Sleeper, Awake

by Bob Rich

Retired film star Flora Fielding was diagnosed with cancer. Her solution: she had herself put into suspended animation, and invested her fortune in cancer research. She expected to return to life in five to ten years -- but is awakened into an utterly different world, 1433 years later. Population is strictly limited to one million, but there is plenty of wealth for everyone. This new world is controlled by an AI called "Artif," whose power derives from implants in the brains of the all the planet's inhabitants. Why has Flora has been awakened now and who has designs for her new existence? Her very life and the control of planet Earth may rest in the answer to that question.

"Vividly written, Sleeper, Awake transports you into a world beyond comprehension, yet he presents it so well, it becomes plausible. Wonderful landscapes, incredible gadgets, love and a touch of poignancy, this book has it all. Like me, if you weren't a Sci-fi fan before, you will be converted after reading this book."
--Barbara Tanner, author of Hannah's Choice

"As a dedicated environmentalist as far back as the 1970s, I found this book refreshing... Rich's portrayal of a new society, its inventions and innovations-all of them designed in harmony with the laws of nature-is nothing short of brilliant. This reader was captivated by the spiritual growth of the protagonists and by the wonderful devices they use in everyday living."
--Florence Byham Weingberg, author of Unrest in Eden

"Sleeper, Awake is an unusual novel, full of clever inventions and the echoes of myths and older customs. The Norse Tree is there in spirit, so are Greek Icarus and the philosophy of the Frontiersman. Rites of passage are alive and well, and teenaged girls are still-well-teenaged girls. The ending is thoroughly satisfying, with the final scene putting the whole novel into a new and amusing perspective."
--Sally Odgers, author of Elysian Dawn

Genres: Science Fiction

254 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Bob Rich, PhD, is a visitor from a faraway galaxy, where he is an historian of horror. So, Earth is his favorite place in the universe. Nowhere else do sentient beings engage in a game of killing non-combatants (war). Nowhere else are child raising practices designed to harm children. And delicious for an historian of horror: nowhere else is the entire global economy designed to destroy its life support system.
Here on Earth, he is disguised as an Australian storyteller, with 20 published books, six of which, and over 40 short stories, have won awards.
He has retired five times so far. He still works as an editor for several small publishers and a steady stream of writers.
Above all, he is a Professional Grandfather. Anyone born since 1993 is his grandchild. Everything he does strives for a survivable future for them, and one worth surviving in. This means environmental and humanitarian activism: an attempt to change a worldwide culture of greed and aggression into one of compassion and cooperation.
When he was 23, a minister of religion told him he was a Buddhist. On checking, he found his philosophy set out in beautiful words. He decided not to sue the Buddha for plagiarism, as an act of metta (lovingkindness).

Reviews

[Fiona McGier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flora Fielding was a famous actress, with multiple divorces due to abusive, uncaring husbands. She then became a canny businesswoman, and created lots of wealth. When she was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, she spent a large chunk of her fortune on having a room built and filled with machinery that would keep her body alive, in stasis, at a very low temperature, until some time in the future when she assumed there would be a cure for cancer. The rest of her money she gave to the most promising cancer researchers. Then she entered stasis to wait.

When she's awoken, it's not just a few years later, as she had expected. Over 1400 years have passed while she slept. There is still no cure for cancer, but for now, she appears to be in remission--probably due to her long sleep. But the world she's now living in has changed dramatically. How?

As infants, everyone has a communications device implanted into their heads, to allow them to interact with Artis, the world-wide computer system that does anything and everything simultaneously, for all of the 1 million inhabitants. The implant also allows each person to "travel" in spirit, to visit others, while their physical body is in place, doing whatever it is they want to do. Some people can manage to be in multiple places at the same time. And the "projection" has physicality to it, so one can make love, or eat, in multiple places at the same time.

The twenty smartest people in the world are the controllers, who are guided by the spirit of Tony, who was an extremely intelligent man born many years earlier, with extreme physical disabilities. The world is patterned on what he wanted it to become. He reasoned that by keeping the population to only 1 million, there would be ample resources for everyone, so no need for want--no hunger, no homelessness, etc. And with no scarcity, people can choose to devote their lives to what interests them, instead of what will make them money. I love this idea.

Men must continuously prove themselves worthy of passing along their genes. All females are on a list--when someone dies, or chooses to "hand-on", (commit suicide), then another baby can be born. The woman at the top of the list gets to choose which man will be the father to that child. So when men are introduced, they immediately list their "credentials," all of their accomplishments, in any field, to prove themselves worthy.

