Kindle Edition Download to your Nook (eBook) Amazon Sleeper, Awake Category:  Science Fiction Publisher: Double Dragon e-books ISBN-10:  1554041538 Type: Fiction Pages: 314 Copyright: 2003 Price: $5.61 (eBook) Retired film star Flora Fielding was diagnosed with cancer. Her solution: she had herself put into suspended animation, and invested her fortune in cancer research. She expected to return to life in five to ten years -- but is awakened into an utterly different world, 1433 years later. This book of the surprising yet plausible future has an ending that'll wrench your heart, and then there is a final sting in the tail...   Retired film star Flora Fielding was diagnosed with cancer. Her solution: she had herself put into suspended animation, and invested her fortune in cancer research. She expected to return to life in five to ten years -- but is awakened into an utterly different world, 1433 years later. She gradually learns the facts about the new society: there are only one million people on the planet. This gives material wealth to everyone. However, the right to reproduce is a valuable commodity. Men compete for women's approval in every possible way, including risking their lives in deeds of daring. Everyone has an 'implant': a device that enables them to send and receive 'images', so that they are able to be with anyone else, anywhere. All the implants, and all the computerized machines on the planet, are linked to form a single intelligence: Artif, the 'executive arm of humanity'.    Flora makes friends, and gradually learns that she was awakened for a purpose: she is the pawn in a political duel between Abel, President of Control, and Mirabelle, Deputy President. These two are opposed on every issue, including the way to raise twelve year old Tamás, their son.    Kiril, a young man tortured by jealous love, commits the first violent crime in over a thousand years, and only Flora's experience from pre-Cataclysmic times can sort out the resulting problems.    This book of the surprising yet plausible future has an ending that'll wrench your heart, and then there is a final sting in the tail... Excerpt 1. Flora The voice came as if from far away. It was a very pleasant, deep female voice, saying over and over, "Flora, wake up. Flora Fielding, wake up, Flora…" on and on. I'm awake, Flora tried to say, but her mouth, her lungs wouldn't obey her. Her eyelids were too heavy to lift. And she was cold. Her body was ice. If she moved, surely she'd snap like an icicle -- if she could move that is. Her skin hurt everywhere from the bitter, malevolent cold. Her bones ached, all over. The voice stopped its endless chant and said, "I detect that you are conscious. Don't struggle. The machine is slowly bringing you back. You'll be OK." So it worked. It must have worked, Flora thought, and a feeling of triumph lent her energy enough to force her eyelids open. The research she'd funded must have found a cure, and now they were resuscitating her. At first, everything was a liquid blur, then she was gazing at the sight she'd seen before going into suspended animation, before she'd been frozen. A network of plastic pipes descended from a pastel yellow ceiling. They were filled with fluids of different colors: red blood, creamy yellow food, a blue one, another with clear liquid. "Move your fingers," the voice commanded. Flora tried, and after several attempts felt them twitch, then bunch up. The cold was now less excruciating. She took a breath that made her chest rise. "What year's it?" she managed to mumble. The voice answered, "Thirteen hundred and twelve". This was meaningless. I couldn't have gone back in time! Flora thought in panic, but then the voice explained, "You have been in cryogenic storage for 1433 years. We now have a new system of dates, from the establishment of Control." A feeling of unreality, of complete disbelief swamped Flora: It can't be true. It just can't! "I… I expected to be asleep for maybe ten," she said, her still-weak voice quivering. One and a half thousand years! She turned her head slightly, looking for the source of the voice. She saw no-one. As if reading her mind, the voice said, "I'm not a person, but Artif. I've been directed to resuscitate you." "Artif?" "In your terms, I'm a computer, sort of." This was encouraging. If their technology was this advanced, then surely they had cancer beaten. A new, masculine voice spoke, a deep, musical baritone. "Welcome, Flora Fielding. Tony Califeri had records of several of your movies, and I've seen them all. You were marvelous." The female voice said, chidingly, "Abel, Flora knows nothing of Tony. She has no more knowledge of our history than a newborn baby." "Just the same," the man's amusedly unrepentant voice answered, "I've seen the movies, and Flora was wonderful." "Thank you," Flora spoke, a little more strongly now, and became intensely conscious of being naked. Her