Book Review: The Immortalist, A Thrilling Read

In between fishing yesterday, updating my blog’s look, and writing a short story as part of a job interview process, I finished reading The Immortalist: A Sci-Fi Thriller by Scott Britz. It was definitely a thrilling read.

I didn’t catch any fish, but I really enjoyed the surroundings!

This is my where-have-all-the-fishies-gone face

What Is The Immortalist About?

From GoodReads:

World-renowned virologist Dr. Cricket Rensselaer-Wright abruptly abandoned her research in Africa after watching her colleague die tragically from the Ebola virus. When she returns to the States to reunite with her teenage daughter Emmy, her plans are sidetracked. No sooner does she set foot on the campus of Acadia Springs—the research institute where she grew up and Emmy now lives—than her onetime mentor Charles Gifford announces his discovery of the Methuselah Vector, a gene therapy agent that can confer immortality on a patient after a single injection.

Gifford’s air of triumph is marred when a young woman on campus dies suddenly from a horrific viral infection, eerily similar to the Ebola that drove Cricket out of Africa. Despite Cricket’s pleas to slow down the rollout of the Vector and run more tests, Gifford refuses. And when the unthinkable happens—when Emmy falls ill with the same mysterious disease—Cricket is forced to take matters into her own hands. But is it already too late?

Gifford will stop at nothing to release the Vector into the world. Mobs are clamoring for it. Cricket has only a few hours to find a cure for Emmy, and to convince the public that Gifford’s quest for eternal life may cost the very lives he hopes to save.

Would You Like The Immortalist?

• Yes, if you like lots of detail in your books. Because it’s a medical sci-fi written by a professor at Harvard Medical School, his depiction of the science behind how gene manipulation could conceivably cause immortality with one injection, and, if done even the slightest bit wrong, rampant superviruses that could just as easily kill everyone on the planet is very realistic and chilling. The book’s level of detail reminds me of The Hero and The Crown by Robin McKinley, which I just reviewed here. It also kind of reminds of the DaVinci Code.
• Yes, if you like smart, conflicted women. Cricket is brilliant but thoughtful, introverted but able to see and care about the bigger picture. She’s conflicted about her relationships with her daughter and her ex-husband, about her career, etc. In some respects, she kind of reminds me of Addie in Love & Luck, even though the two books are totally different.

Nutrition Facts

Swear words: 207

Sex scenes: 1

Functional relationships (featuring love+ effort, or some kind of formal promise): 4

Dysfunctional relationships/characters (feature love – effort = discord, or just plain animosity or greed): 3

Should You Buy It?

Yes! The Kindle version is $4.99 on Amazon right now!