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The Not Yet
Praised for its political vision, literary voice, and environmental prescience, The Not Yet envisions a ravaged and abandoned Gulf Coast in the year 2121. Throughout the former U.S., wealthy Heirs live hundreds of years on life extension. Outside their walled city states, the poor barely survive. Malcolm de Lazarus has been counting all his life on joining the elite, but when his fortune mysteriously disappears, he must sail to the chaotic New Orleans Islands for answers. On the way, he encounters the darkest side of Heirs' privilege, which threatens everything he knows and loves.
270 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
June 13, 2012
The hook is kind of irresistible: a science fiction novel set in New Orleans, a hundred-some years in the future.
It's perfectly counter-intuitive. New Orleans is a city where the past seems so close at hand, a city in love with its own history, a city where old ways and traditions persist. There's a reason why the Space Needle and the Science Fiction Museum are up in the other corner of the country.
The floods of 2005 called the city's future into question, but the city survived and was transformed. The new New Orleans is ripe for science fictional imagining. At the very least, it's an intriguing premise.
That's why I was drawn to this title. I was surprised to find the real themes of the book to be something else again. Yes, New Orleans is here, and mostly under water. But the book is really about our human yearning to escape the cycle of aging and death, and what might happen if technology finally succeeds in extending our lives far beyond current expectations.
It's masterfully written and a joy to read, though the subject matter is rather dark and disturbing. In addition to be a good story, it's also a profound contemplation of the human condition and a convincing vision of where our society is headed.
It's perfectly counter-intuitive. New Orleans is a city where the past seems so close at hand, a city in love with its own history, a city where old ways and traditions persist. There's a reason why the Space Needle and the Science Fiction Museum are up in the other corner of the country.
The floods of 2005 called the city's future into question, but the city survived and was transformed. The new New Orleans is ripe for science fictional imagining. At the very least, it's an intriguing premise.
That's why I was drawn to this title. I was surprised to find the real themes of the book to be something else again. Yes, New Orleans is here, and mostly under water. But the book is really about our human yearning to escape the cycle of aging and death, and what might happen if technology finally succeeds in extending our lives far beyond current expectations.
It's masterfully written and a joy to read, though the subject matter is rather dark and disturbing. In addition to be a good story, it's also a profound contemplation of the human condition and a convincing vision of where our society is headed.
October 8, 2023
A deft and frightening vision of a future deeply rooted in our society's current problems, it is a 1984 for our times. Crone stands shoulder to shoulder with Orwell, Atwood and LeGuin, and reminds us that great speculative literature should never be pigeon-holed by genre. A compelling plot in a convincing future world, Malcolm de Lazarus' vision quest for the real Reveal is one every thoughtful reader should undertake.
Read
June 9, 2012This is a compelling book with the capacity to appeal to a wide range of readers. It is part of a trend in literary fiction to dispense with the segregation of genre. Science fiction as a defined culture has a rich tradition which has been stigmatized. It is marginalized by the mainstream as acclaimed authors borrow tropes, some while vehemently denying any association with the genre.
In Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast and Hooking Up, Tom Wolfe bemoans the declining relevance of the novel and seeks salvation in hyperjournalism/documentary realism. While I agree with his thesis regarding the waning relevance of fiction and enjoy his forays into capturing reality in a heretofore unimaginable detail, a certain poetry is lost in that endeavor. The Not Yet stands with modern and post modern masterpieces in dipping into the science fiction genre to renew the relevance of the novel. A growing number of contemporary authors including Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood and are using elements of science fiction to explore important issues with more creativity than has been accepted by mainstream publishing (readers?) in the past. Many efforts by these authors including The Not Yet make apt use of newly exerted freedom while steering well clear of cliche and superficiality attributed to the genre ghetto.
