Out of all the books that I have read this year, this is one of the better ones because Magary thought of everything that a reader would like answered. Ho religion changes, marriages, work, life, adventure, sports, everything. This book brought about a sense of insecurity to readers because for many centuries, there was a search for eternal life, and Magary presents it in this book. Now that the cure is finally here, the world turns into hell. John, the main character in the book, took the cure just because he could, and when he dies, he lives a regular lifetime. He died at eighty-nine, and not many people lived past their normal lifetime. It's interesting to see the world change dramatically over the course of sixty years. In addition, John is a despicable character, but he fits perfectly in this book because we see his journey of trying to become a better person throughout the book, which he fails at time and time again until the very end when he is with Solara, the woman that he was pining after since the beginning of the novel. John did not know how to father David, his first child and only child, but when he found that Solara was pregnant, he wanted to father this child because he was finally ready to take responsibility. Not only do most of the people in the book live the the average lifespan, they live it at a still age of usually under thirty. Onto the cure...Graham Otto found the cure to everlasting life when he was experimenting permanent hair dye. His son, Steven, discovered the Skeleton Key, a cure to help the body to fight infections and all sorts of diseases, including obesity. By the end of the book, the world is coming to an end. China is bombing itself. The military have turned against their countries. The end specialists have started to kill off the populations to make room on the planet. Magary left no details out and thought of everything of what the future would be like. It is evident that he took his time to write it, and the product is perfection. I only pray that the world never sees the cure to everlasting life because this fallen world would fall even deeper. The first two-thirds of the story is split into different time periods which conveyed well the impact on society that the cure for aging had - the initial excitement and availability of the cure through the black market in 2019, the eventual subsequent legalisation and celebration (and resentment) of the cure by the masses, the predictable struggles between pro-death and pro-cure camps, the eradication of ‘organics’, the significant strain on resources and services from a rapidly growing population and the culmination of all of this into the need for ‘end specialisation’. I enjoyed the transitionary period where the cure first became available the most and 2059 (about a third from the end), when John initially takes on the role of helping to kill people, the least. This is where the story seemed to get stuck in a groove. I understand the book is called the End Specialist in the UK, which I think is the more appropriate title. John’s relationships with his dad, his ex-girlfriend, Alison and his son are all bland and one-dimensional. Some of the deaths in this book are fairly comical and the presence of the ‘greenies’ took away any sort of seriousness that the book was trying to convey. Matt, John’s boss and Ernie, John’s colleague were also both boring characters, even Matt’s senseless purchases didn’t really bring any excitement about for me.Overall, I felt there was a real lack of description of a world that a cure for aging had created. I didn’t get a sense of what it would really be like to live with so many people that just didn’t die. The lack of descriptions other than ‘a lot of homeless people’ and ‘plug-ins piled up on the side of the street’ left me disappointed. In fact, did we ever receive an explanation of what a plug-in was? I just guessed. I like the idea of the book (especially through the use of articles, bulletins etc. I did struggle to see how John’s conversations and thoughts had been recorded though - through a journal, perhaps?) but the execution was underwhelming. 3 stars.
What do You think about The Postmortal (2011)?
Enjoyed the premise. Abrupt ending that somer-saulted at an accelerated rate until the end.
—0448474234
Brings up some interesting points but lost it's way a bit towards the middle
—Jay
Excellent. Also known as The End Specialist.
—hjjh
Lesser known but good light dystopian read
—Miller142
