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Summary: Freeze yourself and become immortal
Review: Like Halperin's "The Truth Machine," this book isn't great as fiction but has an intriguing thesis. Halperin is convinced--and wants his readers to be convinced--that we will soon be able to stop the process of aging and, thus, that we should have ourselves frozen shortly before death, to be revived when medicine has advanced far enough to halt and reverse aging and to cure our diseases. Halperin presents his case in the form of a story about a man who is frozen in 1988 and revived in 2072, when aging has been conquered.I read this book a few years ago and have continued to think about the ideas in it. It seems reasonable to suppose that we will indeed eventually figure out how to halt aging and that this will be one of the most radical turning points in human history--that future humans (the rich and powerful ones at least) will die only of "unnatural" causes.
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Summary: Life (or Death) Changing
Review: I would have never imagined that reading this book would cause me to seriously question beliefs which I had accepted throughout my life. The First Immortal is an outstanding read, a book which you refuse to put down. I have never before questioned when the end will come. I had accepted death as the final chapter to life. However, First Immortal offers the opportunity for you to skip ahead. Discussing the implications of cryotransport and nanotechnology, the book argues for a future without natural death. It does this without "stupid" science, suggesting realistic future possibilities offering endless life. James Halperin is a talented visionary and I am glad that I was lucky enough to find this book. I dream about his view of the future, a world where life is truly precious.
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Summary: Call To Act
Review: This book is a sugar coated brief for cryonics. It is really not such great fiction, but it has a good chance of changing your life. The author is a member of Alcor which plays a leading role in the book, as it should. The book discusses all manner of ethical and scientific issues related to cryonics, and does a heroic job of making it compelling reading. The book does well at highlighting the social uncertainties of cryonics which are much more amenable to the fiction treatment than are the scientific uncertainties. I'm on here buying five copies for friends after reading it.
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Summary: Very good, but not great.
Review: THE FIRST IMMORTAL is the sort of story that most hard sci-fi fans will enjoy - technology writing and speculation fill the book. Unfortunately, the author saw fit to add a rather contrived bit of character development and conflict as a key part of the story. Additionally, the author seems rather unsure of how to construct a narrative, as the book begins with first-person storytelling (i.e., "my grandfather was born..."), but then jumps to traditional third-person (i.e., "Ben found himself thinking...") throughout. While not confusing, this bizarre change of POV can be startling and unpleasant. Bad things aside, the author DOES make a wonderful case for cryonic research, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence. The author is blatantly attempting to sway the minds of his readers to support both pure and applied research into these fields, as he obviously sees them as key technologies to provide hope for humanity. This makes for an interesting, enthusiastic read, and creates a wonderful work of speculative fiction. I read this book in two sittings, and found myself engrossed in the technologies described therein. It was a joy to find such hope placed in science and rational thought.
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Summary: An advertisement for cryonics
Review: This book is a very quick read. I read it in less than a day; it held my interest very well. That being said, THE FIRST IMMORTAL is not a great book or even an especially good book. There are no complex characters in the book. Even the book's deepest conflict between father and son seems contrived and is resolved almost spontaneously in time for the final chapter. The fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology will raise tremendously thorny ethical issues in the decades ahead, yet Halperin chooses to gloss over all of these. We're asked to accept that science will provide solutions to all of our social, economic, medical, and technical problems in the next hundred years. Human nature and human relationships are explored only superficially and through the rosiest of rose-colored glasses. Serious consideration is never given to the idea that immortality might not make everyone happy. All such problems are transitory in Halperin's future view. Religious belief is portrayed primarily as folly; no serious attempt is made to consider how dramatically enhanced lifespans would affect man's conception of God--faith is just a crutch most reasonable people would dispense with once they had seen the light of the power of science. Superficial! Dan Simmons' Hyperion series gives far more thoughtful consideration to the effect of practical immortality. Finally, one is left with the impression that Halperin is a shill for cryonics: why would any intelligent person alive today choose not to be frozen at the moment of death? If you're looking for a diverting, fast read that will make you think some, this book will serve. If you're looking for a book that is a well-rounded treatment of the topics of cryonics and life extension, keep looking.
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Summary: Interesting ideas--plausible if some assumptions are made.
