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Surviving Immortality
This is the story of the fountain of youth.
When Kenji Hiroshige discovers a formula that will keep people youthful and healthy for several thousand years, he tells the world he will not divulge his secret until every gun, tank, battleship, and bomb hasbeen destroyed. When the world is free of weapons, everyone can live forever. And then he goes into hiding.
Before he disappears, his son Matt Reece is exposed to the formula. Kenji takes Matt Reece on the run with him, but as they struggle to elude both government agencies and corporations who will do anything to profit from Kenji’s discovery, Matt Reece learns that world peace might not be his father’s only goal. But what can a young man who’s barely stepped foot off his isolated ranch do in the face of something so sinister?
This is the story of human greed and the lust for violence. It’s the story of a world on the brink of destruction, but it’s also a tale of one young man who finds in himself the will, courage, and compassion to stand against the darkness—both outside and within himself.
This is a story of hope.
When Kenji Hiroshige discovers a formula that will keep people youthful and healthy for several thousand years, he tells the world he will not divulge his secret until every gun, tank, battleship, and bomb hasbeen destroyed. When the world is free of weapons, everyone can live forever. And then he goes into hiding.
Before he disappears, his son Matt Reece is exposed to the formula. Kenji takes Matt Reece on the run with him, but as they struggle to elude both government agencies and corporations who will do anything to profit from Kenji’s discovery, Matt Reece learns that world peace might not be his father’s only goal. But what can a young man who’s barely stepped foot off his isolated ranch do in the face of something so sinister?
This is the story of human greed and the lust for violence. It’s the story of a world on the brink of destruction, but it’s also a tale of one young man who finds in himself the will, courage, and compassion to stand against the darkness—both outside and within himself.
This is a story of hope.
- GenresScience Fiction
446 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 5, 2018
5 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Alan Chin
12 books97 followersAlan Chin was born in Ogden, Utah, where he was christened, Alan Lewis Hurlburt. He was raised in San Jose, California where he enjoyed an undistinguished childhood. After graduating high school, Alan served four years in the U.S. Navy where he learned and practiced the trade of aircraft mechanic while stationed at the naval air station in Kingsville, Texas.
Alan attended four years of night school at San Francisco State University, studying the field of Data Processing. Afterwards he enjoyed a twenty year career working his way from computer programmer, to software engineer, to network designer, and finally to manager of several software engineer development groups.
In 1991, while still working full time, Alan went back to night school and years later graduated from the University of San Francisco with a BS in Economics and a Masters in Creative Writing.
In 1999, Alan retired from his career in Information Technology to devote more time to his three hobbies: writing, traveling, and tennis. During that same timeframe, Alan legally changed his name to Alan Chin, so that he could share the same family name as his life partner, Herman Chin.
Alan turned serious about his writing in 2003, and began working on his first novel, Island Song. He has now published two novel with Zumaya Publications - Island Song and The Lonely War. He is currently searching for a publisher fr his 3rd novel, while writing a 4th novel and two screenplays.
Alan currently lives and writes half of each year at his home in San Rafael, California, and he spends the other half of each year traveling the globe.
You can learn more about Alan Chin and his writing at: http://AlanChinWriter.blogspot.com or about his travels at his travel blog: http://HermanAndAlan.blogspot.com
Alan attended four years of night school at San Francisco State University, studying the field of Data Processing. Afterwards he enjoyed a twenty year career working his way from computer programmer, to software engineer, to network designer, and finally to manager of several software engineer development groups.
In 1991, while still working full time, Alan went back to night school and years later graduated from the University of San Francisco with a BS in Economics and a Masters in Creative Writing.
In 1999, Alan retired from his career in Information Technology to devote more time to his three hobbies: writing, traveling, and tennis. During that same timeframe, Alan legally changed his name to Alan Chin, so that he could share the same family name as his life partner, Herman Chin.
