The Postmortal: A Novel

I love this book, easy read, dystopian, realistic.

Imaginez un futur proche où l'on découvrirait un remède contre le vieillissement qui, après de nombreux débats politiques et moraux, serait mis à la disposition du grand public. Mais l'immortalité possède elle aussi ses inconvénients: terroristes biologiques au crâne peint en vert, surnommés les trolls; programmes d'euthanasie du gouvernement débordé par le nombre de bouches à nourrir; nouveaux cultes religieux perturbants, et bien d'autres encore. Sous la forme du journal de John Farrell, Américain lambda témoin des bouleversements de son époque, "The Postmortal" dépeint un monde pré-apocalyptique si réaliste qu'il vous donnera des frissons dans le dos.Je ne sais vraiment pas comment ce roman s'est retrouvé en ma possession. J'en ai sûrement lu beaucoup de bien quelque part, dans un article dont l'auteur doit avoir des goûts diamétralement opposés aux miens. Certes, "The postmortal" est bien foutu et décrit une mécanique implacable à laquelle on n'a aucun mal à croire. Mais son héros n'a aucune personnalité; il n'est là que pour fournir le point de vue du péquin moyen et ne semble pas être autre chose que le produit des circonstances de son existence. Or, c'est très rare qu'une histoire m'intéresse davantage que les personnages qui la vivent. Et si je n'ai rien contre un bon petit drame intime bien ficelé, les catastrophes à grande échelle m'angoissent trop pour que j'en apprécie le récit même fictif. En résumé, un bon bouquin pas du tout fait pour moi, mais que les amateurs d'anticipation un peu glauque devraient adorer.

I thought this was going to be a good story after reading other reviews. I found out its a real page turner, its just a pity I gould not get it for my kindle. Its well worth a read though.

I'd never read a Drew Magary book before. I've always found his columns to be insightful and hilarious, so I was intrigued to learn he'd branched out into novels too. This book was quite a bit deeper than I expected! It was funny, to be sure, but it was also gripping, chilling, horrifying, sad, and genuinely thought-provoking. I'd give it 3.5/5 stars for the science; 4.5/5 stars for the plot, and 6/5 stars for the fact that I couldn't put it down. So I'm averaging that out to 5 stars overall.As a biologist, I found some of the science a bit... off, like the improbable symptoms of the sheep flu pandemic, and the fact that the aging cure was administered via giant syringes while the patient was strapped into a chair with buckles. As a woman, I found that the female characters were a bit one-dimensional and tended to get "fridged" a lot (i.e., killed just to provoke a response in a male character). And as an optimist, I found this book's incredibly dark view of human nature just a little too awful to be true.But I still stayed up way too late reading it, and I can still remember the details a year later (not something I would say about most books). I found the framing story fascinating and engaging, i.e., that this is a reproduction of John's electronic diary entries that were found decades later after the old world had collapsed and new world order had taken hold. And the premise really made me reflect on humanity's future. Do we really want to live forever? Is death the worst thing that can happen for us, or is death a blessing in disguise?I asked my brother (who is also a biologist, doing research on aging) if he'd be interested in borrowing my copy of The Postmortal. "How accurate is the science in it?" he asked. "Uh," I said, "probably 3.5/5." "Well then, no thanks," he said. "I know I wouldn't enjoy it unless they get the science exactly right."If you're that kind of exacting person, you may not enjoy this book as much as I did. Funnily enough, I'm usually that kind of exacting person too, but I so much enjoyed Magary's writing style and the gripping premise that I was more than willing to forgive a few biological improbabilities!

A must read. Simple. Addicting, scary, eye-opening, and all too realistic.