Click Here To Purchase Dancing With Eternity

Author: John Patrick Lowrie

Publisher: Camel Press

ISBN-10: 1603818103

ISBN-13: 978-1603818100

Every once in a while, a new novel comes along that is both epic in scope and, at the same time, focused on a very personal, human drama. John Patrick Lowrie’s characters do indeed dance with eternity in a universe where humankind thinks it has mastered immortality. They believe technology has solved all problems. However . . .

The narrator of Dancing with Eternity is Mohandas, an unemployed actor who’s thousands of years old. He’s old enough to remember a time when humans could die, when they lived in monogamous relationships and bore children. But a telekinetic net has been created where individuals can re-boot over and over and even enhance themselves—especially with the ability to delete memories. Interstellar travel is common although a handful of planets are off limits. Then, “Mo” meets the beautiful Steel, a ship captain with a secret mission. After Mo joins the crew consisting of very memorable fellow travelers, he learns Steel’s quest involves a deadly plague, a planet called Eden where the residents refuse to join the immortality net, and a plan that is more than illegal. Steel is seeking a cure for a daughter that cannot, like her mother, be immortal. What price will Steel pay, and ask her team to pay, to change the destiny of but one human female?

This dense story is far richer than a capsule summary can suggest. In the best tradition of the best science fiction, the galactic setting is painted with vivid, believable detail. Recounting the history of a far-flung species over thousands of millennia is no mean feat, especially while raising a plethora of questions and issues throughout the narrative. In order to earn those re-boots, humans must often serve decades of indentured servitude to pay their bill. Without biological families, how do humans make lasting relationships, particularly when space travel means people age at very different rates? Everyone may be alive, but decades or centuries will have zipped by in between meetings.  And how does one handle haunted memories thousands of years in your nightmares?  

All of this is a lot to ask for in one volume, even one as lengthy as Dancing with Eternity. When the reader reaches the epilogue, we’ve traveled long and far with one disappointment to face. This is a self-contained opus with no apparent clues or cues to signal any sequels are coming, at least featuring this cast of characters. Then again, I suspect many readers will find themselves holding on to their copy so they can return to this adventure at least one more time. Dancing with Eternity can’t be fully absorbed in one go. You’ll want to re-boot yourself—back to the first page.