Alan turned serious about his writing in 2003, and began working on his first novel, Island Song. He has now published two novel with Zumaya Publications - Island Song and The Lonely War. He is currently searching for a publisher fr his 3rd novel, while writing a 4th novel and two screenplays.
Alan currently lives and writes half of each year at his home in San Rafael, California, and he spends the other half of each year traveling the globe.
You can learn more about Alan Chin and his writing at: http://AlanChinWriter.blogspot.com or about his travels at his travel blog: http://HermanAndAlan.blogspot.com
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 6, 2018
A Joyfully Jay review.
3 stars
I am going to describe what I didn’t like about the book first and follow up with what I did like later. Oddly, the most egregious points all occurred toward the final quarter (last 100 pages) of the book. Every page left me wondering if I cared enough about the story to finish (I did—it wasn’t quite a hate read, but I was not getting any pleasure from the pages). A huge part of this I think stems from Chin’s failure to wind the story down. On the one hand, having an unrelenting escalation helps build tension and expectation. On the other hand, it left no real sense of finality and Chin fails to explore any aftermath with any of the characters—after all the dystopian conspiracy theory driven threads, it would have been great to have spent a bit of time seeing the characters go through introspection or readjust to the new world order.
Read Camille’s review in its entirety here.
3 stars
I am going to describe what I didn’t like about the book first and follow up with what I did like later. Oddly, the most egregious points all occurred toward the final quarter (last 100 pages) of the book. Every page left me wondering if I cared enough about the story to finish (I did—it wasn’t quite a hate read, but I was not getting any pleasure from the pages). A huge part of this I think stems from Chin’s failure to wind the story down. On the one hand, having an unrelenting escalation helps build tension and expectation. On the other hand, it left no real sense of finality and Chin fails to explore any aftermath with any of the characters—after all the dystopian conspiracy theory driven threads, it would have been great to have spent a bit of time seeing the characters go through introspection or readjust to the new world order.
Read Camille’s review in its entirety here.
August 20, 2018
~ 3.5 Stars ~
In the aptly titled Surviving Immortality, Alan Chin discusses human nature, western capitalism, the status quo of political corruption, extremism, overpopulation and in the midst of a world sliding into chaos, a coming of age tale in which the young man seems only marginally successful. The MC, Matt Reece, is an eighteen-year-old growing up on a ranch in Nevada. Having a shy disposition, an abhorrence of violence and a gay father in a rural community, Matt Reece is bullied and beaten so often and badly that he was eventually pulled from school. This isolation is only compounded when his older brother, Patrick, goes away to college, leaving Matt Reece with only his panic attacks, his fathers, his dying grandfather and dying dog, Groucho.
Knowing that his increasing sense of loneliness will only sharpen upon losing his grandfather and lifelong companion and also longing to experience the world and romantic love, Matt Reece makes a plea to leave the ranch that is brushed aside by his father. In an act of kindness, his stepfather, Kenji, uses a secret technology to heal Groucho, unaware that Matt Reece observed him. When Matt Reece uses this technology to save his grandfather, he exposes himself as well and is spirited away by Kenji into a crash course on surviving his newfound immortality. For while being immortal means his body is immune to natural decay and disease, it is not immune to the natural cruelty, violence and destructiveness of man.
The book has two distinct arcs that fully converge at about 90%; one follows a large cast of characters and the ramifications of Kenji’s pronouncement on the world, and the other follows Matt Reece. While, the book has an interesting premise and the action, political machinations and the quickly escalating dystopian response are interesting, for me, the book’s main shortcoming was Matt Reece’s journey. Matt Reece is young and uncertain of who he is, and was just beginning to desire freedom from the safety and seclusion of the ranch when he is swept away by Kenji. So for a time, it makes sense that he goes along rather passively, alternately embracing the change in his circumstances to bemoaning his fate, and following unquestionably behind Kenji even when he has doubts.
