THE MAN WHO CURED DEATH

Three years after a journalist writes an exposé about a deadly immortality drug, its disgraced inventor returns with a new creation in Stryke’s thriller.

In the near future, the “world, humanity, all eight billion living souls, [are] in a rut.” Advanced technology doesn’t improve the human condition in a significant way; it only provides a series of conveniences. However, Zane Manson, a famed scientist and “tech-evangelist” who’s also the world’s richest man, shakes humanity out of its slumber when he announces his latest achievement: a drug that offers immortality that’s plainly and bombastically called “The Cure for Death.” He sells doses for $100 billion each to 45 eager takers and takes it himself, but all his patients die; journalist Josephine Angeles exposes the drug as a “billion-dollar death sentence.” Zane vanishes into obscurity and is presumed by many to be dead, but three years later, he contacts Josephine out of the blue, claiming to have perfected the drug and daring her not only to investigate its viability, but also to take it herself. She dives deeply into Zane’s work and past and discovers a brilliant man, who’s either overcome by hubris or irredeemably evil. It might be, as Zane’s assistant Penny Williams believes, that “Greatness is a ruthless evil at the center of a maelstrom.” Stryke’s tale is more than a touch convoluted, but readers will find it well worth the effort to untangle. Over the course of the novel, the author delivers an arresting drama that presents thoughtful commentary on how science could revise what it means to be human. Zane’s portrayal is hyperbolic at times, but it brings into sharp relief how arrogance and greed can fuel a desire for technological progress. This is, first and foremost, a thrilling SF drama, but it’s also an intelligent exploration of the dangers of transhumanistic optimism.

A suspenseful, clever, and compelling tale of the future.