Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Anyone ever read the book Feed by M.T. Anderson? I had to freshman year of high school. The world set up by Love Minus Eighty reminded me of Feed, though LMF is much more complex and felt more realistic, and understood that technology doesn't degrade language - you can look up everything! But they're both about such technologically advanced futures that people are assumed to be plugged into everything constantly. Here it's through wearable devices while Feed was a brain implant.
Anyway, the novel centers around a future in which people who have sustained horrible injuries can be frozen and brought back to life, at a very high dollar amount. For those who don't have freezing insurance, if they are young and scientifically pretty enough, they can be put in the bridesicle program where if a man likes them enough, he can pay to bring them back and they have to be his bride for life. But it's another shot at life after having died.
It is a couple of chapters before you connect the characters and see where it's all going but all the characters are connected, which I also like.
The technologically advanced world is very complete, mentioning those people who shun technology, how the world is for people of different economic statuses, the people who love every bit of the technology and use it for fame, plus those average in-betweeners. The story itself was amazing - I almost don't want to say anything to give anything away for anyone who wants to read it. It's an interesting take on the idea of freezing people until technology is advanced enough to bring them back, or until they find someone rich enough to bring them back, even squeezed in some morality and religion in there. I read a lot of science fiction but while others focus on dystopian outcomes (massive changes in social structure) this felt more of a continuation of what we are now. Just us - in the future. The interactions between the characters was very organic, very believable, and you feel for everyone... well except Lorelei :)
Anyway, as a whole, it was a great and creative story. It was well thought out and well developed. I thought it was fantastic
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