But sexual pleasure has nothing to do with the making of babies. Sex can be shared by anyone, with anyone else--whether actually in person, or via "projections" of one or both participants. There is no marriage anymore. In fact, one of the key plot issues in the book comes from a man who is jealous of other men desiring the woman he had a child with. As is "normal," she rejects him due to his possessive behavior. The author shows his psycho-analytical background when he has Flora research, then provide counseling to the man, to show him the error of his thinking.

This is an interesting view into a possible future for humanity. The cataclysmic events that led to the destruction of the planet's environment, also led to deaths on a massive scale. All people are now varying shades of brown, because to be light-skinned is a danger, when the ozone layer has been destroyed. The planet is hot and tropical everywhere, including both poles. And the author disguises social and environmental commentary with this fictional world.

What didn't I enjoy? The length, for one. I've read books that were much longer, and they seemed to fly by. But this story gets bogged down by endless pages of descriptions of the planet's surface, as a young man and his friend set out on a quest to circumnavigate the world. Yes, it's an interesting depiction of a future earth, but enough with the scenery and weather! And the story-telling was choppy--lots of head-hopping. There were multiple viewpoints in each chapter, with only a heading that had that character's name--and especially at first, I had to keep going back to check on who this person was, and how this person was important to the story. This isn't as easily-done on an e-reader, as it is with a physical book. I enjoyed most of the characters, but the president of the controllers is an arrogant alpha male, no matter how much he's supposed to be a noble nice-guy. And who's to say that males and females would relate to each other better, in this future world? I'm not so sure they would.

And lastly, as to the actual story--there wasn't much of one. It's hinted early on that Flora was resuscitated so that she could speak to the control council, as to what should become of the other 122 "sleepers." But this is only mentioned briefly at the start of the book, then it's ignored until almost the end. So the actual plot is just an excuse to display the author's view of what earth might be like many years in the future. The actual resolution is anti-climactic.

Readers who enjoy speculative fiction, heavy on social and environmental commentary, will probably enjoy this book.

[Gary Swanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Objective Praise:

This shows what Sci-Fi can be. Bending the rules of reality to explore human nature in ways other genres can not. A truly alien and original future has been created for the reader to explore. So often Sci-Fi is just our modern world with a Sci-Fi paint job. The future presented by this story is as different from our modern day as we are from our hunter gatherer ancestors. Not only is there creative technology, but the author shows how it has changed society.

Biased Praise:

The concept of men competing for the right to reproduce has been the reality for most men and male animals throughout time. The author has taken that reality and put it out in the open with structure, effectively making a normal part of life something alien for us to discover and contemplate. It is not just mentioned and forgotten but fully fleshed out and I enjoyed that. The idea of being able to spend all my time and energy planning, preparing and executing dangerous adventures sounds like utopia to me. Danger not your thing? Hang out in your man cave tinkering all day and maybe your next invention will get you laid. The author was also not afraid to explore female hypergamy. It has been said that a woman would rather share a high value man than a have a chump to herself. We are seeing data from western societies today, that when women have absolute control of mating, they tend to share only the top percentage of males. With western marriage in its death throws I have often wondered where this will lead and have not been able to figure it out. Sleeper, Awake presents an interesting concept. I love that about Sci-Fi

Objective Criticism:

A mystery/question/possible conflict is teased in the begging. This is potentially the biggest conflict in the book but it is sidelined right away and the reader is only reminded of it occasionally. Remember that burning question from the begging? Guess what, I still have not answered it. There is even a character who expresses the readers frustration that the issue has continually been put on the back burner.

Biased Criticism:

I need some real conflict. These Characters have rich people problems. Sure, the men have to complete dangerous challenges to impress the ladies but it is kind of like a trust fund baby who takes up BASE jumping. The author said at the end that he intentionally made no villains, everyone is well-intentioned and decent. As a result, there is a lack of variety in that regard.

Things to know before reading:

Multiple perspectives really bother some people, I don’t now why, but they do. There are a lot of perspectives and they change frequently. They are clearly marked but I know this is a non starter for some people.

Sex…it happens. It never gets gratuitous in my opinion and serves the world building. I have no problem watching a spicy scene but for some reason I have never liked reading them. My mind always pictures the author somehow. I am forever scared by a Santa Claus looking George R.R. Martin describing a teenage girls first sexual experience.

