Subject: Book Review - Holy Fire

From: [email-masked] (Danny Yee)
Date: 06 Mar 2001 14:54:02 -0500

Holy Fire, Bruce Sterling
        Copyright (c) 2001 Danny Yee

At the end of the twenty-first century the world is dominated by a
medical-industrial complex devoted to life-extension technology.  Those
who don't abide by the rules don't get access to the more expensive
treatments and, having survived plagues in the first half of the century,
a cautious gerontocratic elite run things -- largely benevolently, but
also rather boringly.  When ninety-four year old Mia Ziemann, a
respectable medical economist, undergoes a novel treatment which gives her
the body and brain of a twenty year-old, she breaks loose.  Going
underground in the avant-garde circles of central Europe, she attempts to
find liberation and fulfillment in art.

Sterling packs a lot into _Holy Fire_, but the plot is relatively slow
-moving: the result is definitely no cyberpunk thriller.  He gives us an
assortment of fascinating characters, a complex and surprisingly plausible
imagined future, lots of neat throw-away ideas -- enhanced dogs,
translating wigs, living cities, and more -- and some serious
philosophical exposition, something which usually kills a novel, but
Sterling pulls it off.  Some of the larger themes include the
psychological effects of aging, the balance between creativity and
security for both individuals and societies, and the nature and source of
artistic inspiration.  _Holy Fire_ may lack mass appeal, but it is a
success both as a novel and as a philosophical exploration: I recommend it
to anyone who likes intelligent science fiction.

%T	Holy Fire
%A	Sterling, Bruce
%I	Phoenix
%C	London
%D	1996
%O	paperback
%G	ISBN 1-85799-884-7
%P	296pp
%K	science fiction

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