Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix and Holy Fire both have the protagonist breaking out of the traditional human life narrative as they grow older and get neater augmentation tech. Schismatrix is earlier and space operatic. Holy Fire is 90s post-cyberpunk and is more about biotech and radical life extension.
I read both 10+ years ago, so my memories are a bit hazy by now. Then I went and read Zeitgeist and haven’t touched a Bruce Sterling book since.
I’ll second Schismatrix and emphasize that it has a particular focus on whether it’s better to extend human life by purely organic/biological means or to use mechanical/technological enhancements.
Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix and Holy Fire both have the protagonist breaking out of the traditional human life narrative as they grow older and get neater augmentation tech. Schismatrix is earlier and space operatic. Holy Fire is 90s post-cyberpunk and is more about biotech and radical life extension.
I read both 10+ years ago, so my memories are a bit hazy by now. Then I went and read Zeitgeist and haven’t touched a Bruce Sterling book since.
I’ll second Schismatrix and emphasize that it has a particular focus on whether it’s better to extend human life by purely organic/biological means or to use mechanical/technological enhancements.
When I read Schismatrix I was distracted by the question of why people didn’t use a combined approach.