fifty-two-year-old body was not for a man to see. Or fourteen-hundred-and-eighty-something year-old body, if it was true. To her surprise, the man said, "Flora, I'm not in the room with you, but on the other side of the earth, in the Arafura Sea. And don't worry, there are no visuals on. Judging from the records, we guessed that you wouldn't want to be seen." She could only say "thank you" again, but then asked, "Are you a doctor? Have you got a cure?" The deep voice sounded a melodious laugh. "We leave doctoring to Artif, it's more efficient. What do you want cured?" "Cancer," she said in surprise. Wasn't that why they'd revived her now? There was a silence. Then he said, "My translator is looking." The female voice spoke, "Abel, that's a condition where uncontrolled growth of rogue cells occurs. I've met four cases this year." By now, Flora's body felt almost normal. She raised herself on an elbow. Black spots swam before her eyes, then cleared. She asked, "Er, Madam, what do I call you?" There was a smile in the wonderful voice. "Whatever you like. Naturally, I'm not female. I'm the support system for the planet, the executive arm of humanity." Abel said, "She's Artif. I believe that derives from your language. At least… was your language spoken in a place called Canada?" "Yes," Flora answered. She became aware of a tingling sensation in the tips of her fingers. Artif commanded, "Flora, move your legs and arms." Flora tried, and to her relief was able to move almost naturally. She sat up and looked around. Her cocoon for a millennium and a half seemed to have remained unchanged since that time, subjectively an instant ago, when she'd last closed her eyes. Cool pastel blue walls were glowing with indirect lighting. She knew that almost all the wall space consisted of doors hiding the equipment that had kept her alive without deterioration all this time: mechanical and electrical muscle stimulators, hygiene maintenance devices and the like. She had been fuzzy about the details even when Dr Martin had insisted on explaining them to her. There were no windows, only the closed, airtight sliding door that was almost indistinguishable from the rest of the wall. Her elevated bed was in the middle, with the tubing descending from the low cream-colored ceiling. The only addition was a hovering ball that rose to be level with her eyes as she sat up. It was the size of a very large watermelon, Flora thought, only it was translucent, and filled with something like swirling white clouds. A woman's voice came from the ball, not Artif's voice but a lighter, higher one. "Greetings, Flora Fielding," she said, "I'm Mirabelle Karlsen. I'll be your Advocate when you face Control." Artif spoke, her voice also coming from the ball. "Flora, what you're looking at is something like a television set of your times. I've studied the records. Only, everything but sound has been turned off. Just tell me when you are willing to be seen, and I'll give you vision as well." 'Control' sounded ominous. And something was very obviously not quite right. Ignoring Artif for the moment, Flora answered, "Mirabelle, what is Control? And why do I need an Advocate?" This ball thing confirmed it, she must indeed be in the far distant future. "'Control' is the governing body of humanity. The name originally came because Brad wanted to ensure that Artif would always be controlled by people, not the other way around. Anyway, about the need for an Advocate, if I had my way, you wouldn't need one. You wouldn't have been disturbed except for Abel. Ask him." Her voice had a sharp edge to it. "Now, now, Mirrie," Abel's voice was also located in the hovering globe, and carried the same lazy amusement as before, "you know we all agreed in the end…" "Don't call me Mirrie! And yes, I agreed in the end, but…" "But nothing. Agreed is agreed." "You may not realize," Artif spoke over their bickering," but these two are the most powerful people on the planet. Abel is President of Control, and Mirabelle is Deputy President." That's all I need, Flora thought, to be caught in the middle of a power struggle. The thing was to sidestep the issue for now, until she could gather more information. That had always worked in the past. So, she said, "I… I am honored by your welcome." She was pleased that her voice once more had its usual resonance. "Er, Artif, these tubes… how can I…" One flexible tube entered her abdomen, one each her two lower arms. One, with the blue liquid, joined into her misshapen right breast. And tubes also emerged from her lower orifices, removing wastes. "Perhaps the two of you would leave us for a few clicklets," Artif said, command in her voice. Abel said, "Certainly," at the same time as Mirabelle's "Of course." "Lie down, Flora." She did so. "I have adjusted the chemicals going into you. You'll return to sleep. When you wake up, you'll be free of the resuscitation equipment, and free of pain."