Unfortunately, this never really changes, and his character is dragged along like a passenger is his own story. Although the author wasn’t speaking about Matt Reece, he offers a description of this shortcoming that describes Matt Reece perfectly—“so mentally weak he emotionally caved into acceptance”. Although the narrative refers to his growth, there is not much evidence of that in the story. Even when he finally does something proactive around 50% into the book, after this bit of rebellion, he quickly goes back to the same staples we saw at the beginning: cooking, chores, quietly doing what he’s told and waiting for his next command. Although to be fair, his growing resentment and anger towards Kenji indeed progresses. When Matt Reece’s character does finally gain a bit more depth and development, it’s done in such a way that actually robs Matt Reece of the agency and growth it represents.
Choosing to have Matt Reese’s arc in the first part be as isolated as his life on the ranch is a compelling choice in theory. Matt Reece thought being out in the world would give him freedom, choices and opportunities to engage with others. Instead, he is just as isolated, in more danger and more aware of how his mental state and shortcomings keep him from moving forward, illustrating how a substantial amount of the freedom people need for personal growth is reliant more on the internal than the external. It also provides an interesting contrast to the chaos in the rest of the world. However, having Matt Reece remain relatively underdeveloped and almost static in his behavior, going from pining for his dying grandfather and dog, pining for his brother to pining for his lost love, but seeming not to do much else except being impotently angry despite the narrative telling the reader he has “learned much about himself” makes it hard to engage with him. Not only is there so much going on in the world from which Matt Reece is isolated, and his lack of notable growth, the book is full of other characters whose development or story participation is much better.
Besides my inability to find anything compelling about Matt Reece as an MC, the story suffers a bit with some of its dialogue/conversations being particularly stilted and sometimes dubious. There is the impression that Alan Chin is trying to convey something profound in these interactions in as few words as possible that does not always hit the mark, especially compared to his impressive descriptive prose. However, as a whole, Surviving Immortality is interesting, not afraid to take chances and make bold choices, and has science that is not so overly complicated that it alienates the causal sci-fi reader or so ridiculously farfetched in a real world setting that it completely infuriates a sci-fi lover.
Reviewed by Jovan for The Novel Approach
In the aptly titled Surviving Immortality, Alan Chin discusses human nature, western capitalism, the status quo of political corruption, extremism, overpopulation and in the midst of a world sliding into chaos, a coming of age tale in which the young man seems only marginally successful. The MC, Matt Reece, is an eighteen-year-old growing up on a ranch in Nevada. Having a shy disposition, an abhorrence of violence and a gay father in a rural community, Matt Reece is bullied and beaten so often and badly that he was eventually pulled from school. This isolation is only compounded when his older brother, Patrick, goes away to college, leaving Matt Reece with only his panic attacks, his fathers, his dying grandfather and dying dog, Groucho.
Knowing that his increasing sense of loneliness will only sharpen upon losing his grandfather and lifelong companion and also longing to experience the world and romantic love, Matt Reece makes a plea to leave the ranch that is brushed aside by his father. In an act of kindness, his stepfather, Kenji, uses a secret technology to heal Groucho, unaware that Matt Reece observed him. When Matt Reece uses this technology to save his grandfather, he exposes himself as well and is spirited away by Kenji into a crash course on surviving his newfound immortality. For while being immortal means his body is immune to natural decay and disease, it is not immune to the natural cruelty, violence and destructiveness of man.
The book has two distinct arcs that fully converge at about 90%; one follows a large cast of characters and the ramifications of Kenji’s pronouncement on the world, and the other follows Matt Reece. While, the book has an interesting premise and the action, political machinations and the quickly escalating dystopian response are interesting, for me, the book’s main shortcoming was Matt Reece’s journey. Matt Reece is young and uncertain of who he is, and was just beginning to desire freedom from the safety and seclusion of the ranch when he is swept away by Kenji. So for a time, it makes sense that he goes along rather passively, alternately embracing the change in his circumstances to bemoaning his fate, and following unquestionably behind Kenji even when he has doubts.
