author has clearly given the issue of longevity much thought, exploring the skills necessary to survive and enjoy–though it’s not clear the immortals have a sense of joy–perpetual life. The individuals spend much time in meditation and little in serious thought or communication. Their diversions–the game of disk, for example–serve mainly to remind them that death is more than an abstraction. For a first novel, the setting and society are impressively well thought out and detailed. Gereint is a determined protagonist, though his sidekick Marti, a foil to Gereint’s ambitions, can be annoying and whiny at times. Some of the dialog is stilted and over-formal. This is to be expected of the immortals, who rarely use language to communicate, but Gereint’s discourse is occasionally starchy and unnatural. These are mild flaws, though, in an interesting and perceptive story. Web site and all contents © Copyright Bev Vincent 2023. All rights reserved. |
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