Florence Weinberg
Sleeper Awake, first published the year 2000, is a prophetic book. Set some 1500 years in the future, it tells the tale of a woman, Flora Fielding, a top movie star and multi-millionaire, who had herself cryogenically frozen when diagnosed with incurable breast cancer. The world she discovers is topographically transformed by geological upheaval, with only one million human inhabitants. The climate is violent, tropics replace temperate zones, and all the great cities of yore, along with their cultures, have been destroyed. The total destruction of our present world has been caused by global warming, the unchecked abuse of our natural resources, especially the relentless exploitation of petroleum.

As a dedicated environmentalist as far back as the 1970s, I found this book refreshing, and congratulate its author, Dr. Bob Rich, for his foresightedness that predated this book by many years. His portrayal of a new society, its inventions and innovations -- all of them designed in harmony with the laws of nature -- is nothing short of brilliant. The new society strictly manages its rate of reproduction, has allowed the natural world to recover from its grievous wounds, and lives in abundance, since there is an abundance of natural resources to live on. The greed that is rapidly destroying our present world is no longer a factor in Dr. Rich’s utopian future, since there is no poverty and the small population has all advantages at its fingertips. Sexuality in the new society is frank, open, and tastefully presented.

Like most of Rich’s novels, this one, too, is a novel of education: of the characters, of the resuscitated Flora, and of the reader. This reader was captivated by the spiritual growth of the protagonists and by the wonderful devices they use in everyday living. Computers, by the way, play dominant and benevolent roles. My only reservation: could such a glowing future ever be reached by humanity as we know it?

I recommend this book in the highest terms for anyone who has the faintest interest in the fate of our civilization and our planet.

Michael Thal
Sleeper, Awake

Oh Tony! You think the Internet is something-world-wide instantaneous communication. That's nothing! Just you wait. In 1500 years there'll be Artif. She's a doctor, computer, and teacher-a god-like intelligence that is the concierge in everyone's life. She affects the one million humans inhabiting the future through an implant permitting universal communication. She is the relay, the Internet server, for all humanity.

Artif is a mega computer that enables humans to travel anywhere in the world from the comfort of their floating homes in the sky. They can feel, see, taste, and hear the sounds of any environment through their projected images. If you live in a home floating over a tropical rainforest, you can visit your best friend living on a boat near tropical Antarctica.

In Dr. Bob Rich's Sleeper, Awake, actress Flora Fielding funded research to find a cure for the cancer stealing her life. She allowed herself to be placed in suspended animation expecting to be revived in a decade. Instead, Flora slept for 1433 years after the great Cataclysm that altered human history.

The author, through a descriptive narrative and well-developed characterization, shows a future where a great upheaval shifted the environment and altered landmasses. For example, a huge mountain formed where Chicago once existed.

The cast of characters is extensive and richly described. Tony Califeri, who predicted the Cataclysm back in the 21st Century, is revered like Christians worship Jesus. Kiril is a thrill seeker, a rare individual who seeks the love of one woman, Souda-strange behavior in this new world culture. Mirabelle Karlsen is Flora's advocate, and Abel is the President of Control, a world government body.

In his fluid writing style, Dr. Rich creates a world of the far future where hunger, war, and disease are but a faint memory in the consciousness of humanity. The world of Sleeper, Awake is a fascinating read. I give it all my fingers and toes up.

Margaret Tanner
Ravaged by cancer, Hollywood star Flora Fielding takes the desperate step of having herself placed in cryogenic storage. She is finally awoken after fourteen hundred and thirty three years.

Included in the wonderful array of characters who dominate the pages of this novel are — Kiril Lander the inventor, Souda the love of his life, and the woman he almost loses because of his obsessive jealousy. Artif, the kindly computer and support system for the planet, the executive arm of humanity, who keeps everything in this futuristic paradise running smoothly. Mirabelle Karlsen, Abel T’Dwuna, Cynthia Sabatini, not to mention the enigmatic Tony, are all members of Control, the governing body of the planet.

The dilemma facing Control is what to do with the twenty first century sleepers who elected to be placed in cryogenic storage like Flora. Should they be awoken? Left to sleep? Or have their equipment disconnected so they could pass on?

Vividly written, Dr Rich’s writing transports you into a world beyond comprehension, yet he presents it so well, it becomes plausible. Wonderful landscapes, incredible gadgets, love and a touch of poignancy, this book has it all. Like me, if you weren’t a Sci-fi fan before, you will be converted after reading this book.