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Holy Fire

Holy Fire starts off strong: It follows Mia Ziemann, a 94-year-old woman living in the late 21st century, after the age of catastrophes that greatly reduced the world's population. Mia visits an ex-lover who gives her the key to an on-line safe-house he's owned, which he thinks she might find useful. We also see Mia interact with a young woman from the current generation; the younger folk are disenfranchised by the rich older folk, and there's substantial generational tension there.

The science-fictional hook of the novel is a rejuvenation process which Mia undergoes to make her physically 20 years old again. Sterling's description of this process is a bit grotesque in its detail, but incredibly realistic and well-thought-out.

After the process, Mia becomes mentally unbalanced, runs away from the doctors observing her, take a plane to Germany, adopts the name Maya, and works her way into a group of anarcho-artists there. Although we're only 1/5 of the way through the book, this is where it begins to fall apart.

At best, Holy Fire is a book about what it means to be alive, and taking risks, and finding one's role in life; although the old folks in a sense have it all, Maya finds that she's willing to give it all up to be able to do what she wants, in her own way. Problem is, the 200-odd pages it takes her to really learn and absorb this lesson are not very interesting, as they involve a lot of sex, drugs, and running around, and not a whole lot of plot (although there is a lot of artsy philosophy). The book is not very well focused, although I admit that for me a good plot is an important element of a book.

Holy Fire seems to know what it wants to say, but doesn't really know how to say it; I don't recommend it.