What makes The Not Yet a tour de force expression of the zeitgeist in the evolution the novel is the depth of emotion it evokes. Though many raw and powerful themes are addressed the measure of aesthetic distance applied establishes the author's integrity and reveals compassion for both characters and readers. The novel is poignant and evokes nostalgia for what will be lost and what will be changed. It calls the reader to engage in the present and consider what it means to live fully and the inherent conflict that presents to preserving what is dear.
In Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast and Hooking Up, Tom Wolfe bemoans the declining relevance of the novel and seeks salvation in hyperjournalism/documentary realism. While I agree with his thesis regarding the waning relevance of fiction and enjoy his forays into capturing reality in a heretofore unimaginable detail, a certain poetry is lost in that endeavor. The Not Yet stands with modern and post modern masterpieces in dipping into the science fiction genre to renew the relevance of the novel. A growing number of contemporary authors including Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood and are using elements of science fiction to explore important issues with more creativity than has been accepted by mainstream publishing (readers?) in the past. Many efforts by these authors including The Not Yet make apt use of newly exerted freedom while steering well clear of cliche and superficiality attributed to the genre ghetto.
What makes The Not Yet a tour de force expression of the zeitgeist in the evolution the novel is the depth of emotion it evokes. Though many raw and powerful themes are addressed the measure of aesthetic distance applied establishes the author's integrity and reveals compassion for both characters and readers. The novel is poignant and evokes nostalgia for what will be lost and what will be changed. It calls the reader to engage in the present and consider what it means to live fully and the inherent conflict that presents to preserving what is dear.
February 2, 2018
If you're a dabbler in the genre of science fiction like me, you'll want to wait until you're in the mood to seriously geek out before picking up The Not Yet. Here's a basic intro: it's about 100 years in the future, New Orleans (now Re-New Orleans) has succumbed to the rising sea level and is a group of island enclaves. The words death & dying are considered curse words, those who except the cycle of birth-life-death are considered fringe cultish outcasts, and people called the Heirs (who've undergone the Treatment to avoid death) are the ruling upperclass. The protagonist, Malcolm, is a Not Yet (as in Not Yet an Heir) but has been working to fill his Trust since he was 5 so he too may take the Treatment. When his Heir guardian has a major psychological/spiritual crisis and his Trust is put in escrow, Malcolm begins a journey reminiscent of Homer's Odyssey as his world paradigm is shattered and reinvented. Intense, well written, highly recommended.
March 23, 2013
I got this book by New Orleans author Crone, in an awesome bookstore in NOLA called Faulkner House books. The bookstore is in a house where Faulkner once lived, right next to St. Louis Cathedral and on a street called Pirate's Alley. It was lovely and I wanted to get something by a local scifi or fantasy author but the clerk said there aren't many in New Orleans. Luckily, I managed to stumble across this book. Crone's dystopian vision of a New Orleans nearly completely submerged by rising sea waters is not exactly original, but her take on the future has its own unique flavor. She imagines a world where a small elite are essentially able to live forever while everyone else struggles just to survive. Admittedly I wanted some more clarity and answers to some of the mysteries in the book, but I appreciate what Crone is trying to do with her use of ambiguity. She does not make you at home in the world and reveals information slowly so that the reader feels the same confusion and alienation as the narrator. Sometimes it feels a bit disjointed because we as readers figure things out before the narrator does, but overall it's an effective technique. If you like atmospheric, literary scifi and dystopia, you'll like this.
June 3, 2012
This book is so prescient. I live in New Orleans, and Moira Crone has caught the city as it is and as it may very likely be in the future. Her dystopian, fantastical novel has its own fully realized world, one with its own culture and language, and it hooks you from the very beginning. Her characters are quirky, amazing, strange and all very well developed. Malcolm, her protagonist, has been groomed all his life to be one of the elite, those who live long and privileged lives, who may get the chance to live forever. His journey of discovery about the lives of the elite and about love and what he truly believes in makes for a suspenseful page turner. This book is one of my favorites; it is mesmerizing.
February 4, 2014
I am normally not drawn to dystopian works, The Not Yet held my attention, kept me wanting more. I was drawn in and wanted answers. I wanted to understand how this world functioned. The question of immortality is one that is both universal and abstract. People who enjoy books like The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood should definitely give The Not Yet by Moira Crone a try.
June 19, 2013
My dear friend, Moira, gave me a copy of her new book. A future vision that is both frightening and hopeful--set in a flooded New Orleans with a Rehoboth Beach cameo. I was hooked and read late into the night to finish. Kudos!
May 6, 2020
Living through what resembles a pre-Apocalypse, I remember Moira Crone's sprawling island city of New Orleans, a century or so from today, where a person can become immortal by kissing the right ass and toeing the line and earning enough capital for the change. Crone is a writer who tries for everything, writes everything, and takes on speculative work, science fiction, just as readily as she writes literary stories and novels. This book was nominated for the Philip K. Dick award when it first appeared. The drive forward of this book is so pleasing, through so many visions of the city and so many ideas about what it means for a world to crumble - there is an overlay of allegory matched with a grit that's like a walk down Bourbon Street on almost any night. Well, maybe not now, during our pandemic. It's a portrait of one face of inequality unchecked. A good read for right now, 2020, when we can see what a collapse might look like. Especially mind-blowing is the fact of New Orleans, because it just feels right to be there for the end of the world, really. Where else?
May 7, 2025
Really interesting book. I think the concept was fresh and worked well on a speculative fiction level; a lot of sci-fi media has been based on the idea of body modification and life extension but I think this may be my favorite take on it (much better than “The Substance” for example lol).
The thing I’m sort of undecided on is the prose/writing style. It’s kind of disjointed in a way that gives the book a unique and surreal kind of feeling, but that surreal feeling put too much emotional distance between me and the story and it was hard for me to get invested. It was missing some moments of real humanity that could have broke through and made it work better as a novel, but as it stands it was conceptually unique and thought provoking social commentary that maybe could have just been a novella.
The thing I’m sort of undecided on is the prose/writing style. It’s kind of disjointed in a way that gives the book a unique and surreal kind of feeling, but that surreal feeling put too much emotional distance between me and the story and it was hard for me to get invested. It was missing some moments of real humanity that could have broke through and made it work better as a novel, but as it stands it was conceptually unique and thought provoking social commentary that maybe could have just been a novella.
August 3, 2012
You should probably read Bart's review which is simple, to the point, and effective.
Or go on and read my blather, I don't mind.
The first hundred or so pages I devoured as if I hadn't read anything good in a while, which in some ways was true. I mean I just finished some Capote which was great but my last foray into dystopian sci-fi that really thrilled me was Peter Watts and that was ... a year ago? I was glad to have something dragging me back 'round, even if (because?) it's not as horribly pessimistic and borderline sociopathic as Watts's stuff.
Of course I was suckered into this book what with it being set in and around New Orleans and Crone delivers. I'd say I caught a good 90% of the 'local' references, most of which were to street, city, and community names. I especially loved the subtle ... okay, not-so-subtle digs at the people of now whose descendants are represented in the story as being just like their forefathers. Here and now we have people living on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in commuter communities and (this is my experience and prejudice speaking) they're all happy to drive into the city for their jobs but think that it's a horrible crime-ridden and dangerous place and most of them head straight back out by sunset. In the book, set in the 2120s, a character says, in reference to her community,
"We've got our system. The place isn't full of rapscallions. You been to Chef Menteur? Open enclave, everybody looking for an angle, leaving their own kin behind? And the rich getting out, the rest starving? All them poor houses up on stilts 'bout to drown? Twenty feet in the air? Not like that. We are orderly, we are on the cycle. We have a natural levee we live on, high ground, up here, north shore of the Sea [Lake Pontchartrain]. We don't toss out."
that's just one example, of course. Crone also gives us stories of the rich people - the old money - that live in what is currently the Uptown part of New Orleans, enclaves of those wealthy enough to have purchased this "immortality". She also delivers a fascinating chapter about the protagonist's first visit to the French Quarter and all the characters he meets, how he gets intoxicated and drugged before he even realizes what's going on, the somewhat dangerous adventures through which he is dragged by his newfound compatriots, and she does it all writing from a third person omniscient point of view that she manages to contaminate with the haze of alcohol and fumes and bustle and spin and vertigo and really, I think every one of us has had that one particular night in the Quarter and she absolutely nails it.
