The Forever Drug

Venture Silk #2

by Steve Perry

Abandoning his life on Earth after his lover is murdered, Venture Silk starts over on New Earth with Zia, a beautiful spy who is hunted by enemy agents for the secret she holds--the key to eternal life. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

287 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.

Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West

Reviews

[Scott Holstad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sequel to Spindoc was just as good, if not better, than its predecessor. It was action packed, it read quickly, it was exciting, and it had just enough sci fi in it to justify it as a sci fi novel. Once more, Venture Silk is in the thick of a crazy spy game, this time with his new live-in love, Zia, the master spy. At risk is a new wonder drug concocted on the planet E2, which enables someone taking it to live for 500 or a thousand years or more. As a reward for her achievements on Earth (in the last book), Zia is administered the drug, but Silk is not. Interestingly, one of the side effects is developing telepathy. It makes for some fun scenes. You can tell Perry knows something about guns. Silk is followed and attacked, so he decides to buy a gun, and gets an 8 mm that shoots non-lethal darts. The darts being shot his way, though, are poisoned and quite lethal. A spy is sent from Earth to recover this wonder drug, meanwhile, and decides to take Zia as his prisoner/wife and to reverse engineer the biology of the drugs given her. He also decides to kill Silk and to turn on his handlers and head for another planet to sell the secret of the drug for a king's ransom, as well as taking it himself so he can live forever -- with Zia. Like the first book, there's a lot of sex in this one, but I was more prepared for it this time and didn't feel so much like a prude. Although I've never seen an author so taken with the term "mons" in my life. I've honestly never seen it used in a novel before.... Silk learns to take care of himself in this story, from taking martial arts classes to spying on the spies after him. You see, not only do he and Zia have to watch out for the Earth-based super spy, but other shadowy ones are after them too. It's explained toward the end of the book, and I have to say that I wasn't thrilled with the explanation, but I'll take it anyway because the book was so fun to read. If you haven't read this series, obviously start with the first one, but read this book because you'll likely enjoy it. Recommended.

[Jim Edmonds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great sequel to Spindoc

I've started reading and re-reading Perry's novels recently and I'm so glad that I did. If you enjoy the work of William Dietz you may find Perry's even more fun. He spends more time developing his characters and his visions of the future hold up well. Great syfy adventure!

[Paul Close · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good