Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling

A provocative, insightful yet chilling tale of the very possible near future. A world where the oil driven industrial/military complex is replaced by a purely medically driven bureaucracy. Originally initiated as an emergency measure that was enacted to save the world from man made plagues and retro-viruses, the bureaucracy slowly evolves into a world culture that is obsessed with the ideal of longevity. An entire generation bends the will and resources of the world to combat the effects of aging and the extension of the human lifespan. The result; a slowly stagnating geriatric hierarchy that refuses to die and relinquish power. The young have become a tiny minority who are becoming strident,despondent and even militant in a world where they may never be aloud to "come of age". The story revolves around a mid-level bureaucrat (Mia) who is granted access to a radical new and experimental rejuvenation treatment as a reward for good service and behavior. The conflict of newly rediscovered youth and the geriatric bureaucracy that she helped to create is compelling and even poignant. The author's insights and critical examination of the ideas of aging,life extension and the ultimate cost of government control/interference/regulation in and of the lives of the people are particularly relevant to this day .

Holy Fire explores possibilities of the unnaturally long or never-ending lifespan. What if humans finally beat the aging process all together, staying healthy and youthful forever, etc. Sterling demonstrates the possible drawbacks of this for the young.

Mia, a 90+ year old, participates in a rejuvenation process that reboots her brain and hormones, allowing her to be artificially young again, regaining sex drive, energy, and a youthful body. Instead of sticking around to be monitored and protected under medical advice, she heads for Europe.

Mia creates a new identity called Maya and becomes the reader's tour guide through the world. She is homeless and relies on others for shelter/money etc. All the young people are living like this unless they inherited money from older relatives. The older generations who stayed healthy enough to work, like Mia did before the transformation, have all the financial security, while the young are in a hopeless struggle.

The story isn't about the technology that allows people to live longer and healthier lives, but rather about a stagnant society blamed on the elderly. This is a pop culture phenomenon my husband refers to as, “Youth is cool. Old is stupid.” Even the older characters think aging is bad and they use medical technology to fight it, but they don't consider consequences for the future generations.

The successful people Maya meets are over 100 years old and still the top in their field. The twenty-somethings have no way of getting experience and moving up when old-timers refuse to step down. One aspiring fashion designer says of a 121-year-old one:

“He has everything, and he's going to keep it forever. There's just no way to challenge him.”

The effect of this Gerontocracy is that everything in the world is heavily controlled by a “benevolent fascism,” free from guns or plagues or other dangers that the older set survived. This would also lead to a lack of risk. Isn't taking risks what creativity comes from? All this security protects the elderly but harms the twenty-somethings.

“You see my darling, in order to make this world safe for the very old we have changed life for the young in ways that are truly evil.”

This is a highly thought-provoking and engaging novel as we observe Maya's character arc, and she takes us through the polarized world of youth vs. experience Sterling created.

What a strange and bizarre and poetic little book! Sci-fi is often a shapeshifting genre. Novels are so often either detective or war stories, that something that goes off the rails makes for an interesting reading experience. I liked it a whole bunch.