How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
The Batagaika Crater is where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus, when in 2030 a grieving archaeologist travels to the Arctic Circle to carry on the work of his recently deceased daughter.
Once it is released, the Arctic plague will drastically alter life on Earth for future generations. As it rapidly spreads around the world, humanity will be forced to come up with countless creative and inspiring solutions to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. A cynical employee of a theme park for children with terminal illnesses falls in love with a mother fighting for her infected boy there.
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
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When one of his test subjects—a pig—begins to exhibit human speech, a bereaved scientist seeking a cure is given a second shot at parenthood. A recently widowed painter and her teenage granddaughter set out on a cosmic journey to find a new world to call home.
In a story about the resiliency of the human spirit, our limitless capacity for dreaming, and the connective threads that bind us all together in the universe, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a journey that is both wildly original and compassionate, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies.
A virus that mainly affects children is the subject of this work of science fiction. Organ transplants are the only thing keeping children alive over the long run because organs mutate into other organs.
This has a foreboding, post-apocalyptic vibe. Through the mutations of the illness, we encounter a great number of individuals from this world and from various historical periods. We observe the novel therapies that go along with the viral mutation. We witness an amusement park where terminal children ride a roller coaster to their demise. We get to know the parents of students who made it through. We get to know the lonesome employees struggling to survive in this society.
The main focus of this story is a disease that almost completely destroys mankind. And it does it cruelly, prioritizing the children. It’s a very depressing tale that is also very well written. With the funeral business dominating the global economy, the planet essentially turns into a cemetery. Seriously. Kind of sad and difficult to support.
The book is organized as a collection of loosely connected short tales that all take place on the same miserable, depressing planet. At some time, an interstellar mission departs in search of a new planet. Whatever. Although it serves as a sort of plot device to bring everything together toward the conclusion of the book, it seemed very incidental to the main plot. The outcome was unexpected, creative, and depressing.
