Kirjailijakuva

Pierre Ouellette

Teoksen The Deus Machine: A Novel tekijä

5+ teosta 322 jäsentä 6 arvostelua

Tietoja tekijästä

Sisältää nimet: Ouellette, Pierre Ouellette

Tekijän teokset

The Deus Machine: A Novel (1993) 189 kappaletta
The Third Pandemic (1996) 120 kappaletta
Bakersfield: A Crime Novel (2018) 1 kappale

Associated Works

Macross II: Spacecraft and Deck Plans - Volume One (1994) — Art direction; Layout — 22 kappaletta
Macross II: Spacecraft and Deck Plans - Volume Two (1994) — Layout; Art direction — 19 kappaletta
Macross II: Spacecraft and Deck Plans - Volume Three (1994) — Layout — 13 kappaletta

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Syntymäaika
1945
Sukupuoli
male
Kansalaisuus
USA
Asuinpaikat
Portland, Oregon, USA

Jäseniä

Kirja-arvosteluja

The Forever Man by Pierre Ouellette is a very highly recommended dystopian science fiction crime novel.

Set in the near future in Portland, Oregon, society has eroded into the haves and have-nots. Corruption, amoral behavior and greed have taken over. The land has broken down to sections ruled by various crime lords and the government/law enforcement is likely just as corrupt as the rogue leaders. If you have the money, you will be living in privately guarded enclaves and constantly seeking a way to extend your life through various medical procedures. If you don't have money you will be scrambling hard to find some way to get by, avoid confrontations with local bad-boy enforcers, and likely with some self-medication to try to make it all tolerable.

Lane Anslow is a contract cop in his 40's who is at the low end of the pay scale and on the verge of being considered too old for the job. Lane's brother, Johnny, is a brilliant medical researcher who has just made the break-through discovery to reverse aging that everyone seeks - but especially Thomas Zed, a man wealthy beyond imagination who wants nothing more than to live forever. Now Johnny has disappeared and it is up to Lane to save him, again. Lane must untangle what Johnny has discovered and who would be trying to kill both of them.

The Forever Man worked as a noir crime fiction novel for me, one that just happened to be set in the future. The sci-fi elements are there and believable, but it's the search and digging up information in a bleak world that really propelled the novel along and compelled me to read faster. The sci-fi elements of the world are just a given, they are just background and there as Lane tries to stay alive and figure out what has happened to Johnny and why. Lane is a great character, he has his standards, but he also knows that he may have to revise them in order to survive. His search takes him through all levels of society.

The back story of characters is developed through flashbacks, a technique that works for this novel, and I thought the character development was good. Ouellette raises some interesting questions about seeking to live forever - or beyond the Gompertz Curve - and what questions might arise with living an extremely long life. This is done embedded in the story rather than in a pushy, glaringly obvious lecturing way, something I appreciate.

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from Random House for TLC review purposes.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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SheTreadsSoftly | 3 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Mar 21, 2016 |
In a world not too far off from our own, where the 1% truly have everything, include all the plastic surgery and organ transplants they want or need to slow the signs of aging and governments have sold off schools and parks and entire neighborhoods to the wealthy, what is left? And what happens when a genius figures out how to slow aging to such levels that a person might as well be immortal? This little gem has a suggestion. We follow the genius's brother as he tries to stop a corporation and a very old, very rich man from subverting work that could be used to improve life for everyone into a fountain of youth for the filthy rich alone. The science in this fiction is not that far off, either.
I read this book at Netgalley.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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susanbeamon | 3 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jul 3, 2014 |
I would like to thank NetGalley & Alibi for granting me a copy of this e-ARC to read in exchange for an honest review. Though I received this e-book for free that in no way impacts my review.

Goodreads Blurb:
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.


This story of greed, corruption, love, loyalty, and the quest for eternal life is set in the not too distant future. As far as I could determine this story takes place in the early to mid 2020's. While the world isn't the one we know now, the changes aren't so radical as to make them unbelievable. Mr. Ouellette has created the ultimate near-future world for this story to play out in. Even the premise of the story is believable, for as a species we've been chasing the idea of immortality almost as long as we've existed.

The hero of this story isn't quite your average Joe, but he is working class and as such he almost instantly becomes someone most readers can probably relate to. His filial loyalty makes him both the ideal brother and an extremely likable, and approachable, protagonist. Lane is a contract cop on the cusp of being deemed too old to continue on in his chosen profession, while his younger brother Johnny is a brilliant scientist whose star appears to be on the verge of a meteoric rise to fame and more money than he has ever imagined. But Johnny is bipolar, which means that when his mood swings toward the the manic high, his ability to make intelligent choices swings just as far in the opposite direction, causing him think he's invincible. When reality finally catches up with Johnny it's always been big brother Lane who has come to his rescue.

Part of what sets of this entire story in motion are Johnny's bipolar mood swings. His most recent swing led him to make a demand of his employer. Oddly enough, that demand protects him, but not for long. Just before dropping off the map Johnny calls Lane, sounding uncharacteristically frightened, enough so to scare Lane into searching for him.

A large portion of Lane's appeal is his lack of guile. He is a very genuine person, or at least he is when he's not undercover. And that lack of guile is something of a novelty in that day and age, one which attracts certain people to him. People who may be in the position to assist him in his search for his brother. It doesn't hurt that his search seems to run parallel to someone else's search for information, bringing them together to pool their resources.

Throughout the course of Lane's search he encounters a variety of personalities and experiences. Some of the choices he makes will likely have long-term ramifications that he can't even fathom. But throughout it all he remains true to himself, a remarkable feat given some of the choices he faces. The hints of romance that Lane experiences never seem to be explored, yet at times it feels as if they may have actually taken place off-stage so to speak.

Though this story provides a wild ride, it starts out a bit slow. But by the time I was roughly one-third of the way in (maybe a bit farther) it really exploded out of the gate. There was enough not-stop action and psychological drama to satisfy the toughest customer. Though I found the ending satisfying, there was one piece of the story that was never resolved (or at least not that I noticed), and that single piece is like a loose tooth, I can't stop worrying it. Because that particular piece has the ripple effect, and the results will just keep spreading. However my main concern is for what is at the center of the action in the unresolved section. And I'm not talking about the crystal clear section that is left open for interpretation at the end. If you think you've found it after reading the book, please leave me a private message with the book's title and let me know what you think I'm referring to (wouldn't want it anywhere that it could become a spoiler for those yet to read this compelling story).
… (lisätietoja)
 
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Isisunit | 3 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jun 28, 2014 |
I would like to thank Random House Publishing Group - Alibi for the opportunity to read this book.

This book never really got past 3 stars for me, and there are a few reasons for that. Mostly the book just kind of frustrated me, because Lane kind of ran around in circles the whole time and nothing was really ever done to save Johnny. That was my main problem with the book. Throughout most of the book, he needed to save Johnny, but he wasn't very proactive about that it seemed like to me. That frustrated me immensely.

Plus all the flashbacks. I didn't quite see the point of the flashbacks in this book, because after the beginning of the book, Johnny wasn't around, and Lane was kind of running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to find him. The flashbacks to Lane and Johnny's childhood seemed like extra, not needed information to me.

Rachel was the only character who I kind of connected with, and then only for a short time. She seemed to be the one with the power to actually DO anything proactive and was the one making things happen, even if it was only in the background.

Overall, I'm not impressed with this book, and while I started to enjoy it more towards the end, it definitely wasn't a book for me. Maybe someone else would enjoy it more, but I didn't that much.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own, and I am never compensated for my reviews.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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TheGrandWorldofBooks | 3 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jun 2, 2014 |

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