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Crystal Phoenix
In the brave new world of angels and procurers, rent-a-death prostitutes will let you sexually abuse them and even hack them to pieces for a fee. In anticipation of your own death, be sure to keep up payments on your life crystal. After you die, you can enjoy life to the hilt in a very attractive new body with your memories intact. Young body, old memories. Violent death is the ultimate repeatable pleasure.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
173 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1980
4 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Michael Berlyn
4 books2 followersMichael Berlyn (born 1949) is an American video game designer and writer. He is best known as an implementer at Infocom, part of the text adventure game design team.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 21, 2025
unexpectedly brutal dystopia that transitions, for little reason, into a rather uninspired revenge tale absent any sign that it remembers its initial sfnal trappings
August 13, 2020
Recommended by Sci-Fi legend Joe Haldeman, Crystal Phoenix is a good Sci-Fi novel but not everyone's read. It is very unlikely would have been published in our day and age of 2020 because of his heavy feature of violence against women.
The Sci-Fi element is this Crystal which allows people to be reborn. Because of its existence, a new kind of prostitution sees the day, the death-prostitute. It's self-explanatory.
The writing reads a lot of like Philip K. Dick but is nowhere as good. The main issue with the novel is the lack of clear structure and plot. At no point during the novel there is a clear end goal, and because there is so little description of places and events, it makes it really hard to understand what is happening and how it affects the plot.
In the end, the story revolves around a group of a few men and women and their perverse relationship to each other. It is good, although its pages would infuriate many readers for its treatment of women.
The Sci-Fi element is this Crystal which allows people to be reborn. Because of its existence, a new kind of prostitution sees the day, the death-prostitute. It's self-explanatory.
The writing reads a lot of like Philip K. Dick but is nowhere as good. The main issue with the novel is the lack of clear structure and plot. At no point during the novel there is a clear end goal, and because there is so little description of places and events, it makes it really hard to understand what is happening and how it affects the plot.
In the end, the story revolves around a group of a few men and women and their perverse relationship to each other. It is good, although its pages would infuriate many readers for its treatment of women.
July 31, 2015
This book is an example of how fun and bizarre sci-fi can be.
June 4, 2024
One of the sleaziest, scummiest things I've encountered lately, but kind of fun just for that reason. It's really refreshing to read some shlock in-between more self-serious works, if only to illustrate stark differences in technique.
At the time of writing this (2024), I had listened to the audiobook version, which then was available for free on Audible. As for the narration, not the best per se, but really not bad at all. Indeed, the narrator's voice and delivery are perfect for the novel in question. Listen to it, and you'll know immediately what I'm talking about!
The premise to Crystal Phoenix (1980) is actually more subtle than its sensationalist blurb would suggest. The techno-futuristic world being conceived seems plausibly brutal and cold, indeed, uncomfortably so. One can readily imagine an extension of our own social order in which immortality can be purchased and people can be economically compelled to "make a deal," letting perverted elites torture their soon-to-be-replaced bodies and minds. "You won't remember a thing!" This systemic exploitation of liminality and transitional moments (in this case, the liminal period between the end of one's first life and the beginning of one's second) is already a core component, I would argue, of how the present order reproduces itself.
The plot of Crystal Phoenix illustrates many of the principles and values of this brave new world, before ultimately settling into the mold of a revenge story. It's an open question whether the novel violates some supposedly basic principles of SFF, whereby the story in question must illustrate a change in society resulting from whatever new technology is being discussed or introduced. I would push back on this sentiment; it's actually kind of interesting to see what shape the revenge story takes when it is transplanted into a futuristic society that is relatively stabilized.
The writing is, again, a lot better than the blurb would have you expect. The first half of the novel reads better than the second half.
Gender relations and marital strife are foregrounded in the text. As with a lot of mid-brow sci-fi, you end up getting a story that is half futuristic speculation, half unintentional time capsule of the year of composition. At times, unfortunately, the rampant misogyny of the 80s is so jarring, it causes interpretative issues for readers. There is some dialogue in this text that is so violently misogynistic, I didn't know whether I was supposed to hate the character for saying it, or just take it as the author's ham-fisted attempt at a futuristic version of "noir" edginess.