Of course there have to be parts of the book that aren't straight-up in-joke references to New Orleans, otherwise she'd have an audience of a half-million at most. The first third of the book was white-hot and I couldn't put it down, but it slowed in the later sections. It was never bad, by any stretch, and I really appreciated the questions that she brought up and wisely left unresolved. The book isn't an examination of every facet of a world changed by man-made immortality, it's a spotlight on one man's struggle through the world that's been created for him.
Or go on and read my blather, I don't mind.
The first hundred or so pages I devoured as if I hadn't read anything good in a while, which in some ways was true. I mean I just finished some Capote which was great but my last foray into dystopian sci-fi that really thrilled me was Peter Watts and that was ... a year ago? I was glad to have something dragging me back 'round, even if (because?) it's not as horribly pessimistic and borderline sociopathic as Watts's stuff.
Of course I was suckered into this book what with it being set in and around New Orleans and Crone delivers. I'd say I caught a good 90% of the 'local' references, most of which were to street, city, and community names. I especially loved the subtle ... okay, not-so-subtle digs at the people of now whose descendants are represented in the story as being just like their forefathers. Here and now we have people living on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in commuter communities and (this is my experience and prejudice speaking) they're all happy to drive into the city for their jobs but think that it's a horrible crime-ridden and dangerous place and most of them head straight back out by sunset. In the book, set in the 2120s, a character says, in reference to her community,
"We've got our system. The place isn't full of rapscallions. You been to Chef Menteur? Open enclave, everybody looking for an angle, leaving their own kin behind? And the rich getting out, the rest starving? All them poor houses up on stilts 'bout to drown? Twenty feet in the air? Not like that. We are orderly, we are on the cycle. We have a natural levee we live on, high ground, up here, north shore of the Sea [Lake Pontchartrain]. We don't toss out."
that's just one example, of course. Crone also gives us stories of the rich people - the old money - that live in what is currently the Uptown part of New Orleans, enclaves of those wealthy enough to have purchased this "immortality". She also delivers a fascinating chapter about the protagonist's first visit to the French Quarter and all the characters he meets, how he gets intoxicated and drugged before he even realizes what's going on, the somewhat dangerous adventures through which he is dragged by his newfound compatriots, and she does it all writing from a third person omniscient point of view that she manages to contaminate with the haze of alcohol and fumes and bustle and spin and vertigo and really, I think every one of us has had that one particular night in the Quarter and she absolutely nails it.
Of course there have to be parts of the book that aren't straight-up in-joke references to New Orleans, otherwise she'd have an audience of a half-million at most. The first third of the book was white-hot and I couldn't put it down, but it slowed in the later sections. It was never bad, by any stretch, and I really appreciated the questions that she brought up and wisely left unresolved. The book isn't an examination of every facet of a world changed by man-made immortality, it's a spotlight on one man's struggle through the world that's been created for him.
August 7, 2012
I'm on chapter three, and I'm totally hooked. Islands of New Orleans! Brilliant!
(a month later) Oh, I did try to read this slowly, tried to savor it, but I couldn't help myself. So gorgeous, so believable, and so devastating. Crone creates a totally real character in Malcolm, but he is only the beginning. He is the ambassador of this terrible, strange, futuristic world where the wealthiest can (at last) escape death while the rest of us live in squalor. The landscape has changed, and my beloved city, New Orleans, is mostly underwater. Crone's descriptions are so on, and her imaginings of what the future holds (in the tiny world of this one city) are so complex, so fully realized, that I'm aching to get down there NOW so that I can make sure New Orleans hasn't already become what Crone says it will. Amazing writing.
