Vitals
Encyclopedia
Vitals is a 2002 science fiction
/techno-thriller
novel
written by Greg Bear
, and nominated for a John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2002.
It centres on Hal Cousins, a scientist who wishes to find a way to prevent death. He gets his funding from angel investors - rich businessmen who are keen to live a thousand years. However, on a fact-finding exploration in a small submarine, his pilot goes berserk, starts spouting gibberish, and tries to kill him. He survives, but when he gets back to the ship, he finds that a member of the crew also went mad and started spouting gibberish, killing four scientists on board the ship. The rest of the crew is distant from him, on the grounds of what he calls bad mojo. He is disowned by the sponsor in question. Hal's twin brother Rob is shot, by who is later revealed to be Ben Bridger.
The story develops from there, taking in his twin brother's widow, Lissa; Rudy Banning, a once respected professor and writer turned into an anti-semitic
conspiracy theorist
by a brain-altering microbe; and a scheming group of immortals
who want to stay unique. They are able to do this because they have access to bacteriological
research by Russian scientist Maxim Golokhov from the 1940s who was working for Beria and Stalin
. Stalin possibly cameos in the story, but the issue is left vague.
There are five parts with different first-person narrators. Parts one, three, and five are narrated by Hal Cousins, and parts two and four are narrated by Benjamin Bridger.
By the end of the book, the main characters are all either dead, irrelevant, or the victim of mind altering xenophages.
Some elements of the book relate to transhumanism
and life extension
. Biology is a major theme in Bear's work, and bacteria
and bacterial intelligence played a central role in his 1983 novel Blood Music as well.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
/techno-thriller
Techno-thriller
Techno-thrillers are a hybrid genre, drawing subject matter generally from spy/action thrillers, fantasy/war novels, and science fiction...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by Greg Bear
Greg Bear
Gregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution...
, and nominated for a John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2002.
It centres on Hal Cousins, a scientist who wishes to find a way to prevent death. He gets his funding from angel investors - rich businessmen who are keen to live a thousand years. However, on a fact-finding exploration in a small submarine, his pilot goes berserk, starts spouting gibberish, and tries to kill him. He survives, but when he gets back to the ship, he finds that a member of the crew also went mad and started spouting gibberish, killing four scientists on board the ship. The rest of the crew is distant from him, on the grounds of what he calls bad mojo. He is disowned by the sponsor in question. Hal's twin brother Rob is shot, by who is later revealed to be Ben Bridger.
The story develops from there, taking in his twin brother's widow, Lissa; Rudy Banning, a once respected professor and writer turned into an anti-semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
conspiracy theorist
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
by a brain-altering microbe; and a scheming group of immortals
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
who want to stay unique. They are able to do this because they have access to bacteriological
Microbiology
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...
research by Russian scientist Maxim Golokhov from the 1940s who was working for Beria and Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
. Stalin possibly cameos in the story, but the issue is left vague.
There are five parts with different first-person narrators. Parts one, three, and five are narrated by Hal Cousins, and parts two and four are narrated by Benjamin Bridger.
By the end of the book, the main characters are all either dead, irrelevant, or the victim of mind altering xenophages.
Some elements of the book relate to transhumanism
Transhumanism
Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
and life extension
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
. Biology is a major theme in Bear's work, and bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
and bacterial intelligence played a central role in his 1983 novel Blood Music as well.