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“What to call it?”
The human population is due to hit eight billion in around a month’s time. That’s November 2022, for those of you in the future, already dealing with this. This rapid growth is one of the biggest issues facing humanity now, as we struggle to find space and food for everyone. What we do about the growing numbers, we don’t know, as every idea seems controversial. In Guy Morpuss’s novel, we see one version of how we could solve it.
When the planet’s overpopulation reached critical mass, society began to split. At seventeen, you can choose whether to have your mind uploaded into an android body that won’t require any food or water, to live a hedonistic life but be guaranteed death by forty-two, or, in the case of Kate, Mike, Ben, Sierra and Alex, become a commune: five minds in one body. It allows one to live for nearly 150 years, but for only four hours a day, meaning many other compromises have to be made.
After two decades of petty bickering, the five agree that it’s time for a new host body, so they go to Death Park where they can earn enough time to make the necessary upgrades that will make the future bearable. But when Kate accepts a risky off to extent their lives by twenty years, it seems that something goes wrong. Ben wakes up early and Mike has disappeared, which shouldn’t be possible. Now with someone trying to kill off members of the commune, the survivors must work out how to catch a murderer – which might be almost impossible if it turns out they’re sharing a body with them…
I love some solid worldbuilding, but sometimes it can slow down the pace of a story if the exposition drags. Here, we’re just thrown right in and told to get on with it, and it’s all the better for it. There are a few hints as to what’s going on, but the science and politics and history of the specifics is left out. We don’t need it, and the thriller aspects rise up to the fore. This is an outstanding piece of science fiction, and explores ideas I’ve never seen before. The concept of having humans sharing bodies is a really interesting one, and a cool idea for combatting population numbers that are spiralling out of control.
I had assumed, though, that the body was swapped out on a daily basis, but actually it’s every four hours, with the last four of the day used for the body to shut down and perform maintenance on itself. This means each person in the commune sees a different time of day, with Alex never seeing the sun, and Mike never seeing darkness. Everyone has just four hours to do everything they need to do, which can be hampered by wherever the last person to use the body left it. I love that rules are in place on where to leave bodies, and there was ways – some more legal than others – of extending the amount of hours, and years, you get left. The technology is, as I said, never fully explained, but I don’t need it to be. The internal logic of the novel works just fine.
A really wonderful debut from a brilliant mind. I very much look forward to seeing what else Morpuss comes up with.
Looking for something else? Try my novels, The Atomic Blood-Stained Bus (the story of a cannibal and an ex-god) and The Third Wheel (a comedic alien invasion tale), test yourself with a quiz from my book Questioning Your Sanity, or visit my website and I’ll cultivate you a whole quiz on whatever subjects you like. If you just want more reviews, guide yourself around my blog with the navigation bar and find hundreds of reviews at your fingertips.
