The Immortality Virus by Christine Amsden

Book Review: 2 Treasure Boxes
Publisher: Twilight Times Books (April 14, 2011), Format: Kindle Edition, File Size: 533 KB, ASIN: B004WOY0W4
What would happen if people stopped aging? How long until the world becomes overrun? Aging has stopped for four hundred years and the world is so over-populated it is difficult to move around. Grace Harper has been contacted to find the scientist who invented the anti-aging gene, with hopes that this gene can be removed from humanity and people can start aging again.  The only problem is, many people in The Establishment don’t want that to happen.

The Immortality Virus is the second book that Christine Amsden has written.  It is science fiction, taking place on earth towards the end of the 21st century.  The story is told in the third person narrative primarily from Grace Harper’s point of view. As the main character, she is a caring, independent private investigator who has been black-listed by The Establishment.

There are several interesting concepts examined in this story. As the world becomes overpopulated it becomes a dying society with all focus on feeding the people and none on technology resulting in astonomically high unemployment. The society that develops creates a huge disparity between the haves and the have-nots, with the weathly Establishment doing anything to keep what they have in the dwindling resources by oppressing everyone else.

This is an interesting portrayal of a world where people haven’t aged for 400 years. I found the story interesting and it grabbed my attention from the first page. As the tale unfolded I was never sure where we were going and there were a few twist and turns along the way as well.  At times I could tell that Ms. Amsden is still developing her writing style and technique, but overall I liked how the story was told. The story was not really resolved in any way, so I found the ending to be a bit disappointing.

This is a stand alone book. If you enjoy reading an original and thought provoking science fiction, then you should give The Immortality Virus a try.

 

My favourite quotes from the book: “Most of the time, too much trust will kill someone in my line of work. This time, though, I think I have no chance without trust, and precious little chance with it.”

and

“She dreamed at a million miles a second, as if she’d never properly dreamed before and needed to make up for it.”

 

Question to ponder:

Would you want to live indefinitely, if you could
stop aging after hitting 25?

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