Règne Des Immortels

An elegant and far-ranging novel exploring the nature of life, death, and humanity

Josepha is more than three hundred years old, but she doesn’t look a day over twenty-two. When she was fourteen, she wanted to die, but an overdose of pills was not enough to kill her. Soon after that came the Transition—the great breakthrough that offered extended life to all humanity—and so for three centuries, death has been denied her. There are those who flee from immortality to death cults, taking refuge in seppuku—starvation—or ritual duels, but Josepha is about to become the mother of the children who will change humankind.
 
In this sweeping novel, hailed as “a major intellectual achievement . . . a landmark” by noted science fiction writer and reviewer Algis Budrys, Pamela Sargent explores the vast changes immortality might bring to those compelled by older instincts as they struggle to master the technology that could offer them an escape from humanity’s dark past.