book data
191 ratings, 3.75 average rating, 12 reviews
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published
1997
(first published 2001)
by Spectra
binding
Paperback, 368 pages
isbn
055357549X
(isbn13: 9780553575491)
description
In an era when life expectancies stretch 100 years or more and adhering to healthy habits is the only way to earn better medical treatments, ancient &...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 270)
I have to admit, I didn't like this book very much when I first read it. Since then, however, it's grown on me and I find myself constantly referring to it. When I recently reread it, I was amazed at how much I'd missed.
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Read in October, 2008
recommends it for:
people looking for smart sci fi premises and details (but not characters)
Long on ideas, short on narrative. Sterling should be tapped to think up settings and backgrounds on a sci-fi tv series, or an ambitious futuristic film. Case in point: in Holy Fire, he projects the story past decades of plagues to imagine a medical-industrial complex run by "gerontocrats." A fine, not implausible notion. But Sterling's real strength is to extrapolate from this general premise, having Indonesia become the richest, healthiest nation in the world after the pla...more
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Read in August, 2008
This is an intruiging read, especially in light of the ethical downward spiral of "health care' in the U.S.--The idea of life-prolonging treatment only for the virtuous and moneyed? It's already happening, people. Not to mention the hideous (and downright creepy)overuse of cosmetic surgery. I only gave it three stars because, well, it wandered a bit...But certainly worth a couple of rainy afternoons.
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Read in January, 2006
Amazingly shiny scifi and a meandering journey through a possible future. If you like the idea of little old ladies running the government, immortality, and liquid computers you swim through, you'll like this book.
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bizarre and fairly entertaining. i'm not gonna lie, i only read this cause a lyric from a pixies song was mentioned in it.
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3 comments
Read in October, 2007
A very creative, intense little book. Dynamic characters and nifty technology ideas. Quite thought provoking.
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A fairly interesting exploration of the essence of self and the issues of future shock.
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Seemed full of wild possibilities at the beginning, but seemed to kind of fizzle at the end.
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Haxors
good cyberpunk. Passed the time quickly. Brain bubble-gum.
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Read in June, 2007
just to prove to my friends that i do, on occasion, read fiction
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Read in January, 2000
Good stuff. What happens after you become young again?
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In the cyberpunk novel Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling the protagonist Mia Ziemann has a medical procedure that rejuvinates her physical body at the age of 94. The procedure was known as NTDCD, and it included what process?
a. Her brain was removed and electrically clensed.
b. Her body was converted into a floating amniotic gel culture, then reconstituted.
c. Her blood was replaced with "nano-sangrimites".
d. Converting her digestive system to a blood-based organism and changing her into a Vampire.
More trivia...
a. Her brain was removed and electrically clensed.
b. Her body was converted into a floating amniotic gel culture, then reconstituted.
c. Her blood was replaced with "nano-sangrimites".
d. Converting her digestive system to a blood-based organism and changing her into a Vampire.
More trivia...
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science-fiction (on 15 people's shelves)
sci-fi (on 11 people's shelves)
fiction (on 5 people's shelves)
cyberpunk (on 4 people's shelves)
sciencefiction (on 4 people's shelves)
sf (on 2 people's shelves)
science-fiction-and-fantasy (on 2 people's shelves)
sci-fi-fantasy (on 2 people's shelves)
technoculture (on 1 person's shelf)
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