::: The Declaration (Malley)

[delphipsmith]

Another dystopia but this one lives up to its name :) YA, which means it was a quick read without a lot of subtlety and left me wanting longer, richer, deeper, just plain more, of course, but "a good effort" as Franz Joseph said to Mozart. Given the behavior of huge corporations, particularly those in the pharmaceutical industry, the power of the Longevity corporations was all too believable; their ideal world is full of happy little immortal (human) sheep and they do whatever it takes to ensure it stays that way, an eerily credible scenario. I can believe that they'd, um, "encourage" everyone to sign The Declaration. The ending was a mix of powerful (Anna's parents' attempt to save her and Ben) and fairy-dust-easy (no way the soldiers would just stand down). I wanted more about several of the characters, notably Miss Pincent and her loser husband and father (where did she learn how to do this mind-f**k on the kids??) but also Anna's parents, and the whole underground movement.

I also wish she'd explored some of the larger questions of what would happen if everyone was immortal. Would everyone be, or only the ones with the money? How often do people do the "A life for a life" exchange? Is it considered noble or shameful? Who's raising the food? Nobody would want to be a farmer for eternity. If it's automatically produced then do people bother to go to work or do they just sit around playing bridge and comparing their latest face lifts? What about this black market in childrens' stem cells? Without the influx of new people, is there a slowdown in innovation, ideas, inventions, etc? What's the impact of that on society, science, etc? Is the whole world just some big stagnant pond? Like I said, I wanted more!

All things considered I give it two thumbs up. Not as good as Genesis but better than the Lessing book :)