Holy Fire

In a post-plague world, the medical establishment has fused with the government to extend the lives of the most useful, practical and healthy of its citizens. Mia Zimmerman is truly one of these: a gerontocrat. But when a surgery strips off her skin and remakes her brain and body molecule-by-molecule, she is reborn: young again. And it turns out the new Mia craves the youth she never had. Among the druggies and fashion addicts who throw their lives away, the dead-at-forty who resent the rule of the old, by the old, she sees her world from another perspective. Brilliant with age's wisdom and vivid with youth, Mia will find her way up from nothing. Unless the medical establishment can find her and reclaim their investment...THE GOODBruce Sterling truly writes sci-fi as "a literature of ideas." Holy Fire contains masterful ideas. New technological embellishments crackle from every page in a world with an economy and a history that breathe. Sterling knows his future.THE BADThe plot slows about midway through, and the characters lack the vivacity of Sterling's ideas. In the end all the characters show up rather suddenly to opine in various ways, which is great for the book's ideas.

"Youth is wasted on the young," Shaw said, and this is a book about that. In a future world where life extension is easily available, and where old people rule absolutely, an old and disillusioned woman goes for radical rejuvenation therapy and emerges a young, impulsive, completely different person. She runs for it, disappearing from the medical monitors and health care engineers to make a brand new, and completely different, life for herself in Europe as a beautiful young runaway. It's an alternately wacky and moving story about youth vs. age, about art and culture, and about desire and passion. But the reason to read this book is Sterling's ability to bring it to vibrant life. Every page is a giddy joy in itself, as you become caught up in the fevered excitement of someone making new discoveries after a lifetime of tedious conformity, and learns things about life that neither the young nor the old know.

What happens if you can truly be young again? Not just live forever, but become young again. Mia is 94 and has taken excellent care of herself. That actually brings up another aspect of the book that I thought was fascinating. In this end of the 21st century dystopia, health care depends on how well you take care of yourself. If you stay fit, eat right, and take your vitamins you get top notch health care. If you choose to smoke and drink and eat lots of jelly donuts then you get less optimal care. It's definitely counter-intuitive, and feels wrong on one level, it also appeals on another level to our sense of personal responsibility. Anyway, Mia gets access to new, cutting-edge technology to make herself truly young again. Once restored to youth, she starts re-examining her life and her choices. It's a great book and a gave me a LOT to think about. Enjoy!

A book about an old woman who becomes a young woman. Talking dogs (could have been fascinating, but mostly just abused props). So many possibilities for conflict, all lost in the telling. Mia (or Maya - I never did figure that one out) unfortunately loses all memory of her old self when she becomes young. So no conflict regarding old desires vs. new desires. No intergenerational conflict. Instead, she becomes some kind of party girl, hanging out with the rich and famous in Europe, and even becomes a supermodel. Give me a break. The author completely squandered his opportunity to tell a real story and make this character come to life. Instead, she lives out a male author's imagining of what every woman wants. Popularity! Youth! Beauty! To be a supermodel! He tried to throw in some "real" problems, like bad hair. Mia/Maya was a flat, cardboard stereotype. Save your time/money on this one.

Overall the idea of turning into a young person again when nearly at the twilight of your life is perhaps the dream of everyone, yet when Maya gets this chance it seems she doesnt do anything with it.The book started out strong with her escaping to find her own way but quickly the book lost its way and just like the main character just kept wandering back and forth.This to me is too bad as I normally consider this author very strong in his writing but I get the feeling he just want sure what to do with this so he kept writing and writing till the book was filed.

It is an interesting portrayal of a possible/likely future where the pursuit of health and longevity drives wealth and freedom. I was pulled into the story, but never truly felt sympathetic, compassion, or connected to the characters. But, the portrayal of the future seemed very real.

The book came in great condition. This is one of my favorite books of all time and I've been looking for a replacement of my lost copy forever.

The characters are vivid. The dialogues are smart. The places are original. The tech is plausible. The animals can talk. And the rejuvenation method seems almost patent eligible. But at the end of the very very long day, the Holy Fire feels somehow like the Hollow Fire.For reasons unknown, Bruce Sterling decided that the Neo Telomeric Dissipative Cellular Detoxification should not just turn back the clock, but also turn his protagonist into an anorexic 1990’s twenty year old model, complete with a full set of neuroses.So, we have to patiently, wait for Mia Zemann’s coming of age at age 93, set in a future Bohemia, bypassing on our way, with just a little bit more than a perfunctory nod, some absolutely fantastic futuristic subject matters like for example, what would life extension really mean for a new generation under a gerontocracy’s iron fist.Spoiler alert. I enjoyed very much various portions of the book and especially the last pages where Mia Zemann meets her daughter and ex husband, but overall, I can’t help feeling that Holy Fire is good, but it could have been exceptionally good. Three stars.

I know Bruce Sterling is world famous, but I still think he's under-rated. Holy Fire is a virtuoso performance, a display of human imagination rarely rivalled. I'm reading everything I can by him - Distractions is also gobsmackingly good.