Holy Fire

Memory, morality, and immortality merge in this haunting and lyrical triumph from the bestselling author of Schismatrix Plus (Time). In the late twenty-first century, technology has lengthened lifespans far beyond what was once medically possible. Existence itself has become relatively easy-if boring. In this futuristic paradise, ninety-four-year-old Mia Ziemann longs for something different and undergoes a radical new treatment that restores both her body and mind to that of a twenty-year-old. After her dramatic transformation, Mia finds herself lost in an avant-garde world of passion, designer drugs, and creative expression . . . Ideas-big ideas-lurk beneath Mia's romp through Sterling's delightfully imagined newly post-human Earth. Art, artifice, the pursuit of immortality, and youth and aging bounce around the story, the characters, and their conversations in imaginative, engaging fashion. . . . In the end, Holy Fire is one of the most interesting, imaginative, and subtly humorous-and relevant for it-novels the cyberpunk/post-human era has produced. . . . Holy Fire may very well be [Sterling's] best work. -Speculiction An intellectual feat, it is also a treat for the spirit and the senses. -Wired A patented Sterling extra-special. -Newsday The future Sterling traces is plausible and provocative, particularly his consideration of several contrasting cultures, and of the disenfranchised who are unable to become 'post-human.' Those interested in serious speculative conversation set within a very strange near-future will find this much to their taste. -Publishers Weekly