If you love or ever loved New Orleans, read this book. You will be doomed by the first chapter.
(a month later) Oh, I did try to read this slowly, tried to savor it, but I couldn't help myself. So gorgeous, so believable, and so devastating. Crone creates a totally real character in Malcolm, but he is only the beginning. He is the ambassador of this terrible, strange, futuristic world where the wealthiest can (at last) escape death while the rest of us live in squalor. The landscape has changed, and my beloved city, New Orleans, is mostly underwater. Crone's descriptions are so on, and her imaginings of what the future holds (in the tiny world of this one city) are so complex, so fully realized, that I'm aching to get down there NOW so that I can make sure New Orleans hasn't already become what Crone says it will. Amazing writing.
If you love or ever loved New Orleans, read this book. You will be doomed by the first chapter.
January 15, 2015
Moira Crone's novel is an incredibly topical exploration of divisions and stratification in society. What happens when the haves and have nots become so far separated that the entire basis of society becomes reshaped?
Crone's novel acts as a parable about the US healthcare system as well as the destructive nature of an unscalable divide between rich and poor. The 1% have achieved near-immortality through expensive medical treatments. The 'Protos' and those who joined the programme early have become fabulously wealthy. The subsequent economic reshaping makes it harder and harder for any other individual to be able to afford treatment. The majority live in poverty, with no access to even the most basic healthcare.
Crone's novel acts as a parable about the US healthcare system as well as the destructive nature of an unscalable divide between rich and poor. The 1% have achieved near-immortality through expensive medical treatments. The 'Protos' and those who joined the programme early have become fabulously wealthy. The subsequent economic reshaping makes it harder and harder for any other individual to be able to afford treatment. The majority live in poverty, with no access to even the most basic healthcare.
February 4, 2013
I had trouble getting into this one -- it was interesting, and has some interesting ideas on mortality and the effects of enhanced longevity, but for some reason, it didn't really pull me in until the last chapter when everything wraps up.
April 1, 2012
A 4 objectively, but from my personal standpoint, more of a 3.5. Here's my review: http://effusionsofwitandhumour.wordpr...
May 28, 2019
For some reason, this book seemed longer than 274 pages. Although it only took me 2 days to read it, there was a sense that it was longer than that.
Part of the problem might have been that it slipped back and forth though time from 2111 or so to 2121. The times got closer and closer together toward the end, and sometimes it was hard to separate or understand what order events were happening in...for me.
The basic story is pretty simple. It is 2121 and New Orleans is now a group of islands. While it is not clear what caused it, the the river has moved and perhaps climate change has caused most of the southern area of the United States, with the possible exception of Florida to be under water. Some of the streets in the New Orleans of 2019 are trenches in 2121. Our big lake is now a sea.
But what has happened to humanity is even stranger. There are people who have been treated and live a long time. Then others are getting ready to be treated. Our "hero" is one of those..Malcolm fr Lazarus. He was a founding and raised in a sort of orphanage.
The story is well written except for the jumping back and forth. I really don't know how it could have been done any differently and still been the story the author was trying to convey. The "past" is the backstory so to speak. Any change to delete the back and forth would have required the story to be told starting in 2111 or so, and then go forward. However, that is not how the author chose to tell it.
I wish I could give 1/2 stars because this book likely deserves at least 3.5 instead of just 3.
Part of the problem might have been that it slipped back and forth though time from 2111 or so to 2121. The times got closer and closer together toward the end, and sometimes it was hard to separate or understand what order events were happening in...for me.
The basic story is pretty simple. It is 2121 and New Orleans is now a group of islands. While it is not clear what caused it, the the river has moved and perhaps climate change has caused most of the southern area of the United States, with the possible exception of Florida to be under water. Some of the streets in the New Orleans of 2019 are trenches in 2121. Our big lake is now a sea.
