Tech Heaven

Tech Heaven is a science fiction novel by Linda Nagata.

This is Linda Nagata's second book and is in a lot of ways, a lot better than her first (The Bohr Maker(TBM)). It's easier to read, it has a better flow and it also has a lot more to say. At the same time I think that it has lost something when compared to TBM - TBM is mostly about technology and Tech-Heaven is mostly about politics (and I like technology in my reading, but I also like politics when it's well written).

Tech Heaven takes place in a near future and over a span of 30 years. It starts off when Katie Kishida loses her husband Tom in an accident - but both Katie and Tom are members of Future Forward, a company that freezes people right after they die, in the hope that a cure can be deviced later. Katie has Tom frozen over protests from other family members. The rest of the book is about all of the consequences this leads to - hate within the family, Katie can't get on with her life etc. etc. All of this is old hat, but Nagata writes this so well and she adds a lot more - A changing society, that doesn't want to waste food and resources on people that are already dead, a society that is scared of the nanotechnology that will be necessary if Tom is ever going to be revived and to top it all off Nagata adds VR as the factor that makes national borders meaningless.

Highly recommended.

Review by bon

TECH HEAVEN starts off with the main love object dead. Katie Kashida is hell bent on making her devoted corpse she loves alive again. Now backtrack into how he died and the surrounding loving family that thinks he should stay dead or be frozen solid with cyrogenics.

Tom the corpse has a sister who is pretty conservative about the fact the soul stuck in that poor corpse wants out. Tom is dead, he has no say, hiswife Katie does though and she wants him back (herfirst love at 18, she has no choice). The controversy of the cyrogenic mauseleum where all the expensive corpses get iced is a constant target by ignoroids and religious types to go bonkers over. Linda has to runaround with that corpse all over the place until she can repair the poor dear. Tom is in la la landdreaming of oni demons tearing kids apart and playings eal-yeti on the slopes of the alps in dreamtime. He is torturously climbing the mountain into consciousness, growing wings and making the consciencedo hurdles. As the book gets further on you catch up to the timewhere the last book Linda wrote THE BOHR MAKER(recommended read plead) ended and it overlaps nicely and independently into TECH HEAVEN.

I, by this time, am ripping my fingertips in frustration because they can’t turn the pages fast enough. Katie is in the mountain fortress where all the specially frozen corpse lay. Everyone and their mother wants her dead. She has no toilet up there. That’s the least of her worries, believe me. There’s an old dilemma that comes up here: “listen lady, if we start fixing up all the corpses, where do we put em? How do you feed them? The earth is only so big. You must die *****!” So on. The loving wife (this corpse Tom must be one hell of a great guy) is public enemy number one, especially if you have God backing you up as a morality booster and a bible strapped to your gun holstered keister. She can use all the help she can get. I didn’t like the fact that the book had all these bursting graphics every chapter taking up preciousroom at the top and bottom of the page. These were mainly around the latest news blurbs that showed the status quo of the earth as it ages with main supertarget Katie the wife. I didn’t like it because there could’ve been words in the place of the graphic making the book a bit longer. Yes folks, I didn’t want this book to end. If I had a way to erase my brain and reread this book over and over and over I would. It’ssooooooooo good!! If you have a major task to do, dont read this book. You will neglect eating, sleeping or working. This book should be only read on a weekend!!!