Reddit reviews The First Immortal: A Novel Of The Future

Possibly of interest, an older book by James Halperin, The First Immortal.

It's somewhere between speculative fiction and an ad for Alcor, but it does touch on a number of interesting ideas around cryo, both around the logistics of maintenance in perpetuity and what revival might be like.

He supposedly wrote it while considering the option himself, so it's pretty well-researched albeit now probably a little quaint as pre-smartphone futurism tends to be.

Becoming Alien by Rebecca Ore

The Skinner by Neil Asher. Don't know if that's "obscure", but I have not seen reference to it here before.

The First Immortal by James Halperin

Count Geiger's Blues by Michael Bishop. Again, don't know if this is "obscure", but it's really fantastic, as is everything by Mr Bishop.

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde. Hilarious fantasy kind-of like Wicked in genre.

DragonWorld By Byron Preiss and Michael Reeves. Like The Hobbit, but a larger scaled world, more characters, a bit more complex story-line. 12-15 year olds would love it. I've never met anyone who has read this book.

I read this a number of years ago, but it has stuck with me a long time. The author posits the creation of a universal lie detector that can also eliminate those who are not capable of telling truth from fiction and proceeds to examine the effects on society. He also has a quasi-sequel called The First Immortal set in the same universe. Unfortunately it is only available in paperback.

The First Immortal by James Halperein is a novel all about the ramifications of cryonics. It's been years since I read it, but I remember finding it enjoyable and thought-provoking. However, it is not available as an audiobook, or even an ebook.

It's not exactly what you are looking for, but The Dead Zone by Stephen King is about someone who wakes up after several years in a coma. Also quite good.

Best,

Geoff Jones

Author of The Dinosaur Four

The First Immortal: cryonics, with a great undercurrent of cultural and psychological changes.

Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn is a space opera with a well constructed history, but A Second Chance at Eden is the real reason I'm mentioning him in /r/futurology. It felt like a realistic look at the future.

I'd add that the article is well structured and consistently provides a non-scientist point of view that seems approachable by the general audience of Time Magazine (e.g. my parents).

While not directly Kurzweil, I'd note that my favorite fiction book on the subject is The First Immortal by James Halperin (link to Amazon)

The First Immortal: https://www.amazon.com/First-Immortal-Novel-Future/dp/0345421825

You might enjoy checking out The First Immortal, by James L. Halperin [https://www.amazon.com/First-Immortal-Novel-Future/dp/0345421825] - he does an incredible job of exploring this kind of thing while telling an engaging story. His other major book, The Truth Machine, runs in the same universe and interweaves well.

You should read The First Immortal. The timeline is off, but the science is pretty sound, especially in the corrected edition.

I searched for books like Tomorrow and Tomorrow and found this.

http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Immortal-Novel-Future/dp/0345421825

Probably also written too late, but I figured I would drop it here anyways in case you were off about the date.

The First Immortal by James Halperin changed my beliefs on "the afterlife" and cryogenic freezing. Really fucking awesome book.

http://www.amazon.com/First-Immortal-Novel-Future/dp/0345421825/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346266183&sr=1-1&keywords=the+first+immortal

The Truth Machine by James L. Halperin.
(I'd suggest The First Immortal by the same author, but it doesn't look like there is a Kindle version.)