Mortal Remains

by Christopher Evans

A space opera - the plot goes from one end of the solar system to the other, and back again.

Genres: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Christopher D. Evans also writes as Christopher Carpenter, Nathan Elliott, Robert Knight and John Lyon.

See authors with similar names.
Christopher D. Evans was born in 1951 in Tredegar and educated at Cardiff University between 1969–1972, and Swansea University 1973–4. He now lives in South London, where he teaches science full-time at a secondary school. His first novel, Capella’s Golden Eyes, was published in 1980. With Robert Holdstock, he co-edited the Other Edens Series of original science fiction and fantasy anthologies which appeared in the late 1980s. Aztec Century (Gollancz, 1993) won the BSFA Award for Best Novel of 1993 and was runner-up for the Wales Book of the Year Award. Christopher also writes as Christopher Carpenter, Nathan Elliott, Robert Knight and John Lyon.

Reviews

[James Hoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mortal Remains to seems to be one of SF's hidden gems. I had to order my copy from amazon/uk (not that that's any great inconvenience). I guess I was surprised that it couldn't be found in the states as far as I could tell. Has this even been published in the US?

An elaborate world building novel, and a grand tour of a far future solar system dominated by biotek. The worlds of this solar system are beautifully realized. Everything--and I mean virtually EVERYTHING--in this universe is alive. From sentient spaceships, to living homes, even a character's cloak is actually a bioform, engineered and bred to be just that. The novel began with a strong does of this aspect, and it immediately drew me in. What kept me coming back for more was strongly developed characters throughout, and a solid, quick paced plot.

Essentially, there are two factions in this future: one the Noosphere, which preserves people after death and makes them available for consultation through special "shrines". This is the dominant group in the system. The second group is the augmenters, those in favor of physical augmentations to the body. These were apparently persecuted and an attempted purge apparently happened centuries ago. Now they live on the fringe of humanity, many at the edge of the solar system.

I won't go into the plot, because I don't want to give much away, but this little book is more than worth your time. It is excellent.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of high concepts in it - which I am not ashamed to admit were hard going to start with - I guess as a writer you have two choices - you either explain everything with the danger of annoying and possibly insulting the reader or you assume the reader will pick it up as they go along and hope that they do not get frustrated with you, With Mortal Remains the latter appears to be path chosen and I will admit that I struggled to start with but it did slowly start to make sense and then the storyline really got to take off. The book really did get to showcase Christopher Evans range of imagination and I if nothing else enjoyed the book for that alone.
There are not many books by Mr Evans out there but I do know that if I find any of them I will certainly be adding them to my collection when I can

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solar System space opera in which a hidden conflict between the "regular" humans inhabiting the Noospace and communing with the Noosphere souls of the dead - at least the ones that are transfered using special technology - and the exiled and persecuted "augmented" humans, becomes open and hot following the appearance of a mysterious womb.

Inventive and a page turner, with some interesting musings about identity and a superb ending, but not as powerful for me as the author's novel Chimeras since I've read quite a few similar novels.

Still an excellent read overall.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent Space Opera and chase story played out across various planets and moons of the solar system, the object being a mysterious embryo incubating in a self-sustaining egg.

Mortal Remains is set in future society where humans can use surgery and drugs to remain youthful in appearance but have to euthanized when they reach the age of a hundred, then join the Noosphere, where all consciousnesses are held.

My edition has a quote from Iain M. Banks on the inside flyleaf, and the societies here are very much like those of the Culture, with its pleasure principles, bizarre sects, customs and sentient machines (though the AI isn't in control).

A female "expediter", trained to hunt and euthanize citizens trying to escape the hundred years of life rule, even works very much like a Special Circumstances operative.

It's not as dark or full-blooded as Banks, though.

[Eleanor]

I have absolutely no idea why this was on my ebook app; it must have been mentioned in a roundup or list by someone I like and then only cost 99 p, or something. It’s got an arresting first chapter, in which a woman with two husbands (both of whom she’s ambivalent about, one of whom is pregnant via an external womb-pouch) rescues another womb-pouch from a crashed spaceship and finds her family targeted as a result. The unusual family structure stuff doesn’t really go anywhere after that, which was a shame, although I liked the plot’s economical time leaps (a year passes between two chapters; it’s the sort of thing writers seemed to do a lot more in 1995, presumably due to still-prevalent publishing norms about book size and paper cost), the constant presence of biotech (things like cloaks and houses are engineered organisms, which makes for some fun reading), and the villains’ increasingly loose grasp on reality is well conveyed and scary. I liked it, it was not world-changing, it’s worth a read if you come across it.

[Alessandro Carini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buon romanzo cyberpunk, a differenza di molti altri libri del genere la trama "sta insieme" ed è coerente con il mondo costruito dall'autore.

Vale certamente la pena di leggerlo