The Downloaded

April 15, 2024
In the future, large segments of the population are put into cryogenic sleep, with their memories downloaded into a database. Hundreds of years later, people are starting to be automatically revived, only to discover that civilization has collapsed, the only survivors being those who had been frozen. As various people awaken--soldiers, astronauts, doctors, prisoners--they attempt to establish order while searching for the cause of the collapse. Sawyer (The Oppenheimer Alternative, 2020) tells the story from multiple first-person perspectives, allowing for an intimate interior narrative while expanding the story beyond any one character's point of view. Each character's narration centers on one aspect of world building--one narrator can focus on the problems faced by reviving cryonically frozen people, while another deals with the mystery of an apocalyptic event--eventually cohering into an overarching story. Sawyer is a refreshingly concise storyteller, moving things along at a brisk but unhurried pace, painting a complete picture without getting bogged down by superfluous details. He delivers a relatively short novel that proves more satisfying than many novels two or three times its length.

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