In the future, love is complicated and death is not necessarily the end. Love Minus Eighty follows several interconnected people in a disquieting vision of romantic life in the century to come. In this daring and big-hearted novel based on the Hugo-winning short story, the lovelorn navigate a world in which technology has reached the outer limits of morality and romance.
Author Will McIntosh’s new novel, Love Minus Eighty, is the book you give to your friends in hopes of igniting a passion for science fiction. With its focus on deeply connected interpersonal relationships, the novel draws in the literary fiction reader and with its ever-present science fictional elements it also holds a strong attraction for fans of genre fiction.
Worldbuilding? This world is already built. With a deft touch Will McIntosh has imagined a highly-interactive future that is built so solidly on the foundation of our present internet-driven, social-media-obsessed culture that it succeeds in being both imaginative and accessible. The oft-despised info dump is non-existent. This future and the characters who inhabit it are initially quite shallow, but as circumstances stir the waters McIntosh plumbs the depths of several interesting characters. The reader will find themselves having conflicting emotions regarding various characters as the story unfolds, making the act of reading Love Minus Eighty an engaging experience.
In my review of the January 2013 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction I mentioned that Will McIntosh was “fast becoming one of those short story authors whose name on the cover will make me buy a magazine”. Love Minus Eighty has made me want to read everything the author has ever written.
If you appreciate novels about the complexity of relationships, featuring a variety of interesting characters–and just so happen to get excited about slick technological advances–Love Minus Eighty will not disappoint.
9/10 stars