Unfortunately, this never really changes, and his character is dragged along like a passenger is his own story. Although the author wasn’t speaking about Matt Reece, he offers a description of this shortcoming that describes Matt Reece perfectly—“so mentally weak he emotionally caved into acceptance”. Although the narrative refers to his growth, there is not much evidence of that in the story. Even when he finally does something proactive around 50% into the book, after this bit of rebellion, he quickly goes back to the same staples we saw at the beginning: cooking, chores, quietly doing what he’s told and waiting for his next command. Although to be fair, his growing resentment and anger towards Kenji indeed progresses. When Matt Reece’s character does finally gain a bit more depth and development, it’s done in such a way that actually robs Matt Reece of the agency and growth it represents.
Choosing to have Matt Reese’s arc in the first part be as isolated as his life on the ranch is a compelling choice in theory. Matt Reece thought being out in the world would give him freedom, choices and opportunities to engage with others. Instead, he is just as isolated, in more danger and more aware of how his mental state and shortcomings keep him from moving forward, illustrating how a substantial amount of the freedom people need for personal growth is reliant more on the internal than the external. It also provides an interesting contrast to the chaos in the rest of the world. However, having Matt Reece remain relatively underdeveloped and almost static in his behavior, going from pining for his dying grandfather and dog, pining for his brother to pining for his lost love, but seeming not to do much else except being impotently angry despite the narrative telling the reader he has “learned much about himself” makes it hard to engage with him. Not only is there so much going on in the world from which Matt Reece is isolated, and his lack of notable growth, the book is full of other characters whose development or story participation is much better.
Besides my inability to find anything compelling about Matt Reece as an MC, the story suffers a bit with some of its dialogue/conversations being particularly stilted and sometimes dubious. There is the impression that Alan Chin is trying to convey something profound in these interactions in as few words as possible that does not always hit the mark, especially compared to his impressive descriptive prose. However, as a whole, Surviving Immortality is interesting, not afraid to take chances and make bold choices, and has science that is not so overly complicated that it alienates the causal sci-fi reader or so ridiculously farfetched in a real world setting that it completely infuriates a sci-fi lover.
Reviewed by Jovan for The Novel Approach
June 7, 2018
At first glance the title sounds like a contradiction because immortality, by definition, means survival. And maybe it does on a purely physical level for each individual, but for humanity as a whole? It would require entirely different survival strategies than the ones we have developed over the millennia since we stopped living on trees. Immortality, for humans so far, is a philosophical construct. Its consequences, beyond what it might mean for an individual, are hard to imagine – and Alan Chin does a good job of speculating about the effects it might have. Religion might cease to exist since no fear of death means no need for an afterlife so no more funding for any religious organization. The pharmaceutical industry would be gone overnight. The medical profession – wiped out except for a few doctors needed for occasional reapplication of the formula. And what about the threat of overpopulation with everyone surviving? It requires a lot of imagination to think through the effects of immortality on humanity, and Alan Chin has done an amazing job at presenting one possible scenario. He takes a kernel of (unproven but not impossible) science as a catalyst that explains how the formula for immortality is discovered, uses a range of characters to illustrate various possible reactions, and spins a tale that includes murder, secrets, deception, betrayal, and more twists and turns than should be legal in one novel. The resulting story is breathtakingly spellbinding, to say the least.
Please find my full review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
Please find my full review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
August 5, 2018
Powerfully fast-moving with now-relevancy
I know I can rely on a good read whenever I open a book by Alan Chin; and Surviving Immortality is no exception, except it is exceptional. With a believable spark, Mr. Chin presents us with a world devouring itself when promise has given it its greatest loss for hope. All the inchoate faults of humanity, ready today to strike our civilization to the core, leeches out when confronted by a mind shattering development and a simple, lethal condition. Surviving Immortality is masterfully rendered into a work long lingering after the last pages.
