Review by Booklist Review
In a not-too-distant future, a breakthrough cure for aging is discovered. Almost overnight the defining societal conflict becomes whether to live life out and die naturally or remain at the same age in perpetuity, rendering obsolete fundamental notions such as 401Ks and 'til death do us part. Witness to it all is John Farrell, who maintains decades of blog entries as he gets the cure, outlives the people he loves, and becomes an end specialist (a government-sponsored grim reaper). Magary's relaxed, conversational style (honed as a popular sports blogger) and pragmatic assessment of the warty idiocy that is the most likely outcome of humanity figuring out how to immortalize itself make the premise remarkably easy to swallow. The what if musings that dominate the first part of the book gradually gather enough steam for a surprising but not unwelcome action-movie stretch run. It's nearly impossible not to read this smart speculative novel and imagine how your own little chunk of the world might fall to pieces given the chance to live forever. Hint: it won't end well.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The "postmortals" of the title of this debut novel, set in the near future, have voluntarily undertaken "the cure," a form of gene therapy that bestows eternal youth although not immortality: recipients can still die of disease or be killed. But as narrator John Farrell explains, taking the cure is a way of sitting "in immortality's waiting room." An odd mixture of satire and dystopian fantasy, this thoughtful novel cleverly explores the consequences of having a long-term lease on life, from the mundane (a woman realizes "I'm always gonna get my period") to the profound (the world's resources exhausted by an ever-growing population) through a series of short, date-stamped blog posts found in 2090 and considered "one of the definitive personal records of life in the former United States" during the 60 years after the cure was discovered. The premise is fascinating, and Magary, a comic sports blogger and satirist (Men with Balls), has an eye for the odd, surprising detail that makes science fiction credible. The plot, though, is little more than an extended exploration of the ramifications of the cure, none of them pleasant. While there's a certain pleasure in watching this brave new world unfold on the page, the narrator's passivity becomes tiresome, and the dry, ironic tone is at odds with the dark vision of a future gone amok. (Aug. 30) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In the year 2019, the cure for aging is discovered, and this clears the way for "postmortalism"-humans who will not grow old, although they can still contract disease, get hit by a bus, or die from other, less-than-natural causes. Soon it becomes clear that eternal youth has its own problems, including pro-death terrorists, shrinking resources, and the disintegration of the core elements that make up the fabric of society. Marriage? Only in 40-year increments. Children? Superfluous, since there's no need to perpetuate the species. Religion? Passe, except for the newly minted, cultlike Church of Man. And, eventually, government-sanctioned euthanasia known as "end specialization." VERDICT Magary's (Men with Balls: The Professional Athlete's Handbook) wit as a blogger and satirist is put to good use in this clever novel, which is told through a series of darkly funny blog entries and news reports. His engaging voice makes for a fast-paced and compelling read right up to the last third of the book, when the story morphs into the predictable apocalypse. Still, it's a great ride up to that point-a must-read for fans of postmodern dystopia in the vein of Margaret Atwood, Chuck Palahniuk, and Neil Gaiman.-Jeanne Bogino, New Lebanon Lib., NY (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
One man blogs civilization's slow, terrifying decline after a cure for aging is discovered.In 2011, an Oregon scientist discovered the precise genetic location of the trigger for aging, clearing the way to bring a halt to growing old. In 2019, when Magary's debut novel opens, narrator John Farrell is one of the growing number of people who've surreptitiously signed up for the illegal "cure." He's an easygoing attorney who hasn't paid close attention to the religious and political furor the cure has caused, but that changes when his roommate is killed in a terrorist attack on the office of a doctor delivering the treatment. At first this brave new world seemsmildly comic: John helpsset up term limits for married couples who didn't anticipate that "till death do us part" might take well over a century, and he considers what the cure means for sports records. But in the decades after the cure is legalized, the planet becomes rapidly overpopulated and the story turns dystopian, with John becoming an "end specialist" who helps euthanize people who find deathlessness a grind. Magary is blogger for the sports sites Deadspin and Kissing Suzy Kolber, and the blog format serves him well in the early sections of the novel: It allows him to integrate newspaper articles that set the scene, and he gives John an engaging, quick-witted voice. Trickier for the author are matters of deeper characterization and tone: John's romantic entanglements and heartbreaks are swallowed up by the events around him, and the closing chapters make ungainly shifts between apocalyptic realism and Grand Guignol horror scenes. In a way, he's imagined this milieu all too well, making the reader more interested in the world's end than the people trying to survive it.Magary has created a smartly realized vision of aplanet that's hit the skids, but it could use more interesting residents.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
