The Resurrected Man

by Sean Williams

Book Overview

Private detective Jonah McEwen is wanted for murder. Someone has been killing women who resemble Marylin Blaylock, his former colleague and ex-lover. The latest grisly discovery is right on his doorstep. He is the obvious suspect. The problem? He has been in a coma for three years - a coma he has no memory of entering. And there's worse to come. Using matter transporter technology, or d-mat, a serial killer know only as the Twinmaker has been brutally...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591023114
• ISBN13: 9781591023111
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Pyr
• Length: 529 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Good story line -- good book

As both an author and reader of fiction, I was impressed with "the Resurrected Man". Maybe it is because I have always enjoyed a book that could hold my attention and make me think at the same time. Give this book a try. The fiction book that I have written main story theme is about ten years in the life of a little girl who was "chosen by God" to be the next Madonna in the second coming of Christ. Yes it has cloning in it. Tommy Taylor Author - The Second Virgin Birth

Australian SF Reader

Here we have a science fiction mystery story. Transporters of the Star Trek variety are available, so transport is cheap and easy. Any technology can be used for crime, however, and a serial killer is discovered. This very twisted individual utilises this tech to copy people, and kill a copy. What does all this mean philosophically? A detective on the case realises that there is some relationship between all this killing and her own identity.

The Twinmaker Murders

The Resurrected Man (2005) is a standalone SF novel. In 2069, the matter transmission network covers more than seventy percent of the planet. The d-mat is used not only for personal and freight transmission, but for replication of material goods. In this novel, the man was awakened by a dull, but persistent murmur. His body hurt everywhere and his limbs were too cramped to move. He found himself lying beneath the surface of in a pool of water. He was not breathing! Suddenly he erupted from the water in terror. Hands reached out to support him as he coughed up the fluid in his lungs. The voices identified him as Jonah McEwen and, when his eyes cleared, he found himself facing Marylin Blaycock. Now her hair is not blonde and she is not working for him, but for the police. Jonah has been missing for more than three years under a privacy seal. The police had not come to his apartment to rescue him, but to investigate another crime. Now they suspect him of killing the victim. The medics take care of his immediate needs and then the officers start interrogating him. When Jonah recognizes their approach, he refuses to answer any more questions. Then they show him the remains. In this story, the Matter-transference Investigative Unit (MIU) is an official branch of the Earth Justice Commission, but is funded by Kudos Technologies Incorporated (KTI), which owns the d-mat patents and operates the d-mat network and other related services. The MIU believe that the body in Jonah's d-mat booth is the sixteenth Twinmaker killing. A composite image of the Twinmaker victims looks very much like Marylin Blaycock as Jonah knew her. Moreover, the first case occurred one week after Marylin joined the MIU, about six months prior to his awakening. The Twinmaker victims are tortured to death, but somehow the victims themselves are still alive. The Twinmaker seems to be kidnapping a copy of the victims when they use the d-mat, but leaving the originals alive and unaware of the crime. The novel raises the question of whether users of the d-mat are the same persons after they arrive at their destinations. A few people refuse to use the d-mat, calling it the death-mat, and even some of those who habitually use the system wonder whether they are gradually being changed by such usage. Complicating this issue is the method of resurrecting victims of accidental or intentional deaths; for an exorbitant price, the person can be reconstructed from network records into much the same body. One of the characters is an Artificial Intelligence called QUALIA. Es is based on twenty Standard Human Equivalent processors designed to induce consciousness. SHE is not just a spearcarrier, but an integral part of the plot, with Es's POV running throughout the story. This story does not include any new technology per se, for matter transmission, duplicate bodies, virtual minds, and artificial intelligence are old themes in SF (see Gallun's People Minus X (1957) and P

interesting future mystery

Jonah McEwen is a suspect in a series of murders he knows nothing about, having spent the last 3 years in a state of hibernation. This makes it an interesting book to get sucked in to, as the main characters don't know what happened during a critical period of time, and the reader does not know exactly how the murders are possible, not being familiar with the details of how the key technology works. The murders were commited using d-mat, a transmitter that transforms someone into information which is then rematerialized at their destination. Many people have qualms about having this done to them, but eventually holdouts are in the minority due to d-mat's convenience. "All I see are zombies", says a leader among the holdouts, referring to the majority of society. Jonah points out that these sorts of arguments have been made for every new form of technology. The book raises more questions than it can answer, but I mean that in a good way. I would like to add that if you enjoy this book you might want to also read David Brin's "Kiln People", which brings up similar questions.

Great Read!

Would a person's copy be considered alive? Would a copy's murder be considered a crime? The Resurrected Man realistically shows how this particular technology could both positively and negatively impact a future society, including an almost terrorist group opposed to d-mat on moral grounds. The Resurrected Man is a fast-paced blend of science fiction and mystery. I spent several nights staying up too late so I could finish just one more chapter. I highly recommend this novel. Laura Lehman, SF/Fantasy Editor at Bellaonline.com