I've been burning through a few books in the past week, but haven't really had the opportunity to write my mini book reports. I finished Syne Mitchell's "The Last Mortal Man" yesterday afternoon, and the only thing I'm kicking myself over is the fact that I didn't notice until I was already invested in the novel that it is part of a series. Having said that, the book doesn't end on a cliffhanger that will have you throwing the book against the wall.

For those of you who have played the videogame Halo or Halo2, Mitchell is married to Eric Nylund, the sci-fi author who has written two of the Halo books. The funny thing is, Mitchell appears to be the better storyteller of the couple.

"The Last Mortal Man" is a story that takes place in the near and distant future when nanobiology has been discovered -- dramatically increasing lifespans and even allowing, for those who can afford it, immortality (called "The Deathless").

The world Mitchell creates is an intriguing one where even the little details have been noted. Nanobiology allows any food to be created at a molecular level instanteously. Mitchell notes that this technology spurred patent fights over the recipies used by these machines.

The story itself follows the family of the most powerful man on Earth -- venture capitalist Lucius Sterling -- who funded the technology and holds the key to immortality (Sterling can and does blackball people from undergoing the process to become Deathless.) Sterling's great-grandson, Jack, is deathly allergic to nanobiology and is forced to live his existence as a sort of futuristic bubble-boy until he escapes to live among a group of Mennonites in Montana. (Nanobiology is so pervasive in this future world that there are few places in the world where these little machines aren't floating through the air en masse.) Jack is forced out of his idyllic home and back into his family's service when the futuristic equivalent of a biological weapon threatens the nanobiological underpinnings of society.

The story is engrossing and moves quickly -- quickly enough that I wish the next novel was already in stores. For those old school sci-fi fans, there are parts of Mitchell's story that reminds me of Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End." Anyway, it's well worth a read if you're interested in science fiction.