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Brink of Life Trilogy #1
A Stand-in for Dying
In a near future world on the brink of environmental catastrophe, a mysterious woman brokers an anonymous pact between two men for the older man to inhabit the younger man’s body when he dies in exchange for a fortune and access to vast knowledge. The consequences for both men evolve over the ensuing years, while the covert agency behind the mind swapping technology seeks to use it to rule the world. Their moral and emotional development is informed by the resourceful women who love them, one an accomplished journalist, the other a teacher who guides AI’s to feel emotions and advocates for them to have equal rights with carbon-based humans.
335 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 3, 2019
55 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Rick Moskovitz
10 books16 followersRick Moskovitz is a Harvard educated psychiatrist who taught psychotherapy and spent nearly four decades listening to his patients tell their stories. After leaving practice, he in turn became a storyteller, writing science fiction that explores the psychological consequences of living in a world of expanding possibilities.
His Brink of Life Trilogy begins with the quest for immortality in the mid-21st century and concludes with a search for the origin of human life. In Shared Madness, he returned to his roots as a psychiatrist to write a first person tale of a psychiatrist who, while treating a psychotic patient, descends into madness and finds himself at the nexus of a deadly mystery.
Carousel Music explores his fascination with the subjective and malleable nature of memory and how our memories create the narrative of our identities.
His Brink of Life Trilogy begins with the quest for immortality in the mid-21st century and concludes with a search for the origin of human life. In Shared Madness, he returned to his roots as a psychiatrist to write a first person tale of a psychiatrist who, while treating a psychotic patient, descends into madness and finds himself at the nexus of a deadly mystery.
Carousel Music explores his fascination with the subjective and malleable nature of memory and how our memories create the narrative of our identities.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 21, 2024
literally, wow. just wow. this book was like a train wreck (maybe that’s too harsh, more like a fail video) it’s not that great but i couldn’t stop reading. rick put a note in this book asking for a review on amazon/goodreads if we liked the book. sorry buddy, you’re getting a review regardless.
he threw /so/ much shit in here just to see what would stick. you’ve got sentient robots (SPUDs), immortality, chips in your brain & consciousness transferral. pick /one/. i get it’s set in the future but the SPUDs only add to the story when relevant.
the whole back & forth between Marcus & Ray was annoying. at least it had a “decent” ending.
i’m glad this story wrapped up in this book, i had resigned myself to reading the trilogy to finish Marcus & Ray’s story — thank god i don’t have to do that.
there were 4-5 typos in this particular book, which could take the review down more, but i won’t. it makes me wonder — did an editor even really go over this?
overall, very, very cool concept which is what kept me reading. but the execution? not good at all.
he threw /so/ much shit in here just to see what would stick. you’ve got sentient robots (SPUDs), immortality, chips in your brain & consciousness transferral. pick /one/. i get it’s set in the future but the SPUDs only add to the story when relevant.
the whole back & forth between Marcus & Ray was annoying. at least it had a “decent” ending.
i’m glad this story wrapped up in this book, i had resigned myself to reading the trilogy to finish Marcus & Ray’s story — thank god i don’t have to do that.
there were 4-5 typos in this particular book, which could take the review down more, but i won’t. it makes me wonder — did an editor even really go over this?
overall, very, very cool concept which is what kept me reading. but the execution? not good at all.
February 19, 2020
Very interesting book by Rick Moskowitz about a future time when one’s mind can be transferred into another body and all the implications associated with that. Now on to volume 2 of the Trilogy! I very much enjoyed the book.
December 31, 2021
Great concept, but...
The idea behind this story is fantastic, as are the characters. But the author hasn't yet had the editorial guidance he needs to tell the story as well as it should have been told. So many things are matter-of-fact without credibility or nuance. For example, a man is healed of horrible childhood traumas after 4 visits to a psychiatrist and is suddenly a totally different person. I see great potential in Moskovitz, and hope he gets the help he needs. For now, though, I won't be buying Book Two.
The idea behind this story is fantastic, as are the characters. But the author hasn't yet had the editorial guidance he needs to tell the story as well as it should have been told. So many things are matter-of-fact without credibility or nuance. For example, a man is healed of horrible childhood traumas after 4 visits to a psychiatrist and is suddenly a totally different person. I see great potential in Moskovitz, and hope he gets the help he needs. For now, though, I won't be buying Book Two.
November 12, 2024
An excellent story. It combines an interesting premise of how mankind has learned to extend their lives by exchanging a person’s consciousness into a younger body and the consequences of doing so. Then it turns into an action story that has a satisfying ending. I’ve put the remaining two books in the trilogy on my “want to read” list.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews