Memento Mori
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
It's the end of the world as we know it.What can you make of it but art?
The colony world of Reis was once a prosperous, glittering center of manufacture and trade. But now, in the grip of planet-wide plague, Reis has been quarantined—cut off from the rest of the galaxy. Only electronic communication can cross the barrier.
No one knew where the plague came from. No one knows how it is spread. And no one knows who will live or die. Which leaves one big question: What do you do in the meantime, while you're waiting to find out?
Time is killing them, but the handful of disaffected artists who hang at Club Metz are past masters at killing time. Society is falling apart; the A.I. that runs everything is acting weirder every day—but they'll find ways to survive, or at least prevail.
Reviews:
"One of the most original portrayals of artificial intelligence since Arthur C. Clarke's duplicitous HAL." —Booklist
"A mature and insightful work of science fiction." —The New York Review of Science Fiction
"Marvelously told." —Jack Womack, author of Let's Put the Future Behind Us
"A truly marvelous book. The writing is skillful and stylish, and the science is cutting-edge—you can't really ask for a lot more." —Absolute Magnitude
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her first hardcover, Lewitt (Song of Chaos) explores human sociology, psychology and ethics on a far-flung planet, giving her tale enough scientific detail for texture and credibility. The prosperous colony of the planet Reis, beset by plague, has voted to quarantine itself. This causes economic problems, but these are overshadowed by a breakdown of social values and mores, not only among the people (especially in the city) but also in RICE, the biologically based artificial intelligence on which the planet's well-being depends. Lewitt's protagonists are a group of artists, poseurs and artist-wannabes, including Peter Haas, a chess master who plays virtual reality games through RICE; Johanna Henning, a mathematician who works maintaining RICE when others have quit; Jens, an ex-gang member who, while not an artist, sees more clearly than many. The novel is ambitious, tackling issues of being and nothingness, pain and pleasure, the nature of life (artificial as well as human) and what makes it bearable. Sometimes the languid characters seem to generate a narrative that is equally limp, but overall Lewitt's prose is strong and her take fresh, sharp and intelligently subversive.
