Memento Mori

by Shariann Lewitt, Teresa Nielson-Hayden (Editor)

The colony world of Reis was once a prosperous, glittering center of manufacture and trade. But now that a terrible plague is ravaging the planet, it has been quarantined, cut off from the rest of the galaxy. Only electronic communications can cross that barrier.
No one knows where the disease came from. No one knows how it's spread. And no one knows who will live or die.
Which leaves one big What do you do in the meantime, while you're waiting to find out?
Time may be killing them, but the handful of disaffected artists who hang out at Club Metz are past masters at killing time. Society may be falling apart, and the biocybernetic AI that runs everything may be acting weirder every day; but they will nevertheless find ways to survive - in spirit as well as body - or, failing that, to die as interestingly as possible.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Cyberpunk, Dystopia

286 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1995

About the author

Alternate Known Names:
Shariann Lewitt
Shariann N. Lewitt
S.N. Lewitt
Nina Harper
Gordon Kendall - pseudonym also for Susan Shwartz

Reviews

[David Nadas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I have enjoyed a more depressing book read than this. LOL. Truly depressing and slow moving, but the author wrote this in 1995 and the tale soars heavily on both a highly transmissible virus of unknown origin causing a lockdown on a city on a planet colonized from Earth as well as the dealings with an A.I. with adolescent urges that controls everything and everything at the end of it all is reduced to art--the art of dying. I mean a topic does not get more current than this.

I loved the writing and the technology was pretty spot on. But what I thought was funny or possibly clever was the constant references to drinking Jägermeister, which was a popular shot drink around the mid-late 90's, but Jägermeister literally translates to Master Hunter or Hunt Mater or In charge of Hunting or Gamekeeping and also prevalent in this read is one of the lead characters who was a Chess Master (Game Gaster), so there you have it.

[Dorothy Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had started this book and put it down, I'm not sure when. I found it in an odd place, hidden away. I'm still not sure why I didn't finish the first time, but it may have had to do with 2020. Lewitt is an elegant, thoughtful writer with a talent for making the darker side of humanity seem the norm. With the current upsurge of AI this book is incredibly relevant and hauntingly prescient.

[Mpho3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lewitt explores human sociology, psychology and ethics on a far-flung planet, giving her tale enough scientific detail for texture and credibility. The prosperous colony of the planet Reis, beset by plague, has voted to quarantine itself. This causes economic problems, but these are overshadowed by a breakdown of social values and mores, not only among the people (especially in the city) but also in RICE, the biologically based artificial intelligence on which the planet's well-being depends. The novel is ambitious, tackling issues of being and nothingness, pain and pleasure, the nature of life (artificial as well as human) and what makes it bearable. Sometimes the languid characters seem to generate a narrative that is equally limp, but overall Lewitt's prose is strong and her take fresh, sharp and intelligently subversive. (Publishers' Weekly)

[Arachne8x · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at Bohemian ideals in the face of true danger, and artificial intelligence. The characters are perverse in their fatalistic outlook, and often are not ones that I can empathize with, but it was an interesting ride.