By Bruce Sterling
First Published: 1996
In an era when life expediencies stretch 100 years or more and adhering to healthy habits is the only way to earn better medical treatments, ancient “post-humans” dominate society with their ubiquitous wealth and power. By embracing the safe and secure, 94-year-old Mia Ziemann has lived a long and quiet life. Too quiet, as she comes to realize, for Mia has lost the creative drive and ability to love–the holy fire–of the young. But when a radical new procedure makes Mia young again, she has the chance to break free of society’s cloying grasp.