One Million Tomorrows [Hardcover]

One Million Tomorrows by Bob Shaw

The novel "One Million Tomorrows" is a story about personal immortality; a theme that has been employed many time by writers in the science-fiction field.

Mr. Shaw's take on this topic is somewhat pedestrian and would only be of interest to readers and academics specializing in this type of story or in the speculative fiction of Bob Shaw.

Will Carewe is offered an immortality drug without the usual side effect of losing his virility. Instead of a thoughtful evaluation of how this will effect him and the pervious immortals that did not consume the virility-preserving drug we are confronted with an uninteresting chase story - someone is trying to kill Mr. Carewe.

Bob Shaw (1931-96) wrote 14 science fiction novels. All of his titles were published during the period 1967-1989. His novel "One Million Tomorrows" first appeared as a serial in Amazing magazine issues dated November 1970 and January 1971. The first and only US book publication was an Ace paperback published in February 1971. The title has been reprinted in England several times.

My earlier readings of Bob Shaw revealed a writer of two skill sets: one with a carefree ease of penning a simple novel (Vertigo [1978]) and another penning a novel with solid impact (Ground Zero Man [1971]). Both of these novels shared one common theme: Shaw's gift for emitting humanization through the characters' plight. It's this human element which I wanted to return to in Bob Shaw's writing.

Rear cover synopsis:
"In the 22nd Century, no one had to die of old age: an immortality drug was available to all. Its only drawback was the side-effect that ended a man's sex drive, so most men waited till their youth was fading before they took the final step and became `cools.'

But Will Carewe became the first man to test a new variety of the drug, one without any side-effect at all. The limitless future, a million tomorrows, stretched before him with golden hope... until a series of `accidents' made him realize that someone was trying to murder him.

As an immortal Carewe had an infinitely greater stake in remaining alive. So he began the battle to find out who was after him, and why..."

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Uneasy with the sudden focus on him, Will Carewe, a lowly accountant for the company who manufacturers the ubiquitous immortality drug, is unsure why he was called to the company president's chambers. Proud of his work for Farma incorporated and swallowing a cocktail of anti-handover pills, Will approaches the office with reluctance and foreboding. Will's common sense earns him the attention of the president for a drug trial which allows him to become immortal and maintain the "benefits."

When men take the common immortality drug, their loins which had once burnt with passion become impassive and flaccid, a sexual void which many wives find a way around. Therefore, many of the men who eventually take the immortality drug do so after their life's prime state, but Will is over 40 now and unwilling to take the plunge to become a "cool", a term used for a man who has undergone immortality and lacks the fire in his loins. With the promise of keeping his libido, Will accepts the new and improved immortality drug.

During his honeymoon, Will injects himself with the immortality drug thereby "tying off" at his present age but still able to produce a few thrusts before he "cools"... and so he does, much to his wife's enjoyment. However, not everything is perfect in the Carewe household--soon after the honeymoon, his wife admits she's pregnant, but seeded by another man's passion. His anger drives him away from his wife and away from his accountant work; he decides to voluntary leave from his position to African continent. His work, he soon discovers, involves demoralizing the Malawi natives and forcing immortality/sterilization upon them. His stomach isn't weakened by the deed, but his immortality is being tested by actions to take his life.

Chased by "random" accidents and eager to make up to his wife, his perilous life becomes more complicated when he discovers his wife is missing--presumed kidnapped. With the assistance of Farma Incorporated and their hired detective, the two track down the location of his wife and her captors, though a slippery notion plagues Will's instincts in the frictionless ball-bearing factory. Who would want him dead and what do they want with his wife?

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"Who would want him dead and what do they want with his wife?" - that's the tiny mystery behind the otherwise wonderful plot with social and ethical considerations abound. Rather than take the high road and explore these facets of immortality and sterility, Bob Shaw takes the low road and takes the reader through chase scenes and man-on-man fist fights. What "could have been" was boiled down to "what it wasn't meant to be", but this reader wasn't too terribly disappointed.

Shaw mentions time and again the "cooling" effect of the immortality drug. He also goes further into the martial affection of this "cooling" - if the women aren't serviced by their man, where can they go to slake their libidinous passions? There are further ethical dilemmas: Is immortality a basic human right? Should immortality be forced upon the unwilling? These are intriguing humane questions to consider, but this remains the only human element in One Million Tomorrows. As Mithridates has said, the pot-boiler in the last entire half of the novel drags down some (though not a majority) of the wonderment experienced in the initial half.

As mentioned in the introduction, the novels Vertigo and Ground Zero Man have distinct differences. Among those differences is the prose Shaw has penned. Ground Zero Man had elegant sections with vivid descriptions while Vertigo was largely stale in flowery language. One Million Tomorrows is reminiscent of the insightful language and flowery depictions. Aside from the tiresome attempts on Will's life, the world around Will is rich with detail: private transportation in "bullets" (with futuristic carphones) via pneumatic cross-country tubes, household appliances with domed abodes housing self-chilling glasses, and industrial Idaho producing frictionless ball-bearing (and the hazards such an invention poses).

Class the above as retro-futuristic uninhibited reverse peristalsis or eager-to-meet-the-future-with-wide-eyes optimism, but I'm a sucker for it all. I love the romanticism of glorifying the future's luxuriousness and inventiveness; the more uninhibited and the more exotic, the better. Perhaps this is why I rate the novel a 4 rather than Mithridates's 3. I can look past the pot-boiler plot filler and weak ending for guilty pleasure found in futuristic potential and gadgetry.

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My third book by Bow Shaw and he yet he still manages to show another facet to his middling talent; good, not great, with some decent imagery and romanticism, but failing to tie everything together into one wholesome package. The perfect Shaw hasn't been found, but two more line my shelves (Fire Pattern [1984] and Orbitsville [1975]) and others await my lustful sci-fi eye.

One Million Tomorrows (1971) is the second of Bob Shaw's science fiction novels I've read. The first, Ground Zero Man (1971), suffered from an extreme case of grating melodrama which weakened the insightful central message -- the ever evolving danger (and nature) of nuclear war.

One Million Tomorrows attempts, in a dubious manner, to tackle another standard trope -- immortality. That is, immortality with a catch, the sterilization and complete loss of sexual drive of all men who take the drug. Women, on the other-hand, become ageless and maintain whatever level of sexual desire they had when they took the treatments. The age you take the drug will be the "age" you remain for the rest of your life.

Unfortunately, all the fascinating social science fiction aspects are subordinated about halfway through to a hackneyed who's trying to kill me "mystery." The result is hardly surprising and the end is dull, but thankfully, not that melodramatic. Bob Shaw has proved himself a middling author whose works should be picked up every now and then -- single afternoon (or plane trip) sorts of a reads.

Brief Plot Summary (limited spoilers)

Will Carewe, who works for a pharmaceutical company, is happily married to Athene. Because the immortality drug destroys the sexual desire of men, Carewe and his wife have put off taking the serum. Carewe's marriage is considered unusual because of the small number of men who haven't taken the drug often marry more than one woman.

Desiring to save his marriage Carewe jumps at the chance to test a new immortality serum (before it released to the public) which has no known side effects. However, in order to prevent societal chaos his company requires him to pretend he's taken the normal drug. As a result, he ruins his marriage because he must pretend he's a "cool" (he shaves off all of his hair, pretends he has no urges, etc).

In a state of extreme depression he leaves for Africa and joins an organization under the United Nations umbrella which forcibly rounds up and inject various tribesmen over sixteen who refuse to take the immortality serum -- of course, in the name of human rights. This is by far the most interesting section of the work -- the sequence where Carewe reluctantly participates in the sterilization of various tribesman has a harrowing quality. While in Africa Carewe discovers that someone is trying to kill him!

Final Thoughts

I found the first half of the work thought-provoking and occasionally disturbing. For example, there's a scene during Carewe's flight to Africa where he encounters an infant whose mother has administered him (illegally) the immortality serum. For the most part Shaw's projected society is well-thought out. However, sections are downright over-the-top (women joining priapic clubs due to the lack of suitable men).

What would happen to the institution of marriage if men essentially became eunuchs? What would happen to those who refuse to take a drug which will grant immortality?

Sadly, when Carewe discovers that someone is out to kill him the novel makes an abrupt shift from social commentary and interesting character development to a predictably plotted action oriented (there's even a fight scene in a factory and a plane crash!) pot-boiler.

Vaguely recommended. But, there are so many better works of social science fiction from the 70s...