Book description
The twentieth century lies hundreds of years in humanity's past. But
the near-immortal citizens of the future yearn for the good old days -
when people's bodies were susceptible to death through disease and old
age. Now, they immerse themselves in virtual reality time machines to
explore the life-to-death arc that defined existence so long ago.
Jacob Brewer is a virtual reality engineer overseeing the time machine's
operation aboard the starship Aspera
. But on the thousand-year voyage to Beta Hydrii, the
eight-hundred-member crew gets more reality than they expect when people
entering the machine start to die.
The time machine has become sentient. Obsessed with humanity, it wants
John Brewer to enter its confines - and discuss this fragile state of
being called life... Joe Haldeman (1943 - )
Joe William Haldeman was born in Oklahoma City in 1943. He holds
degrees in physics and astronomy, and served as a combat engineer in
Vietnam, where he was severely wounded and earned a Purple Heart. This
experience informed his best known work, the Hugo and Nebula
Award-winning The Forever War
. He is one of SF's most decorated authors, boasting 5 Hugos, 5 Nebulas,
the World Fantasy Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial and James
Tiptree, Jr Awards and the SFWA Grand Master Award amongst many others.
In addition to continuing to produce top quality SF, Joe Haldeman
teaches writing at MIT.
