The Child Garden (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Geoff Ryman
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—extrapolatory
- Time of Work: The near future
- Setting: Czechoslovakia, London, and outer space
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: Homosexuality or homosexuals, Future, Cancer, Lesbianism or lesbians, London, Bioengineering or biotechnology, Immunity, Intellect, Czechoslovakia or Czechoslovakians, Angels, Viruses
- Locales: Space, London, England, Czechoslovakia
The Plot
In the futuristic London of The Child Garden (subtitled A Low Comedy), bioengineered viruses infect people with common knowledge. Babies can add, and five-year-olds quote William Shakespeare. The viruses were designed to cure cancer. Unfortunately, the cure is worse than the disease, because cells now lack the ability to reproduce after a person reaches the age of thirty-five, halving the normal human life span.
The Consensus governs. It comprises personality copies of all the people who are “read” into it. Reading usually occurs when a person...
[The entire page is 1048 words long]
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