But what has happened to humanity is even stranger. There are people who have been treated and live a long time. Then others are getting ready to be treated. Our "hero" is one of those..Malcolm fr Lazarus. He was a founding and raised in a sort of orphanage.
The story is well written except for the jumping back and forth. I really don't know how it could have been done any differently and still been the story the author was trying to convey. The "past" is the backstory so to speak. Any change to delete the back and forth would have required the story to be told starting in 2111 or so, and then go forward. However, that is not how the author chose to tell it.
I wish I could give 1/2 stars because this book likely deserves at least 3.5 instead of just 3.
July 6, 2025
I want a dystopia book to extrapolate the future, so basing the future on increased inequality and no more aging just feels lazy. Increased inequality is the lowest hanging of fruits and no more aging has no relevance to current concerns and trends.
A lot of talking and not much story in general.
The final part was the most interesting because I got to learn about how this world came about. Finally! I’d been trying to figure out all the rules and norms and the end is where it all gets explained in a clunky, « Here’s what the book is about » excerpt. I must say immortality isn’t the direction I would take a dystopia in but to each their own. The consequences of that (very limited healthcare, upheaval, terrorism, and more inequality) felt more relevant to our own times.
All in all, a bit of a slog with a convoluted plot and some (emphasis on some) interesting insights into our future dystopia.
A lot of talking and not much story in general.
The final part was the most interesting because I got to learn about how this world came about. Finally! I’d been trying to figure out all the rules and norms and the end is where it all gets explained in a clunky, « Here’s what the book is about » excerpt. I must say immortality isn’t the direction I would take a dystopia in but to each their own. The consequences of that (very limited healthcare, upheaval, terrorism, and more inequality) felt more relevant to our own times.
All in all, a bit of a slog with a convoluted plot and some (emphasis on some) interesting insights into our future dystopia.
March 31, 2019
This book was recommended in the author Q&A section of Gary Krist's Empire of Sin. I loved the idea of New Orleans as a series of islands in a dystopian future so decided to give it a try. Ultimately it's a take on the haves and have nots, and what you do to have and what you give up to have it. I enjoyed the writing and didn't mind the device of flipping back and forth between timelines. Ultimately, I wanted more substance, less circumstance. It opens up so many ideas, and yet ends before delivering on them. It wanders through too many scenarios that feel a bit throw away, but overall was an enjoyable read.
September 20, 2024
New Orleans?? In the future???? And it's all ISLANDS??? Well of course I ripped this off the bookshelf in NOLA.
There's a ton to love about this book. Specifically, the author reveals everything out of order so once it clicks it is immensely satisfying. The characters are captivating, the overall concept is great but... there's some twists in the story that felt pretty unnecessary.
Overall liked the book but I wouldn't recommend it to other people because one of the main twists was just such a huge turnoff. Granted, twist made sense in the world they're in, but eeehhh.
There's a ton to love about this book. Specifically, the author reveals everything out of order so once it clicks it is immensely satisfying. The characters are captivating, the overall concept is great but... there's some twists in the story that felt pretty unnecessary.
Overall liked the book but I wouldn't recommend it to other people because one of the main twists was just such a huge turnoff. Granted, twist made sense in the world they're in, but eeehhh.
December 11, 2018
On its own terms - despite a protagonist who falls from situation to situation without any agency of his own, gathering exposition along the way - a very readable and imagined slice of near-future post-environmental collapse science fiction, set in the half-submerged Islands of New Orleans, a world of Haves and Have Nots, satirising longevity, plastic surgery, and healthcare issues.
As an example of modern 'literary' SF, only about five decades behind the times.
As an example of modern 'literary' SF, only about five decades behind the times.
November 10, 2021
Intriguing concept exploring a dystopian society and the morals and ethics around a select few achieving immortality while the rest of the population is left behind, which can also be seen as poignant metaphor for our current stratification between socioeconomic levels - but overall, not that great of a read. Too much was left unexplained until the last chapter and the unsynchronized timeline was a hindrance to making sense of the story and really getting engaged.
