TERMINAL CAFê

Los Angeles of the 21st century is a land where death has been eradicated, thanks to nanotechnology, and so life is cheap. Every major city has a Necroville, where the first generation of the resurrected pay off the debts they incurred to be born again. McDonald (The Broken Land, 1992, etc.) juxtaposes the story of a group of young friends who gather annually in a celebratory night of the living dead against a literal clash of life and death as the army of the reborn wages war against their mortal enemies. But the real horror story here is about the living: Drug designer and playboy Santiago Columbar constantly seeks obliteration as an escape from life's ambiguities; yuppie cyberspace lawyer Yoyo Mok is so eager to soar up the virtual corporate ladder that she risks her friends' lives to solve the case of a resurrected rich client; and spoiled Toussaint, the son of Adam Tessler, who invented the resurrection process, betrays his father to a team of reborn terrorists. Each of these tales unfolds while battleships blast in high-orbit, corporate denizens maneuver in plush restaurants, and teens glide through all-night murder sprees. McDonald's lush prose paints a vivid and credible Armageddon. World-building SF that's punk, funky, and frightening: a fantastic acid trip to the end of the world.