Publication date: July 8, 2014 by Alibi e-original (Random House)
Source: Publisher via TLC Book Tours for an honest review
Description:
From the author of The Deus Machine and The Third Pandemic comes a fast-paced thriller about the power of harnessing life itself—and the deadly secrets it conceals.
Portland, Oregon, was once a beacon of promise and prosperity. Now it’s the epicenter of a world gone wrong, its streets overrun by victims and hustlers, drifters and gangsters. Lowly contract cop Lane Anslow struggles to keep afloat—and to watch out for his brilliant but bipolar brother, Johnny, a medical researcher. Lane soon discovers that Johnny is part of an experiment veiled in extraordinary secrecy. But he has no idea who’s behind it, how astronomical the stakes are, or how many lives might be destroyed to make it a reality.
Now Johnny’s gone missing. To find him, Lane follows a twisting trail into a billionaire’s hilltop urban fortress, a politician’s inner circle, a prison set in an aircraft graveyard, and a highly guarded community where people appear to be half their biological age. Hunted by dueling enemies, Lane meets a beautiful and enigmatic woman at the center of a vast web of political and criminal intrigue. And behind it all is a sinister, desperate race to claim the biggest scientific prize of all: eternal life.
My Take:
If you have read much of my blog, you know that I love a good dystopian novel. I also love science fiction, but I don't review a lot of it. The Forever Man is sort of touted as sci fi techno thriller -- which it is, but I also think it easily falls into dystopia as well. The setting for the novel is a near-future version of Portland, Oregon where the economy has continued to benefit the super wealthy at the expense of the rest of the population. Every indication points to the fact that Portland is just a small fraction of the same type of situation for the rest of the country. Things have gone severely wrong for most of the population. Survival has become an issue.
Law enforcement has been given over to contract cops who only patrol parts of the city - the safer parts. Lane Anslow is one of those cops and he works in the seedier areas trying to bring peace and justice -- which seems like a losing battle at this point. The neighborhoods are run by gangsters and the politicians have questionable ties to some of these gangs. Unfortunately for Lane, he is over forty and is deemed too old to continue as a contract cop. He also has a younger brother, Johnny, who is a brilliant scientist with bipolar disorder. Needless to say, Lane has a lot of stress and little cash or income to support himself or take care of his brother when he hits a downturn.
When Johnny disappears under suspicious circumstances, Lane uses all of his hard earned skills and connections to create a new identity and try to find his brother. This search is where things get crazy - well, even crazier than they were before.
The Forever Man is about Lane's search for his brother and it is a long and incredibly dangerous and surprising one. Along the way, Lane and the reader encounter corrupt politicians, super wealthy people obsessed with looking decades younger than their actual age, the sharp contrast between the super wealthy and the rest of the population, the secretive and extremely wealthy man that seems to be at the center of many of the strange occurrences, a very unusual prison and ultimately, the search for the ability to live forever.
I enjoyed The Forever Man very much. Lane is a great leading man and I loved all the action. I was also caught up in some of the other important aspects of the novel -- the examination of some of our shallower human qualities like the strange desire we have to look younger and to live on and on and the constant striving for power. I also thought this near future vision of our world was just a little too close for comfort. It was definitely a great read.
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About Pierre Ouellette
Pierre Ouellette entered the creative realm at age thirteen as a lead guitarist for numerous bands in the Pacific Northwest, including Paul Revere and the Raiders, and later played with such jazz luminaries as saxophonist Jim Pepper and bassist David Friesen. He has had two novels published in seven languages and both optioned for film. He has also authored two biotech thrillers published in paperback under the name Pierre Davis, and directed and produced The Losers Club, a documentary about struggling musicians. Ouellette lives in Portland, Oregon, where he now devotes himself exclusively to writing fiction and playing jazz guitar now and then in a little bar just down the street.Pierre Ouellette’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Monday, July 7th: No More Grumpy BooksellerTuesday, July 8th: From the TBR Pile
Wednesday, July 9th: Crime Book Club
Thursday, July 10th: Patricia’s Wisdom
Monday, July 14th: She Treads Softly
Wednesday, July 16th: Bewitched Bookworms
Monday, July 21st: Reading Reality
Wednesday, July 23rd: Back Porchervations
Thursday, July 24th: Mom in Love with Fiction
Monday, July 28th: The Year in Books
Tuesday, July 29th: Drey’s Library
Wednesday, July 30th: Dwell in Possibility
Monday, August 4th: A Book Geek
Tuesday, August 5th: A Fantastical Librarian
Wednesday, August 6th: Black ‘n Gold Girl’s Book Spot
Thursday, August 7th: My Shelf Confessions
I think I'd get completely caught up in this book - there's so much to pull me in!
ReplyDeleteThank for being a part of the tour.