Review: I am a PhD bio-engineering student working working at the nanoscale on biomaterials and so I had more than just a cursory interest in this book. The ideas in this book were plausible scientifically--IF the assumption is made that human beings are nothing more than extremely complicated carbon-based biological machines. The book has very interesting ideas about the likely technologies which are going to emerge in the 21st century and describes them well and the basic plot is okay but what I found disappointing was the style and standard of the writing. If the science and technology presented herein is put aside then what remains is just mediocre writing. I feel the same excellent premise could have been developed much better if the author had made an effort with his english and writing skills. Also, although there is an attempt in the book to discuss the implications of cryonics on the soul it is quite superficially done and is also Christianity-centred. Now, given that most of the world's people are not Christians this is a big failure. For example, I am a Muslim and in Islam death is believed to occur when the soul leaves the body. Now, once the soul has left the body [it is removed by the Angel of Death--Azrael] it is immaterial what you do to the body--life will not be returned to it unless the soul was to return to the body. In this respect therefore the whole theory of cryonics falls flat when viewed from the Islamic perspective because death is defined as the moment when the soul departs: the body without the soul is just a lifeless shell. Has the author considered this? I dont think so.
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Summary: A book that sticks with you
Review: The First Immortal is disturbing book. It kept me up late at nights wondering "What if Halperin is right?" In fact, the science fiction presented in The First Immortal seems so compelling that I can actually imagine a future as Halperin described. It left me cold, no pun intended, wondering if cryonics is really possible. Halperin's book is focused, well written, and filled with enough action to keep the pages turning. Some people might be put off by his overly optimistic view of the future, but that is a minor detail. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to rethink the finality of death.
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Summary: Kick starts your thoughts of the future
Review: Whether you have strong religious convictions or not, no one can dispute the fact that technology, if it continues at the present pace, will drastically change the way we human beings live, love and think in the not so distant future. His portrayal of the pace of advancement in technology and ethical evolution seemed believable to me. I think some of the societial changes he portrayed, such as the strict enforcement of the death penalty, reflect problems that the human race will be forced to face and resolve in order for our species to survive itself. I prefer to believe Mr. Halperins optimistic view of things to come. For entertainment value, the characters in TTM were more developed, however, I closed TFI with a feeling of hope and a desire to learn more about cyronics, nanotechnology and the future of the human race. This book made me think.
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Summary: An entertaining and thought provoking read
Review: James Halperin's second book, "The First Immortal" has it's plusses and minuses. Pluses: + Well thought out in terms of the cryonics portions of the story. His take on the future of this field (and other scientific fields) is very interesting. + Integration into his first novel "The Truth Machine." While this book is not a continuation or a sequal of Truth Machine, it does occur in the same "timeline" and readers of the first book will catch the references to places/events mentioned in the first book. Minuses: - Poor character development. The characters in this book are not very deep at all. If you are looking for a book with deep, real characters, this book is not for you. - Preachy. At times, the book gets kind of preachy, as if to say "If you don't have yourself frozen, you only have yourself to blame when you can't be revived, you idiot!" On the whole, however, I found it to be interesting.
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Summary: Great Ideas upholds Okay Story
Review: I liked this book. I liked the story and the idea, but I didn't like the "tone" of the writer. It is an interesting puzzle to me. The closest comparision to the writer, Mr. Halperin, I can come up with is Robert Silverberg. Mr. Silverberg wrote some great fantasy books, but they tended to be sad or fatalistic. Even when the hero wins, I never was very happy about it. Mr. Halperin's style is just like that. Since Silverberg has won many awards, I guess Halperin is in good company. I, however, like to read science fiction or fantasy with a lighter tone. Mr. Halperin is "deadly" serious and, in fact, in my book he has several pages of places where you can go, if you want to be frozen for the future. But first, the story. The First Immortal takes us through the life and times of a man who is born in the early 20'th century and by story's end is, in his view, essentially immortal. (I will explain below) Along the way, the point of view in the story changes two or three times. Towards the end, this gets a little confusing, but the story is clear enough. Alot of the story is focused on the conflict between this man, Ben, and his son Gary. This conflict seems artificial to me. It was put into this story to tie the ends together, but it wasn't believable to me. Anyway, this is a distraction. The First Immortal is really not a story of science fiction, but rather an advocacy piece discussing possible science facts. Halperin focuses on Immortality and the disease of aging, but he also talks about computer consiousness, medicine in the future world and different types of bionic technology. In these areas, the book is at its best. One discussion, for example, describes (or debates) what is a person? A person is still a person, if they have a false eye or a fake arm. What about if a person has implanted memories? Or if part of their brain function is mechanic? Is a person still a person if 90% of their brain is organic while 10% is not? Is yes, are they still a person if 50% of their brain is a computer? Where do you draw the line? Since I disagree with how this book answers this question, I disagree with the conclusion of its author. The fun, however, is having that fight about these issues with the author. I liked these discussions, because I discuss similiar things with friends. And, if you like discussions like this, you will like this book. If you don't, don't buy it. For those of you who do buy it, and read this review, email me afterwards. I would be curious to see you responses to some of the issues covered by The First Immortal.
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