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Tag Archives: apocalyptic

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road by Cormac McCarthy First of all, please don’t think I picked this book up because of the Oprah endorsement. I’m made of meatier things than can be swayed by an Empress. But when it comes to Viggo Mortensen, I’m JELLY. It might have something to do with his hair/face/body. Anyhoo, I remember seeing the cover of the book whilst shelving at the unnamed bookstore I worked for and thinking, “Oh, Viggo, when will we stop playing these games?” At around the same time my brother saw No Country for Old Men and was all, “I’m scared to sleep alone.” That movie being based on a McCarthy book paired with Viggo on the cover of THIS book slayed me. So I began the reading.

And let me tell you. It is not a happy read. Clinically depressed people and people prone to over-sympathizing, stay away. You will not have a happy thought for days. Not exaggerating.

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The Postmortal by Drew Magary

04 Sep

The Postmortal by Drew Magary This book starts with hypotheticals. What if you didn’t have to grow any older, but could freeze your body’s aging process and stay exactly the same age as you are today? (Your current position on the aging spectrum might affect your answer to that one.) Now — what if everybody had access to this cure for aging? What might a society of perpetual 20-somethings look like? How would religion, politics, and social mores change as a result? And how terribly wrong could it go?

I love the premise of this book. John Farrell is 29 years old in 2019, the not-too-distant-at-all-future, when the cure for aging is discovered. Initially illegal in most countries, Farrell has the right kind of connections to get access to the cure on the black market almost immediately. It is important to note that this cure is only for aging itself — which means it is not the same thing as immortality. You can still die of cancer, or a car crash, or a nuclear bomb. You just can’t die peacefully in your sleep of old age. Within a few years the ban is overruled, and society at large jumps at the chance to stay young forever.

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