• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143119826
• ISBN-13: 978-0143119821

Synopsis: John Farrell is about to get “The Cure.”Old age can never kill him now. The only problem is, everything else still can . . . Imagine a near future where a cure for aging is discovered and-after much political and moral debate-made available to people worldwide. Immortality, however, comes with its own unique problems-including evil green people, government euthanasia programs, a disturbing new religious cult, and other horrors. Witty, eerie, and full of humanity, The Postmortal is an unforgettable thriller that envisions a pre-apocalyptic world so real that it is completely terrifying.

A lot of authors take their novels in the post-apocalyptic-dystopian route these days. It seems to be the fad, alongside vampires, werewolves, and zombies. But as a reader and student of critical analysis, I often wonder how these worlds I read about got to the point where the story picks up. Good authors often allow us enough history in the course of their prose to give us a solid image of what went wrong, but still it’s nothing watching it all fall down from the front row.

Drew Magary’s The Postmortal isn’t concerned with how society rises from the ashes, but how we self destruct in the first place. The novel is given to us as a blog, used as a sort of first-person account of history as it develops by the protagonist, John Farrell. Each entry allows the reader to watch a mostly familiar near-future Earth evolve, and then break down under the strain of a humanity that doesn’t die…at least naturally.

Magary’s style is fast and loose; the pacing never lets up, and it’s dark, clever and full of surprises. I particularly liked his handling of immorality’s effect on social conventions like monogamy, and how short sighted we can be, even when we THINK we’re considering the long term. What is the point of finding someone to grow old with, if you never grow old? The only person John seems able to commit to is himself, but as life goes on he realizes that human beings aren’t really suited to operate on the scale of “forever” and he neglects relationships which ultimately leads to regret. As he lingers through the years, John’s personal journey forces him to reevaluate everything he thought he knows, and each lesson learned is a tough and bitter pill to swallow.

With The Postmortal, author Drew Magary has written a book that is both easily accessible and wonderfully complex. It’s a work of substance that easily belongs in a classroom as well as on any true sci-fi enthusiast’s shelf.

I Give The Postmortal by Drew Magary Four Out of Five Stars.

 

 

You can pick up your copy of The Postmortal at Amazon today.

 

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