The author has beliefs and he makes them clear, as is his right. It is not throughout the hole story and never feels too preachy until a pretty good stand on the soap box at the end. It should not effect your enjoyment, wherever you stand.

There is no villain, even climate change is a villain that turned out to not be all that bad in the end.

[Dr Carl]

Review - Sleeper, Awake, by Bob Rich

It’s been very many years since I read a science fiction book, but I remember that scientist and sci-fi master Isaac Asimov always said that he would not write anything which was not possible within our understanding of science – there had to be a sound underpinning of physics, chemistry and biology to everything he wrote. Bob Rich has followed the same path of scientific integrity.
The basic premise of the book is that Flora Fielding, a fabulously wealthy, beautiful and successful actress is terminally ill with cancer and goes into cryogenic storage, (deep frozen suspended animation), to await the cure that the research she had funded was sure to find within the next few years, allowing her to return to essentially the same world that she suspended and continue with her life and career. When she is finally woken up it is 1433 years later and the world is a very different place, following ‘The Cataclysm’ and subsequent chaos. The Cataclysm happened when geological surveys and climate change combined to cause the Ross Ice Shelf to detach and send a 200m high wave around the world, killing most of the land life and certainly all of that below about 300m above our current sea level. The survivors have built a utopian world, governed by a single council, and with the global population limited to one million – and so strictly that one person has to die before another can be born.
At one level, this is a straightforward sci-fi novel and it is an entertaining and worthwhile read at that level but it is also so much more. Rich introduces ethical dilemmas that have to be considered and resolved by the protagonists; he takes a gentle swipe at our current values, in that the only two sleepers we meet from 1433 years ago are wealthy enough to be frozen, and thereby challenge the mortality faced by every other person on the planet, by either celebrity (Flora) or exploitation of planetary resources (Marcel, the geologist whose explorations led to The Cataclysm); above all else, he leaves us wondering who are the sleepers who need to awake? Are they the apparent subjects of this novel or are they the majority of the population of this planet, who are sleepwalking their way towards global catastrophe by continuing with their usual behaviour in the face of overwhelming evidence of human-caused climate change? Sleepers, Awake!

[Jon Cocks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sleeper, Awake … review by Jon Cocks

Most post-apocalyptic sci-fi novels evince a toxic wasteland infested with hideous blood-sucking mutants. The protagonist battles grimly to protect the few survivors, with death at every turn. In Sleeper, Awake, by Bob Rich, however, cancer-stricken Hollywood star Flora Fielding emerges after fourteen centuries of suspended animation into a high-tech garden of Eden, where Artif, an omniscient, artificially super-intelligent being convenes humankind’s every need.

As Flora begins to acclimatise to her new reality as a pre-Calamity awakened sleeper into a concept-rich future-world of technological perfection, a familiar psychological quandary emerges in the form of old-fashioned jealousy that contravenes a significant 34th Century male-female relationship paradigm.

Rich offers a uniquely-presented perspective of a society unaccustomed to violent emotion having to deal with it, which throws contemporary humanity’s darker urges into sharp relief, adding substance to the story and resonance to its title. 21st century sleepers should awake and accept that violence and greed on a grand scale is ruinous for all. Moreover, raised sea levels, radically altered landscapes and wild super-tropical weather throw the real 21st century climate crisis into sharp relief.

While the plot lacks life-and-death struggle and a definitive romance, the many featured characters all fret and strut their moments. The fun for the reader initially is in conceptually grasping the 34th century linguistic nuances and the many inventively imagined hi-tech time and energy-saver devices. The real strength of the story lies in Rich’s evocation of future imagery and his contemporary warning about the climate crisis and the damage caused by those who lust for wealth and power.

Sleeper, Awake is green science fiction. I am not sure if that is a genre. Maybe it should be one. This work would sit equally as well in sci-fi fan’s bookshelves and on a middle-secondary English curriculum.

[Rhobin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In SLEEPER, AWAKE after the cataclysm that ended life as most people knew it, a new world emerged without waste or hydrocarbons. A world using only natural energies and one with a much lower population. Only one million people are allowed on Earth at any time, and this is controlled by reproductive regulations. Women select the fathers of their children, and men must earn credits to earn status as possible fathers. Much of this was set about by a man named Tony who is revered as a prophet today. Twelve hundred years ago he invented a universal computer, Artif, that serves all of humanity and is overseen by the Control, a group of humans. Artif gives everyone help and guiding advice. The Control also manages who can have children. Tony also invented the implant that is placed in every human. It allows them universal communications. A person can talk to another person thousands of miles away without leaving the home or literally appear in a very realistic image.

