Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Christine Amsden’s novel, The Immortality Virus is the first dystopian/science fiction novel I have read. An interesting read that looks into what it would look like to live forever. The author introduces the reader to the 21st century where everyone and the world is being ruled by a totalitarian government made of an elite few.
It is a world where people don’t age anymore. The author does a great job depicting a very sick society where humans have very little empathy for each other. In this corrupt world poverty, hunger, violence and chaos abound. Only people with money can afford normal food. It appears that the rest of the population resigns itself to eating high-protein nutri-bars made up of ground human flesh. If the author’s intent was to gross the reader, she succeeded in doing so. After reading about the nutri-bars, I wanted to stop reading the book.
I kept reading because the author had me captivated with her writing style. I loved her use of words. I also loved the feisty 130-year old PI protagonist, Grace Harper, who is hired to discover the whereabouts of Jordan Lacklin, the scientist responsible for the “virus” that started The Change about 400 years ago while working on the cure for Alzheimer’s.
As Grace works diligently to find Jordan Lacklin, she faces many dangers:A group of people want to undo the change so they can live a better life. A second group is adamantly against changing because they are very well-off and can afford to live a life of luxury. The well-to-do have one goal in mind: They do not want Grace to succeed in her mission of finding Jordan Lacklin.
If you like dark dystopian/science fiction then, this book is for you.
