TRUE IMMORTALS

Genetically gifted humans with unnaturally long lifespans evade the aging-obsessed pursuers who would exploit them in Bratman’s SF novel.

In this smart, witty SF tale, rare humans are born with the genetic mutation for extraordinary long life; they are categorized as “hafeems,” who undergo a slow aging process, living for centuries before they finally expire, or as “True Immortals,” who reach mid-20s maturity and remain vulnerable to fatal injuries but are otherwise eternally young. Only 300-something years old, Blair is a fresh Immortal who has already abandoned several wives to age and die without him (immortals live with mortal families in 12-year “frames” before changing identities and fleeing elsewhere.) Blair is identified as an immortal and tracked by powerful forces, assumed to be existentially tormented mortals who covet (and are willing to kill for) the secret of endless life. But things are not so simple. The storyline’s shifting narrators include Saul, a hafeem who mentored Blair in navigating their secret subculture before their estrangement, and Janice, a mortal drug addict and online sex worker who stumbles into a (kinky) affair with Blair when he mistakes her punk nihilism for the POV of a fellow immortal. Blair is naive and shallow, physically perfect but slightly weighed down by his guilt, selfish choices, and loneliness; in a canny move by the sly author, Blair disappears for much of the narrative, making room for richer characters, some reflecting an attitude of existence stretched over epochs. Immortality is a long-standing SF/Fantasy trope, and while the ingredients gathered here could produce a standard action-chase beach read, the author productively shifts gears, bringing in hard SF (prepare for heavy-duty DNA-lab talk), social satire, suspense, pop-culture references (from Shakespeare to Six Feet Under), and philosophy, with pithy zingers and jaded wisdom from the timeless ones and those who love them (“Here’s the definition of nerdy: you get love-crazy over things that shrink you instead of grow you”). Remember, some of these folks hung with Socrates.

A thematically rich, brainy, and meditation-worthy “what-if” considering the ramifications of a life in which death has no sting.