Flora Fielding awoke from cryogenic storage hoping a cure for her cancer had developed in the time she was asleep. Instead, she found she was 1433 years in the future. It is now 1312 years after Tony. In her cryogenic space, a ball floats. It announces itself as Artif with the feminine voice that woke her up. Flora learns the world is drastically changed, but after so long in cryogenic sleep, why did the Control finally decide to awaken her?

SLEEPER, AWAKE is a very imaginative, creative, and believable story loaded with ideas on how the world of humans might change to save not only the Earth but also everything living on it. The characters are well portrayed, but even in this utopian future remain very human. It also serves as a strong warning of why we need to promote lifestyle and environmental change.

[John Rosenman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sleeper, Awake belongs to a sub-genre of science fiction in which one or more people are put to sleep, usually for medical reasons, and wake up in the far future to a radically transformed, perhaps even utopian society. As I began this novel, it reminded me briefly of others I had read, such as Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward: 2000–1887, but I soon realized that the author was taking the narrative in a new and imaginatively challenging direction.

Flora Fielding is awakened after over 1400 years asleep and finds herself in a world with a population restricted to only one million. She is the first of 123 terminally or seriously ill sleepers to be restored to consciousness, and she is bombarded by staggering concepts. To name just one, people can now send multiple “images” of themselves to distant locations at the same time and actually interact with people there. Flora, who has terminal cancer, had herself preserved because she hoped to wake up in a society that had a cure. Does it? The answer to this question might surprise some readers.

While Flora’s attempt to cope with her disease and this new environment is fascinating, there are other interesting and sympathetic characters, such as the violent, love-torn Kiril and Tamàs, “a boy on the verge of manhood.” Both go on dangerous, beautifully described “quests” throughout the world in order to acquire status and “credentials” that will enable them to father children. Only a select few males can earn this right, and the women alone have the right to choose the father of their child.

The ending in particular, is unexpected and fully satisfying. I highly recommend Singer, Awake to all readers.

[Michael Muntisov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flora Fielding is dying of cancer. So she puts herself into a cryogenic deep sleep hoping that a cure can be found in the near future. She awakes to a changed world filled with fantastical technical gadgets, and people with different dress and customs who can send projections of themselves to multiple locations at the same time. This future is 1400 years away and the population of earth is controlled strictly to one million.

As Flora receives treatment for her cancer she comes to learn that this is not why she was awoken. The people of this future world awoke her because they want something only she can give. Will she give it?

When author Bob Rich set out to write Sleeper, Awake, he vowed that there would be no villains. And that is true. The only antagonists are pesky emotions like jealousy and regret, however even these are extremely rare in this future world. But be warned, it is no utopia.

There are travelling vacuum balloons high in the stratosphere, a dramatically changed landscape, implants that expand your communication powers, and a Control Council. We follow the wildly dangerous exploits of an adolescent boy and young man. We learn why they feel compelled to undertake such dangerous activities, which seem more relevant to past civilizations than future ones. And I am only scratching the surface of this wondrous world, and how it came to be.

For readers who like science fiction/fantasy and rich world-building, with a moral tale or two thrown in for good measure, Sleeper, Awake is must read.

[Cindy Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a surprise for Flora!
Flora has her body cryogenically sealed until a cure for breast cancer is found. Unfortunately, it seems they didn’t bring her out of it until 1400 years later! Imagine waking into a world where there is no starvation, no homelessness, no wars, no disease, no need for money. Talk about a reality check.

Bob Rich’s well-written, well-constructed world is ordered, with definite rules, like: a population of no more than a million. How they pull this off reminds me of when I raised Alpine dairy goats. We carefully bred them to complement the characteristics considered to be the standard of perfection for the breed. In Sleeper, Awake, no one with physical deformities is allowed to reproduce. Sounds kind of controlling, doesn’t it? But, in this story, the control works very well for the people. As a matter of fact, that’s what they call the group that keeps things flowing smoothly: Control.

Flora navigates her new world amongst a variety of unique characters, all very well developed and one-of-a-kind. The emotion is well done. The dialogue specific to each point of view character. But who are each of these people? What part do they play in Flora’s awakening?