The characters are complex, each with their own demon, but honest to their convictions; so much so, there are no heroes, and those who appear villainous can be redeemed by their good intentions. The main thread of the story his told through Matt Reece’s point of view, although all the characters get their turn; but it is Matt’s intense purity, a purity despoiled by circumstances, which unfolds like a night flower in moonlight. Alan Chin crafts an action adventure and psychological political philosophical tale, if there could be such a genre, keeping the pages turning until those pages disappear and time is lost. The elements in the work, and those effecting Matt Reece, are all about us today just waiting for the spark to ignite them. Mr. Chin strikes that spark.
I am a fan of Alan Chin’s other works, but this one combines all the signature touches of them all — ranch life, storms at sea, tropical islands, police procedural, Buddhism, sexuality and a lust for travel. He even includes doffs to his latest wanderlust — Machu Picchu. The world he presents is his world as much as our world. The arguments are current ones, and I’ll not spoil your read by mentioning them, but whatever opinions you have on those topics, Surviving Immortality will not fail to engage you, even if you wind up talking to your night light at midnight in bed.
Needless to say (but I will say it), I highly recommend this book if you enjoy a powerful fast-moving work with now-relevancy from a major author who contributes to our contemporary literary legacy.
I know I can rely on a good read whenever I open a book by Alan Chin; and Surviving Immortality is no exception, except it is exceptional. With a believable spark, Mr. Chin presents us with a world devouring itself when promise has given it its greatest loss for hope. All the inchoate faults of humanity, ready today to strike our civilization to the core, leeches out when confronted by a mind shattering development and a simple, lethal condition. Surviving Immortality is masterfully rendered into a work long lingering after the last pages.
The characters are complex, each with their own demon, but honest to their convictions; so much so, there are no heroes, and those who appear villainous can be redeemed by their good intentions. The main thread of the story his told through Matt Reece’s point of view, although all the characters get their turn; but it is Matt’s intense purity, a purity despoiled by circumstances, which unfolds like a night flower in moonlight. Alan Chin crafts an action adventure and psychological political philosophical tale, if there could be such a genre, keeping the pages turning until those pages disappear and time is lost. The elements in the work, and those effecting Matt Reece, are all about us today just waiting for the spark to ignite them. Mr. Chin strikes that spark.
I am a fan of Alan Chin’s other works, but this one combines all the signature touches of them all — ranch life, storms at sea, tropical islands, police procedural, Buddhism, sexuality and a lust for travel. He even includes doffs to his latest wanderlust — Machu Picchu. The world he presents is his world as much as our world. The arguments are current ones, and I’ll not spoil your read by mentioning them, but whatever opinions you have on those topics, Surviving Immortality will not fail to engage you, even if you wind up talking to your night light at midnight in bed.
Needless to say (but I will say it), I highly recommend this book if you enjoy a powerful fast-moving work with now-relevancy from a major author who contributes to our contemporary literary legacy.
July 1, 2018
A Propulsive, Suspenseful, Dystopian Novel: Surviving Immortality
Surviving Immortality—a provocative title (an oxymoron?) that raises a myriad of questions, chiefly: How can someone survive immortality if one is already immortal, i.e., there is inherently no need to survive if a person already will live forever? How can the state of immortality exist? What would create such a state? As I approached Alan Chin’s new book, these were my initial thoughts.
The novel is a cautionary tale about how society and, indeed, our civilization has been poisoned by people’s need “to convince themselves that they are relevant in an irrelevant universe.” Chin cites three pernicious threats that are destroying us: Religion: “The myth of God and a hereafter [that] gives [people] a false sense of importance.” Greed: “the idea that we are what we own…that gluttonous pigs want not only the best of everything…but they don’t want others to have what they’ve got.” The third is that “people [are] willing to defend themselves and their cause at all costs. Their sense of heroism gives them relevance. They have a deep distrust of governments, other religions, and other tribes.” In our present times, these insidious menaces are eating at the fabric of our humanity, eroding our democracy, our belief in truth, our feelings of empathy, our trust and morality, and our system of justice and government. Surviving Immortality is a serious warning about where the human race is headed and a very relevant one.
Although the book deals with weighty themes and edges into the category of dystopian fiction, it is primarily a fast-paced thriller wrapped around a coming-of-age story about Matt Reece Connors, an eighteen-year-old boy who, over the course of events, becomes a man. The beginning chapter sets us on a ranch in Nevada. Matt Reece is a fine horseman and cowboy who lives with his father, Jessup, and his stepfather, Kenji—the two are married. Matt Reece himself is gay, though without any sexual experience. At first, the reader may expect that a western—perhaps in the mold of Brokeback Mountain—is about to unfold. Then, suddenly, as we are settling in to life on the ranch, a tornado of events engulfs Matt Reece, and he is forced to rush headlong into a journey that takes him to multiple exotic places and thrusts him up against a cast of villains who embody all that is wrong with our world.
Alan Chin writes with an impressive knowledge of science, medicine, technology, sailing, horsemanship, and also masterfully describes numerous national and international locations. The action is propulsive and suspenseful, yet never loses sight of Matt Reece’s personal challenges: his quest to overcome his fears and to find his identity.
Surviving Immortality—a provocative title (an oxymoron?) that raises a myriad of questions, chiefly: How can someone survive immortality if one is already immortal, i.e., there is inherently no need to survive if a person already will live forever? How can the state of immortality exist? What would create such a state? As I approached Alan Chin’s new book, these were my initial thoughts.
The novel is a cautionary tale about how society and, indeed, our civilization has been poisoned by people’s need “to convince themselves that they are relevant in an irrelevant universe.” Chin cites three pernicious threats that are destroying us: Religion: “The myth of God and a hereafter [that] gives [people] a false sense of importance.” Greed: “the idea that we are what we own…that gluttonous pigs want not only the best of everything…but they don’t want others to have what they’ve got.” The third is that “people [are] willing to defend themselves and their cause at all costs. Their sense of heroism gives them relevance. They have a deep distrust of governments, other religions, and other tribes.” In our present times, these insidious menaces are eating at the fabric of our humanity, eroding our democracy, our belief in truth, our feelings of empathy, our trust and morality, and our system of justice and government. Surviving Immortality is a serious warning about where the human race is headed and a very relevant one.
Although the book deals with weighty themes and edges into the category of dystopian fiction, it is primarily a fast-paced thriller wrapped around a coming-of-age story about Matt Reece Connors, an eighteen-year-old boy who, over the course of events, becomes a man. The beginning chapter sets us on a ranch in Nevada. Matt Reece is a fine horseman and cowboy who lives with his father, Jessup, and his stepfather, Kenji—the two are married. Matt Reece himself is gay, though without any sexual experience. At first, the reader may expect that a western—perhaps in the mold of Brokeback Mountain—is about to unfold. Then, suddenly, as we are settling in to life on the ranch, a tornado of events engulfs Matt Reece, and he is forced to rush headlong into a journey that takes him to multiple exotic places and thrusts him up against a cast of villains who embody all that is wrong with our world.
Alan Chin writes with an impressive knowledge of science, medicine, technology, sailing, horsemanship, and also masterfully describes numerous national and international locations. The action is propulsive and suspenseful, yet never loses sight of Matt Reece’s personal challenges: his quest to overcome his fears and to find his identity.
July 19, 2018
3.5
In the aptly titled Surviving Immortality, Alan Chin discusses human nature, western capitalism, the status quo of political corruption, extremism, overpopulation and in the midst of a world sliding into chaos, a coming of age tale in which the young man seems only marginally successful. The MC, Matt Reece, is an eighteen-year-old growing up on a ranch in Nevada. Having a shy disposition, an abhorrence of violence and a gay father in a rural community, Matt Reece is bullied and beaten so often and badly that he was eventually pulled from school. This isolation is only compounded when his older brother, Patrick, goes away to college, leaving Matt Reece with only his panic attacks, his fathers, his dying grandfather and dying dog, Groucho.
