Just Finished Reading: The Wellstone by Will McCarthy



In the far future, long after Earth has been reconstructed after a global catastrophe, a new utopia has been created. It is a place where death is only a temporary inconvenience, where health and wealth are guaranteed and where everything you desire is available at the touch of a button. But it is also a place where leaders are immortal and everything worth striving for is readily available. In such a place what exactly is there for the young to challenge? Only one thing – the very system itself.


This was, on the face of it, an interesting idea. In a perfect world how exactly, or indeed why would you, rebel? The only thing worth rebelling against is perfection. This is a story of disaffected youth who use the technology at their disposal to cause trouble for their immortal and complacent parents. Led by the crown prince – who will never become king – they ‘escape’ from summer camp (on a created moon) and hi-jack a freighter in deep space. Apart from the act of rebellion itself, rather a minor act to be honest, there is little substance to the rest of the book. It brims with interesting background ideas (as well as a few interesting philosophical issues) but I couldn’t help wondering if there was any actual point to the story. It probably didn’t help that I couldn’t really bring myself to care all that much for what were basically spoilt, bored rich kids out to cause trouble for no other reason than to cause problems for their over protective parents. Some of the technology was interesting – as were the cultural and economical consequences of its use – but apart from that I thought this was pretty dull. Not recommended.