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Mortals All
Zach was just looking for a novel one-night-stand. Mary was looking for freedom. They found each other.
Mortals All is a unique love story set against a future where economic and social changes have led to the creation of andrones, a caste of artificial persons assigned to Earth's more menial tasks. Mary is one such androne. Zach, meanwhile, is all too human. He's an expert on lust but a novice when it comes to love. Mary goes rogue, and with Zach's help, attempts to aid an underground group of drones. But standing in her way are the police, bounty hunters, a senatorial candidate haunted by a dark secret, and her own evolving humanity. On top of everything else, someone is trying to kill her. It's not long before she discovers Zach is right. Freedom isn't all it's cracked-up to be.
Mortals All is a unique love story set against a future where economic and social changes have led to the creation of andrones, a caste of artificial persons assigned to Earth's more menial tasks. Mary is one such androne. Zach, meanwhile, is all too human. He's an expert on lust but a novice when it comes to love. Mary goes rogue, and with Zach's help, attempts to aid an underground group of drones. But standing in her way are the police, bounty hunters, a senatorial candidate haunted by a dark secret, and her own evolving humanity. On top of everything else, someone is trying to kill her. It's not long before she discovers Zach is right. Freedom isn't all it's cracked-up to be.
248 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2002
8 people want to read
About the author
Bruce Golden
75 books23 followersNovelist, journalist, satirist, Bruce Golden's short stories have been published more than 130 times across 20 countries and in 30 anthologies. Asimov's Science Fiction described his second book, "If Mickey Spillane had collaborated with both Frederik Pohl and Philip K. Dick, he might have produced Bruce Golden's Better Than Chocolate." The same reviewer said of his novel Evergreen, "If you can imagine Ursula Le Guin channeling H. Rider Haggard, you'll have the barest conception of this stirring book, which centers around a mysterious artifact and the people in its thrall. Reminiscent of the work of Robert Silverberg, this planetary romance will introduce lucky readers to a world both magical and spooky, yet ultimately as tangible as your own backyard.” His Dancing with the Velvet Lizard, with 33 stories, is one of the largest collections of speculative fiction ever published. His latest novel, Red Sky, Blue Moon, follows Vikings and Native American Sioux when they're transported to another world by aliens. http://goldentales.tripod.com
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 14, 2024
Well written scifi novel that kept me turning the pages, even if some of the ideas were recycled from older works. Done with a great first person voice using several characters. A taut, sexy, science fiction mystery with Biblical overtones.
February 20, 2011
Mortals All is the first novel by Bruce Golden. He is also the author of subsequent works, including Evergreen, which I will soon be reading.
Mortals All is a well-written story set in a future time when artificial humans, or andrones, are the newest slave class. Created to function as servants for humans, andrones are without rights and deprived of autonomy. Although they are engineered to be servile, some of them long for freedom. Mary 79 is one such androne. Zach is a writer of space novels who meets Mary 79 in a bar. He is looking for a one-night stand, but soon finds himself embroiled in a conflict between the laws of the land and the urgings of his heart. His heart wins out and he tries to help Mary 79. As rogue andrones are customarily pursued and destroyed, the new romance is fraught with danger as Mary 79 tries to connect with others of her kind and avoid being killed. Zach is pulled into the intrigue which puts his safety at risk as well.
Mortals All has a little bit of everything. Along with jabs at religious hypocrisy, the author in his narrative touches on the double-sided treachery of politics and illuminates the kind of mob mentality that condones and fosters oppression of certain classes of people. The parallels to the history of slavery in our nation are inevitable. Yet, Mr. Golden handles all of these issues with the finesse of a real storyteller. The story is well-paced; the world he creates is believable; and the dialogue is natural. The story is told in the first-person by the various characters, each chapter representing a different point of view. The author does an exemplary job of keeping the character dialects and personalities true to form.
I found the book to be engaging, holding my interest up to the final page. And I particularly liked the little surprise at the end that gives the reader a big sigh of relief.
As for the physical book itself, it was professionally bound and formatted. There were very few typographical mishaps, and none that were jarring. I detected no editorial flaws. I liked the novel well enough that I ordered another of this author’s books, and look forward to reading more works by this very talented writer.
Mortals All is a well-written story set in a future time when artificial humans, or andrones, are the newest slave class. Created to function as servants for humans, andrones are without rights and deprived of autonomy. Although they are engineered to be servile, some of them long for freedom. Mary 79 is one such androne. Zach is a writer of space novels who meets Mary 79 in a bar. He is looking for a one-night stand, but soon finds himself embroiled in a conflict between the laws of the land and the urgings of his heart. His heart wins out and he tries to help Mary 79. As rogue andrones are customarily pursued and destroyed, the new romance is fraught with danger as Mary 79 tries to connect with others of her kind and avoid being killed. Zach is pulled into the intrigue which puts his safety at risk as well.
Mortals All has a little bit of everything. Along with jabs at religious hypocrisy, the author in his narrative touches on the double-sided treachery of politics and illuminates the kind of mob mentality that condones and fosters oppression of certain classes of people. The parallels to the history of slavery in our nation are inevitable. Yet, Mr. Golden handles all of these issues with the finesse of a real storyteller. The story is well-paced; the world he creates is believable; and the dialogue is natural. The story is told in the first-person by the various characters, each chapter representing a different point of view. The author does an exemplary job of keeping the character dialects and personalities true to form.
I found the book to be engaging, holding my interest up to the final page. And I particularly liked the little surprise at the end that gives the reader a big sigh of relief.
As for the physical book itself, it was professionally bound and formatted. There were very few typographical mishaps, and none that were jarring. I detected no editorial flaws. I liked the novel well enough that I ordered another of this author’s books, and look forward to reading more works by this very talented writer.
February 20, 2014
The themes of this book have been done before, but at least this is written very well, with a somewhat different use of first person viewpoint, bouncing from character to character.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews