Sub-Human was an Amazon freebie that I picked up just before Christmas. It is book 1 of the Post Human series by David Simpson. Normally, I read historical romance, but the pickings were probably slim on the freebie list for that on that day, because I think that I found about three to four e-books on dystopian science fiction. Now, having read several stories in this genre, I think that I can say that generally, these books are secular and humanistic in nature. Often, they include the topics of cyborgs, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, nuclear war, ecological destruction, alternative universes, transference of human consciousness into computers, and the collapse of society as we currently know it.
In Sub-Human, almost all of the topics listed above are included, but instead of broaching the topic of transferring human consciousness into a computer, an artificial intelligence (AI) is dumped into Dr. Craig Emilson, a soldier who had died, but had been revived by his former wife, Samantha, and her new husband, Dr. Aldous Gibson. Craig had been dead for 14 years after the end of World War III, which came about because the current leader, President Morgan, wanted to wipe all forms of post-human development in order to preserve humanity in its pure, unadulterated state (i.e. having no physical technological modifications or being threatened by the presence of AI).
However, Morgan and his Purist troops have come to destroy and annihilate the Post-Humans in their hidden base, hours within Craig's revival. The new world is confusing for Craig, who now must adapt to being a Post-Human without any help except from the AI that he is charged with protecting from the Purists who are in pursuit.
This novel troubled me at first because I felt empathy for Craig's character; he has been broadsided by the fact that Samantha, his wife, has moved on. For her, 14 years had passed since his death, but for Craig, it seemed as if only a few hours has passed since he last saw her. The ethics and morality of reviving a person who has clearly died and has been dead for 14 years is questionable, especially since it appears that Samantha and Aldous revived Craig for scientific reasons and because they could do it. I didn't get the sense that they spent much time considering how it would feel for Craig to realize that his wife is no longer his, but to another man whom Craig was suspicious of before he died. Perhaps Aldous did, but Samantha was not intuitive enough to figure out that this would pose a big problem if Craig did return to life.
Also thought provoking: Aldous is chronologically 74 years old, but he now appears to be around 30 years old. His post-human research has enabled him to turn back the biological clock and give him the body of a younger man. He has achieved a form of immortality through the nanotechnology in his body, which can repair aging and diseased tissue. Post-Humans can still die, but it may take longer and be more difficult than killing the average human.
Besides touching the issues of immortality achieved through technological advances, Sub-Human tries to explore what the term itself actually means. In the novel, different groups, factions, and people define it differently, but I want to point out two from the novel. To a Purist like Morgan, the Post-Humans are sub-human because they are no longer "pure" physiologically or cognitively (this coming from a conversation that Aldous has with a doctor from which he is asking help from). For Aldous, a Post-Human, the sub-humans are the Purist forces that have slaughtered and killed billions of people, average or post-human, in order to eradicate the world of post-human development (also described from the same conversation as described in the previous sentence). I also found it a bit ironic that, though the Purists' leaders were trying to protect the purity of humanity, they had no qualms about turning their armed forces into cyborgs in order to stamp out the Post-Humans.
It was difficult for me to like many of the characters in the novel. The one that I was most sympathetic to, again, was Craig, because he seemed to care about people the most. I liked how humane Aldous was until the Purist forces killed Samantha, his wife. The way he threw ethical standards away for vengeance was a bit head spinning, and I didn't really care for that. There was an antagonistic character, a Purist soldier named Paine, who I understood was honourable in a twisted way, in which he wanted to maintain the integrity of the timey-wimey space/time continuum, however, he was a bit over the top in his nastiness, so I didn't like him much either. I totally did not like Samantha; she gave a rather callous response in how she didn't ask for billions of lives to be lost just because her group wanted to continue with their post-human research. In my opinion, "the needs of the few don't outweigh the needs of the many," especially with billions of lives in the balance.
What I find interesting, on reflection, is how the desire for immortality pops up in science fiction, and that in this genre, the desire is sometimes supposedly achieved through the path of technological advances. This is comparable to how this desire to live forever is reflected in some of the vampire or werewolf fiction that I've read elsewhere; a bite from one of these dark creatures may transfer some sort of immortality, but they could still be killed under certain circumstances (e.g. by beheading, stake through the heart, exposure to sunlight, by silver bullet through the heart, etc.). However, in these fictional accounts, this kind of immortality is also limited, and is not absolute.
There is some swearing and violence in Sub-Human.
I have not read the other installments of the Post Human series other than a quick peek at the fifth book in the series which was also offered for free during that Christmas week. However, in my opinion, the novel ends at a point where a reader can stop and leave this fictional universe if there is no more desire to read about what happens next.
Edited on January 3, 2017 to add:
There is no room for God in this series. It appears that the concept of god is...post-human. A quick peek into another of the subsequent books (not book five) indicates that some of the testing that the AI had to undergo appears to have much akin to torture. Just reading what I have is a bit bewildering.
I took at look into this genre to see what ideas are being bandied about for spirituality (God) and immortality, but the world being described is pretty dark, depressing, and nihilistic to me.
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1 Corinthians 15:51- 52 (NIV) Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