December 19, 2025
I love the concept of this book - climate fiction is my niche reading interest. I loved thinking about the future of New Orleans, especially because I just returned from there.
Alas, this book was disorienting and often confusing. It felt like I was missing a prequel book that explained the terms and history, or missing a brief glossary of terms at the beginning. I was yearning to like this book a lot more than I did.
Alas, this book was disorienting and often confusing. It felt like I was missing a prequel book that explained the terms and history, or missing a brief glossary of terms at the beginning. I was yearning to like this book a lot more than I did.
July 21, 2022
What a strange story. Loved the beginning, couldn’t put it down. Then got bored with it. Then it got interesting again. In the end, I didn’t care what happened to any of the characters. I normally enjoy dystopian stories, but found this one to be a bit confusing. Interesting concept, though.
May 23, 2025
Picked this up at a bookstore in NOLA since it was by a local author. Really enjoyed the setting in an alternative history set in the islands that were formerly the gulf coast.
October 25, 2025
Fun premise and relatively good read. Didn’t knock my socks off, but a fun standalone book that does a good job of scene building and has a fun storyline.
May 25, 2016
Perplexing and unsettling, this is an unusual dystopia set in the islands of New Orleans. I have to admit it took me almost a third of the book to begin enjoying it, partially because of confusing and somewhat clunky world-building as well as a main character with few relatable traits. However once the narrative targeted the mystical core at its center, I was hooked. The story, and why I should care about it, made more sense as the main character, Malcolm, became more human and understandable. The last third felt a bit rushed, suddenly dropping clues to new mysteries that were easily solved, as well as a bit of an info dump toward the end, but I expect the strangeness and unexpected profundity of the story to haunt me well into the future.
January 14, 2013
This riveting science fiction novel set in 22nd century "Re-" New Orleans posits an American economy controlled by a single corporation, WELLFI, which sells an expensive Treatment that allows humans to extend their lives indefinitely. Our hero, Malcolm de Lazarus, is a "not yet" trying to secure a trust to fund his Treatment. The plot is masterful, every page filled with suspense; the characters are real and grotesque and full of life; and the descriptions of the ruined New Orleans islands, now half-drowned in a Mississippi River that has changed course, are haunting. Get this book, if you like science fiction, fiction about New Orleans, or even just a good story. Amazing read.
June 17, 2015
This is a science fiction novel set in the future, where the secret of preventing aging has been discovered. The Heirs, those who do not age, are the highest strat in the land, and there are those who aspire to become a part of their group, including Malcolm, who is a Not Yet, on his way to becoming an Heir. The novel is set in what used to be New Orleans, now a group of islands.
This novel had some great moments, but overall, it was choppy and didn't have enough exposition. It felt disjointed and didn't flow as well as I'd hoped, and at times it was confusing. I was left feeling a little lost.
This novel had some great moments, but overall, it was choppy and didn't have enough exposition. It felt disjointed and didn't flow as well as I'd hoped, and at times it was confusing. I was left feeling a little lost.
July 15, 2021
The world-building in this book reminds me of Gene Wolfe, The Long Sun or even Home Fires. A world eerily familiar, and lost, and what's there in it's place is equally foreboding and curious. In the first few pages I was introduced to all of these elements and had to keep turning the page.
Set in a near future, through a compelling story we unveil a scientific breakthrough that has literally changed the face of humankind. Government, religion, education, all of it has turned on the hinge of this discovery and our characters navigate this world with alternating easy, acceptance and discomfort.
But like I said, this reads like some of the best. Highly recommend.
Set in a near future, through a compelling story we unveil a scientific breakthrough that has literally changed the face of humankind. Government, religion, education, all of it has turned on the hinge of this discovery and our characters navigate this world with alternating easy, acceptance and discomfort.
But like I said, this reads like some of the best. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews