Signs of Life
First edition
AuthorM. John Harrison
Cover artistGary Day-Ellison
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction/
Biopunk novel
PublisherGollancz
Publication date
May 1997
Media typePrint Hardcover, Paperback
Pages255
ISBN0-575-05556-1
OCLC36582017
823/.914 21
LC ClassPR6058.A6942 S55 1997

Signs of Life is a novel by M. John Harrison published in 1997. The dystopian narrative centers on Mick "China" Rose, a biomedical transportation entrepreneur, and his lover Isobel Avens's dream of flying. The novel was nominated for the British Science Fiction Award in 1997,[1] and for the British Fantasy Award the following year.[2]

Mick "China" Rose starts up a medical courier service with associate Choe Ashton, who is given to erratic behavior and gnomic utterances. Their first job is illegally to dump a load of hazardous medical waste. Meanwhile, waitress Isobel Avens, China's live-in lover, dreams, literally, of flying. But as his business expands, Isobel becomes increasingly unhappy, complaining that she can no longer fly in her dreams; soon she leaves China for rich doctor Brian Alexander (one of China's clients) and disappears into Brian's Miami clinic. In a rare moment of candor, Choe tells China about a transcendental experience he once had at beautiful Jumble Wood involving a green-eyed woman. Unable either to comprehend or repeat the experience, Choe makes an annual pilgrimage to the spot. Then Isobel telephones. Rejected by Brian, she is now almost constantly ill after mysterious, and illegal, treatments in Miami. Slowly, horrifyingly, China watches as the treatments begin to take effect: Isobel grows feathers while her metabolism turns birdlike; but she still cannot fly and attempts suicide. China takes her to Brian and demands help. Eventually, Isobel recovers, physically, but she cannot, or will not, give up her dream, and China leaves her. Choe, meanwhile, now rich through an association with gangsters, has bought Jumble Wood and turned it into a toxic waste dump.

References

  1. ↑ "1997 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2 September 2009.
  2. ↑ "1998 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2 September 2009.


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