Subject: Review: TECH-HEAVEN by Linda Nagata

From: "Evelyn C Leeper" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 23:23:32 GMT

TECH-HEAVEN by Linda Nagata
                   A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		    Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper

     This is Nagata's second novel, and it is set in a more accessible
future than her first (THE BOHR MAKER)--at least for one thread.  In
TECH-HEAVEN, the story revolves around cryonic suspension: the freezing of
the dead in the hopes of reviving them when a cure for their disease or
injury is found.  Nagata takes the current discussion of this subject and
uses it for a fairly straightforward future thriller sort of novel.  This
thread does not get much beyond the questions being asked already: Is it
fair to spend millions to preserve the dead rather than to improve the lot
of the living?  What about the legal issues of rights and property?  Is a
frozen person really dead?

     It's the last question than Nagata expands on in her other thread,
which follows the "soul" of the main character's husband, who has been
frozen.  Some may find this intriguing, but I found it unconvincing and
difficult to follow.  (Maybe the two go hand in hand.)  The main plot is
full of convenient characters and familiar concepts.  For example, one
powerful member of the main character's family is opposed to cryogenics,
giving Nagata a ready-made conflict.  Nanotechnology is the solution to the
problems of thawing people out, as it seems to be to every problem these
days, and so on.  It's not completely predictable, but it's not full of a
lot of surprises either.

     While this will undoubtedly be of interest to someone who already have
an interest in cryogenics, I can't say that it did much for me.

%T      Tech-Heaven
%A      Linda Nagata
%C      New York
%D      November 1995
%I      Bantam Spectra
%O      paperback, US$4.99
%G      ISBN 0-553-56926-0
%P      368pp

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked]
"The jawbone of an ass is just as dangerous a weapon today as in
Samson's time." --Richard Nixon