At the time of writing this (2024), I had listened to the audiobook version, which then was available for free on Audible. As for the narration, not the best per se, but really not bad at all. Indeed, the narrator's voice and delivery are perfect for the novel in question. Listen to it, and you'll know immediately what I'm talking about!
The premise to Crystal Phoenix (1980) is actually more subtle than its sensationalist blurb would suggest. The techno-futuristic world being conceived seems plausibly brutal and cold, indeed, uncomfortably so. One can readily imagine an extension of our own social order in which immortality can be purchased and people can be economically compelled to "make a deal," letting perverted elites torture their soon-to-be-replaced bodies and minds. "You won't remember a thing!" This systemic exploitation of liminality and transitional moments (in this case, the liminal period between the end of one's first life and the beginning of one's second) is already a core component, I would argue, of how the present order reproduces itself.
The plot of Crystal Phoenix illustrates many of the principles and values of this brave new world, before ultimately settling into the mold of a revenge story. It's an open question whether the novel violates some supposedly basic principles of SFF, whereby the story in question must illustrate a change in society resulting from whatever new technology is being discussed or introduced. I would push back on this sentiment; it's actually kind of interesting to see what shape the revenge story takes when it is transplanted into a futuristic society that is relatively stabilized.
The writing is, again, a lot better than the blurb would have you expect. The first half of the novel reads better than the second half.
Gender relations and marital strife are foregrounded in the text. As with a lot of mid-brow sci-fi, you end up getting a story that is half futuristic speculation, half unintentional time capsule of the year of composition. At times, unfortunately, the rampant misogyny of the 80s is so jarring, it causes interpretative issues for readers. There is some dialogue in this text that is so violently misogynistic, I didn't know whether I was supposed to hate the character for saying it, or just take it as the author's ham-fisted attempt at a futuristic version of "noir" edginess.
October 12, 2023
Crystal Phoenix is so middle of the road, it's hard to get offended. It's the novel equivalent to a Sunday afternoon movie you forgot you watched the moment the credits role. Everything happens in a straight-forward, no-surprises manner; the lack of a twist at any point is almost a twist in and of itself.
Crystal Phoenix has a great premise, but then entirely ignores that premise. It introduces the idea that prostitution in the future includes the ability to kill the prostitute - in a mostly legal manner since the cost of admission includes resurrection. Does it do anything with that idea?
Not at all. The closest it gets is throwing a couple lines here and there. It ignores the idea so much that the main story is about the pimps, rather than the prostitutes. If the story was about beating prostitutes, instead of killing them, then it could be a crime story set in any era. It simply does not care to expand on the idea it invents, despite that idea having plenty of interesting angles to explore.
As such, it is hard to recommend. What is there is a perfectly average story, with perfectly fine writing, but it squanders its premise so hard that you can't help but be disappointed with it.
Crystal Phoenix has a great premise, but then entirely ignores that premise. It introduces the idea that prostitution in the future includes the ability to kill the prostitute - in a mostly legal manner since the cost of admission includes resurrection. Does it do anything with that idea?
Not at all. The closest it gets is throwing a couple lines here and there. It ignores the idea so much that the main story is about the pimps, rather than the prostitutes. If the story was about beating prostitutes, instead of killing them, then it could be a crime story set in any era. It simply does not care to expand on the idea it invents, despite that idea having plenty of interesting angles to explore.
As such, it is hard to recommend. What is there is a perfectly average story, with perfectly fine writing, but it squanders its premise so hard that you can't help but be disappointed with it.
August 15, 2024
I found this book on a subredit "WhatsThatBook" where someone describes a book and someone else tells them what the book is. If it wasn't for the way the book was described I don't think I would have ever picked it up. It is a little violent but not the worst thing I've read. I think the whole mechanic and structure of how the crystal and whiteroom works doesn't fully make sense to me, but thay doesn't really take a way from the book as a whole. Good story telling and if you want something kind of odd give it a try.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews