Reconciliation
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
"Revitalizes the cyber-fiction genre with its vivid prose and believable characters . . . [This] should appeal to fans of Bruce Sterling and William Gibson" (Library Journal).
Zakariah and Mia Davis have been infected with an alien virus that prolongs life—and as a result, their blood is a valuable black-market staple due to its rejuvenating effects. But the "eternal virus" has not affected their son Rix, and Zakariah is consumed with the search for an active sample to inoculate the teenager against mortality.
To succeed, Zakariah surgically wires his brain for the global computer network, a virtual cyber-economy controlled by avatars. Busted for transporting grain without a permit, and on the run from the government and the Eternal Research Institute, Zakariah must travel off-planet through a commercial wormhole, alongside a woman who is seeking the source of immortality for her own purposes.
Now, in the Cromeus colonies on the other side of time and space, Zakariah will risk everything to give his son eternal life . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Themes of transcendence and family love play out against backdrops of real and virtual worlds in Stanton's slight neo-cyberpunk debut, the first speculative fiction title from Canadian indie ECW. Cyberhacker Zak and martial artist Mia are infected with the Eternal virus, which grants everlasting life. They want to give it to their son, but the virus can't be caught or easily transmitted, so Zak heads for the offworld Cromeus colonies looking for the virus's alien Source. Then a new technology emerges that permits humans to be uploaded into machines, which may render the Eternal virus moot. Fans of James Gunn's The Immortals (1962) will find many familiar elements, and frequent shifts in perspective and characterization contribute only to a feeling of whiplash.