This world is peaceful. The people are well-educated, the children happy. Everyone is healthy. Is this world better than ours? Or an amazing expansion and development of its possibilities?

And why is Flora awakened when she is? Why is she chosen over the 122 others who’d been cryogenically stored in the same way? Not tellin’. You gotta read this to find out.

[Nick Lomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating glimpse of a plausible future

Sleeper, Awake creates a fascinating and possibly utopian world of the future. A thousand years after a vaguely defined global catastrophe humanity is leading a blissful existence with only a million people spread over the planet. Some live on the ground, some on the oceans and some in the sky with their houses supported by balloons. Though physically separated,people are linked through implants and holographic (or similar) image transference, while their lives are controlled by a benign artificial intelligence. Actually, there are a little less than a million people actively living on the planet with the rest made up of sleepers, people from an earlier era who had themselves cryogenically frozen in the hope of future developments allowing them to be cured of otherwise incurable illnesses.

The book is an engrossing read full of psychological insight and one that raises deep questions about what is an ideal society: is a small peaceful, but controlled society better or worse than our own with its many problems and yet bubbling with new ideas and discoveries? More profoundly, can artificial intelligence be fully trusted, can it really stay benign? This is a book that provokes thought and stays with you for a long time after finishing it.

[Trisa Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sci-fi is not a genre I normally read, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Set 1400 years in the future, the technology described in Sleeper, Awake, is totally convincing. This future does somehow not sound far fetched.

I loved the novel way the writer used terms, such as "hand on" when someone dies. The writer is obviously a very wise and spiritual being, it is quite clear in how the whole concept of death and dying is handled. The circle of life as a theme is explored in a very creative way.

I loved the ending!

Well done, Rob Rich!

[Teresa Giglio · Rating 1 out of 5]

All topless, because science

[Su Halfwerk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story takes place in the future, to be more precise 1400 years after the Cataclysm had hit the earth and destroyed it as we know it today. That destruction resulted in the building of a different type of society.
For one thing, sexual disposition, though more relaxed, promotes equality and better chances, people live in synch with the environment, respecting it by using challenges against it to prove their worthiness, homes can be relocated with a thought, and there are no geologically threatening acts that could ruin it, again. People have learnt their lesson. Governments are no more, the planet is governed by Control; a group of people who utilize an intelligent computer named Artif. There are problems of course, the author didn't create a utopian world, but there is one more significant difference; population, all over the earth, is limited to one million, plus the sleepers. Sleepers are people who have been placed in suspended animation in the 21st century until a better future is available for them. They are mainly people with incurable diseases, but there are those who have done it out of vanity.
It was natural that when Flora Fielding was awakened that she assumed a cure was found for cancer. Except that wasn't true; cancer didn't stand a chance before Artif's watchful eye that monitors everyone's health, fertility level, and thoughts.
So why was Flora awakened? To solve a problem of course, but until then, she gets her own implant, learns about this new society where men have to prove their worthiness to women since the women choose who would father their children. Flora also adapts to warmer world, which means almost everyone walks around naked, proud of their natural appearances. Darker color is more beautiful as it complements the change in temperature. Still, Flora's paleness is not held against her. After all, she was a sleeper.
Dr. Rich created a thought provoking world, he took problems and warnings we're facing today, allowed them to bloom, and then offered a solution and an remarkable world to exist in. I managed to glimpse the world from the eyes of a 70 years old woman, a 13 years old boy, and from a newcomer to that world. It was pleasant to be able to view and analyze that reality from several angles.
The book is incredibly creative and it shows the author's knowledge. Needless to say, the book remained with me for a long time, it's a book that makes one ponder life and decisions.

[Web Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suppose you had an incurable and deadly disease. And suppose that technology had advanced so that your body & life force could be preserved until a far future where a cure may have been found. Then suppose you were awakened to a world centuries later only to find that your incurable disease no longer existed and there was no cure because there was no longer any need.
What would that future life become? What relation would you have to those future generations?
Dr. Bob Rich provides some intriguing answers to these story questions and creates an interesting future world with its own set of problems. In this world, technology has advanced beyond imagining, but the consequences of human activity and the nature of human relations remain much the same.
Dr. Rich has written a clear and readable novel. There are some action sequences that seem to go on a bit too long and some characters could have been made more memorable. These minor flaws do not substantially detract from an enjoyable read.