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The extent of Zoe's own experimentations was listening to their gossip. Some of her friend even fell in love, and that was what hurt the most. More than breasts of height, she longed for movie-ending, Imax-sized love.
Too often, people don't even need reality to limit themselves. They just don't think highly enough of themselves to even attempt to learn or try anything new. The biggest gift of American astrophysicist and superstar nerd Neil deGrasse Tyson is to have made science enjoyable for just everybody that was willing to listen to him, deGrass Tyson would like Kira Peikoff's novel NO TIME TO DIE, because it exposes the concepts of science in a very alluring fashion through its narrative. It's also an ambitious book that both aims to teach and to entertain and that kind of meets its objectives, but doesn't create something greater than the sum of its parts. It's a very competent novel, but it's not transcendent.
Zoe Kincaid has a huge problem. She's been biologically stuck at 14 years old for a couple years. She is just not aging and she's trapped at the most awkward age possible. The word about her condition starts spreading in the medical/biological community and attracts the attention of a man nicknamed Galileo, who has started an underground study project meant to research the possibility of controlling the concept of aging. Galileo is a very wanted man and the authorities are trying their hardest to put an end to his project, fearing how virtual immortality (safe for fatal injuries, accidents, cataclysms and such) would change the geopolitical landscape. The two sides of this conflict want to grab a hold of Zoe, thinking she's the key to unlock a new age of mankind.
Here is the beautiful thing about science that NO TIME TO DIE exposes really well: Science is a set of tools meant to make the craziest ideas come true. Nothing is impossible, really. It is only temporarily so. The idea of stopping the process of aging has been around for a long time. J.R.R Tolkien illustrated it with his elves. I've thought about it after my first experiences with death. Kira Peikoff obviously thought about it a good deal and came up with an hypothesis of how it would be possible that make sense to me, although I'm not sure if the concept of a master regulator gene is something true or not. It doesn't matter really, authors like Michael Crichton made a career on scientific ideas who are theoretically true, so why wouldn't Kira Peikoff be able to do so?
Zoe Kincaid has a huge problem. She's been biologically stuck at 14 years old for a couple years. She is just not aging and she's trapped at the most awkward age possible. The word about her condition starts spreading in the medical/biological community and attracts the attention of a man nicknamed Galileo, who has started an underground study project meant to research the possibility of controlling the concept of aging. Galileo is a very wanted man and the authorities are trying their hardest to put an end to his project, fearing how virtual immortality (safe for fatal injuries, accidents, cataclysms and such) would change the geopolitical landscape. The two sides of this conflict want to grab a hold of Zoe, thinking she's the key to unlock a new age of mankind.
Here is the beautiful thing about science that NO TIME TO DIE exposes really well: Science is a set of tools meant to make the craziest ideas come true. Nothing is impossible, really. It is only temporarily so. The idea of stopping the process of aging has been around for a long time. J.R.R Tolkien illustrated it with his elves. I've thought about it after my first experiences with death. Kira Peikoff obviously thought about it a good deal and came up with an hypothesis of how it would be possible that make sense to me, although I'm not sure if the concept of a master regulator gene is something true or not. It doesn't matter really, authors like Michael Crichton made a career on scientific ideas who are theoretically true, so why wouldn't Kira Peikoff be able to do so?
...like, you know, time travel. Part of science fiction's job is to come up with crazy ideas.
I know it's a little unfair to criticize NO TIME TO DIE for not making a statement about its theme, but it bugged me. As I've finished the book, I had no idea what Kira Peikoff thought about theoretical agelessness except that she obviously finds it fascinating. The protagonist Zoe's dearest wish is to save her grandfather from his looming death because he's the only person treating her like an adult, really and she becomes the pawn of a game that's greater than her, but the game stays above her head even as the novel ends. I'm not sure if that was Kira Peikoff's way of writing a soft cliffhanger and prepare her audience for a sequel, But the ethical question her novel asks remains unanswered because Peikoff hasn't picked a side (a least not yet).
Amazing novels have a cohesiveness to them. They draw a greater purpose to their narrative without even trying. The Great Gatsby's about the ruthlessness of adult life, L.A Confidential is about the vicious pull of greed on human nature and so on. It's unfair to criticize NO TIME TO DIE for not being a great novel, but Kira Peikoff has both potential and ambition, and given her choice of genre (science fiction), it could be an explosive mix a couple novels down the line. NO TIME TO DIE has several interesting elements but the parts don't add up to something greater than what it is. It's an airport thriller that's a relatively good time, but that won't sweep you off your feet.
Amazing novels have a cohesiveness to them. They draw a greater purpose to their narrative without even trying. The Great Gatsby's about the ruthlessness of adult life, L.A Confidential is about the vicious pull of greed on human nature and so on. It's unfair to criticize NO TIME TO DIE for not being a great novel, but Kira Peikoff has both potential and ambition, and given her choice of genre (science fiction), it could be an explosive mix a couple novels down the line. NO TIME TO DIE has several interesting elements but the parts don't add up to something greater than what it is. It's an airport thriller that's a relatively good time, but that won't sweep you off your feet.