How could anyone not like Chapter XIX, "Thule"?
The eight original immortals are now called the Survivors;
Hanno explores the Solar System alone for two or more years as a "Trial run" (p. 456);
Tu Shan tries farming and handicrafts although neither of these activities fits in a high tech future;
Aliyat, surrounded by a simulacrum of medieval Constantinople for which she had been a principal consultant, converses with the apparently solid image of a friend whose sex change has been not surgery and hormones but regrown organs, glands, muscles and bones and who hopes for a non-human body next;
Wanderer visits a reservation of elective mortals whose numbers decline as their children when grown opt for immortality and reversible sterilization;
and there are four more Survivors to read about before we find out what happens to them and to the rest of civilization next!
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
My memory might be at fault, but I don't think the sterilization which was required to be accepted before one could be "immortalized" was necessarily permanent. Rather, people who wanted to eventually have children had to be placed on a list and wait their turn, which could mean waiting generations or centuries.
Sean
Sean,
You are right it was not permanent. I will add the word "reversible" to the post.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Aha, then I was right! Thanks!
Sean
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