X-Message-Number: 19386 Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2002 15:55:44 -0400 From: Robin Helweg-Larsen <> Subject: cryonics in fiction - Gene Wolfe Is anyone keeping a list of cryonics-related fiction? I'd be interested in seeing it. I've just discovered a story that was new to me, "The Doctor of Death Island", in Gene Wolfe's "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories" (yes, he can be very convoluted, and oblique to the point of incomprehensible, but he's also worth the effort!), Pocket Books, 1980. It doesn't say whether any of the stories were published earlier or not. Excerpt: 'Albany, NY (AP) The State Board of Correction disclosed today that Alan Alvard had become the first prisoner in U.S. penal history to undergo cryogenic freezing. Alvard's attorneys successfully contended that since he could afford the process and was suffering a terminal illness, to deny it would constitute a de facto sentence of execution, contrary to the intent of the court. Alvard, an inventor and publisher, was given a life sentence two years ago.' In the mere 40 years he is down (useful for plot purposes) Cell Therapy has been developed, and they've cured his cancer before he is 'revivified'. He aches, is tired, looks like hell, his muscles have atrophied (whether in suspension or in the curative process before revivification it doesn't say), but his cancer is cured, and, although there isn't any rejuvenation yet, there is suspension of aging. It has a very realistic feel. Robin HL Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19386