Knowing that his increasing sense of loneliness will only sharpen upon losing his grandfather and lifelong companion and also longing to experience the world and romantic love, Matt Reece makes a plea to leave the ranch that is brushed aside by his father. In an act of kindness, his stepfather, Kenji, uses a secret technology to heal Groucho, unaware that Matt Reece observed him. When Matt Reece uses this technology to save his grandfather, he exposes himself as well and is spirited away by Kenji into a crash course on surviving his newfound immortality. For while being immortal means his body is immune to natural decay and disease, it is not immune to the natural cruelty, violence and destructiveness of man.
The book has two distinct arcs that fully converge at about 90%; one follows a large cast of characters and the ramifications of Kenji’s pronouncement on the world, and the other follows Matt Reece. While, the book has an interesting premise and the action, political machinations and the quickly escalating dystopian response are interesting, for me, the book’s main shortcoming was Matt Reece’s journey. Matt Reece is young and uncertain of who he is, and was just beginning to desire freedom from the safety and seclusion of the ranch when he is swept away by Kenji. So for a time, it makes sense that he goes along rather passively, alternately embracing the change in his circumstances to bemoaning his fate, and following unquestionably behind Kenji even when he has doubts.
Unfortunately, this never really changes, and his character is dragged along like a passenger is his own story. Although the author wasn’t speaking about Matt Reece, he offers a description of this shortcoming that describes Matt Reece perfectly—“so mentally weak he emotionally caved into acceptance”. Although the narrative refers to his growth, there is not much evidence of that in the story. Even when he finally does something proactive around 50% into the book, after this bit of rebellion, he quickly goes back to the same staples we saw at the beginning: cooking, chores, quietly doing what he’s told and waiting for his next command. Although to be fair, his growing resentment and anger towards Kenji indeed progresses. When Matt Reece’s character does finally gain a bit more depth and development, it’s done in such a way that actually robs Matt Reece of the agency and growth it represents.
Choosing to have Matt Reese’s arc in the first part be as isolated as his life on the ranch is a compelling choice in theory. Matt Reece thought being out in the world would give him freedom, choices and opportunities to engage with others. Instead, he is just as isolated, in more danger and more aware of how his mental state and shortcomings keep him from moving forward, illustrating how a substantial amount of the freedom people need for personal growth is reliant more on the internal than the external. It also provides an interesting contrast to the chaos in the rest of the world. However, having Matt Reece remain relatively underdeveloped and almost static in his behavior, going from pining for his dying grandfather and dog, pining for his brother to pining for his lost love, but seeming not to do much else except being impotently angry despite the narrative telling the reader he has “learned much about himself” makes it hard to engage with him. Not only is there so much going on in the world from which Matt Reece is isolated, and his lack of notable growth, the book is full of other characters whose development or story participation is much better.
Besides my inability to find anything compelling about Matt Reece as an MC, the story suffers a bit with some of its dialogue/conversations being particularly stilted and sometimes dubious. There is the impression that Alan Chin is trying to convey something profound in these interactions in as few words as possible that does not always hit the mark, especially compared to his impressive descriptive prose. However, as a whole, Surviving Immortality is interesting, not afraid to take chances and make bold choices, and has science that is not so overly complicated that it alienates the causal sci-fi reader or so ridiculously farfetched in a real world setting that it completely infuriates a sci-fi lover.
