LONGER

A cerebral story about the ethics and emotional impact of
extending the human life span.

Cav and Gunjita are scientists. They’re conducting research on the
space station Gleem One, testing a cutting-edge drug to see how it responds to
zero-gravity conditions. They’re also married—for 50 years already, and
Gunjita’s looking forward to another 60. She has just “juved” at the age of 82,
returning her body to youth and health. But Cav is waiting, considering, asking
himself whether three lifetimes is more than a person ought to need. More than
he needs. When a deep-space mining probe returns to the station with an
asteroid sample that has a mysterious yellow-green lump of something—something
alive?—attached to it, the scientific mystery will affect both Cav and Gunjita
deeply, testing their relationship even as they wrestle with the question of
whether or not Cav is going to extend his life a second time. Blumlein (All
I Ever Dreamed, 2018, etc.) is tackling the biggest possible questions in
this slim volume: If it were possible to live three or more lifetimes, would
you? Should you? What do we owe the people we love? What makes life worth
living? The story itself is spare and demands close attention, as whole worlds
and lives are sketched with a few well-chosen details. The result is
thought-provoking, if not always emotionally affecting.

This intriguing thought experiment will please readers who like to
contemplate the meaning of it all.