The Novel Approach Reviews
In the aptly titled Surviving Immortality, Alan Chin discusses human nature, western capitalism, the status quo of political corruption, extremism, overpopulation and in the midst of a world sliding into chaos, a coming of age tale in which the young man seems only marginally successful. The MC, Matt Reece, is an eighteen-year-old growing up on a ranch in Nevada. Having a shy disposition, an abhorrence of violence and a gay father in a rural community, Matt Reece is bullied and beaten so often and badly that he was eventually pulled from school. This isolation is only compounded when his older brother, Patrick, goes away to college, leaving Matt Reece with only his panic attacks, his fathers, his dying grandfather and dying dog, Groucho.
Knowing that his increasing sense of loneliness will only sharpen upon losing his grandfather and lifelong companion and also longing to experience the world and romantic love, Matt Reece makes a plea to leave the ranch that is brushed aside by his father. In an act of kindness, his stepfather, Kenji, uses a secret technology to heal Groucho, unaware that Matt Reece observed him. When Matt Reece uses this technology to save his grandfather, he exposes himself as well and is spirited away by Kenji into a crash course on surviving his newfound immortality. For while being immortal means his body is immune to natural decay and disease, it is not immune to the natural cruelty, violence and destructiveness of man.
The book has two distinct arcs that fully converge at about 90%; one follows a large cast of characters and the ramifications of Kenji’s pronouncement on the world, and the other follows Matt Reece. While, the book has an interesting premise and the action, political machinations and the quickly escalating dystopian response are interesting, for me, the book’s main shortcoming was Matt Reece’s journey. Matt Reece is young and uncertain of who he is, and was just beginning to desire freedom from the safety and seclusion of the ranch when he is swept away by Kenji. So for a time, it makes sense that he goes along rather passively, alternately embracing the change in his circumstances to bemoaning his fate, and following unquestionably behind Kenji even when he has doubts.
Unfortunately, this never really changes, and his character is dragged along like a passenger is his own story. Although the author wasn’t speaking about Matt Reece, he offers a description of this shortcoming that describes Matt Reece perfectly—“so mentally weak he emotionally caved into acceptance”. Although the narrative refers to his growth, there is not much evidence of that in the story. Even when he finally does something proactive around 50% into the book, after this bit of rebellion, he quickly goes back to the same staples we saw at the beginning: cooking, chores, quietly doing what he’s told and waiting for his next command. Although to be fair, his growing resentment and anger towards Kenji indeed progresses. When Matt Reece’s character does finally gain a bit more depth and development, it’s done in such a way that actually robs Matt Reece of the agency and growth it represents.
Choosing to have Matt Reese’s arc in the first part be as isolated as his life on the ranch is a compelling choice in theory. Matt Reece thought being out in the world would give him freedom, choices and opportunities to engage with others. Instead, he is just as isolated, in more danger and more aware of how his mental state and shortcomings keep him from moving forward, illustrating how a substantial amount of the freedom people need for personal growth is reliant more on the internal than the external. It also provides an interesting contrast to the chaos in the rest of the world. However, having Matt Reece remain relatively underdeveloped and almost static in his behavior, going from pining for his dying grandfather and dog, pining for his brother to pining for his lost love, but seeming not to do much else except being impotently angry despite the narrative telling the reader he has “learned much about himself” makes it hard to engage with him. Not only is there so much going on in the world from which Matt Reece is isolated, and his lack of notable growth, the book is full of other characters whose development or story participation is much better.
Besides my inability to find anything compelling about Matt Reece as an MC, the story suffers a bit with some of its dialogue/conversations being particularly stilted and sometimes dubious. There is the impression that Alan Chin is trying to convey something profound in these interactions in as few words as possible that does not always hit the mark, especially compared to his impressive descriptive prose. However, as a whole, Surviving Immortality is interesting, not afraid to take chances and make bold choices, and has science that is not so overly complicated that it alienates the causal sci-fi reader or so ridiculously farfetched in a real world setting that it completely infuriates a sci-fi lover.
The Novel Approach Reviews
August 2, 2018
Amazing book, though disappointed that Kenji didn't get the death penalty. Was sad that Patrick and the girl were killed. Overall great book!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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