By Jimmy Adams:

By Shannon Vyff

BEWARE! Your memory of reading this book could be ERASED!

21st Century Kids is not a fairy-tale for children to read. This book opens up a completely inventive world of what life will be analogous to in the future. This work should be compulsory reading for all transhumanists, cryonicists and people into life extension.

The author, Shannon Vyff, (left) wrote about what could possibly occur if suspended for approximately 200 years. Set in the year 2189, the real life protagonists Avianna, Avryn and with the help of Avalyse, tell the progress of their story by their capacity to evolve into the new culture.

Reminiscent of other literary classics in the vein of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, this book is a societal exposition. In the form of a chronological account from the future, Vyff describes how trans-civilization developed. This is not an ideal Utopia comparable to the novel by Sir Thomas More.

Pollution has damaged the world's ecological system and the civilizations must live in nano-shield spheres for protection. There is also a black market sub-society as well as political factions vying for power.

A comparative analysis of this adventure to the classics:

The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells, is known to many as a children's classic, but was really about the social political views in the 19th-century. By traveling forward in time, Wells was able to express his views of the world around him during a chaotic period. Vyff similarly tells about a possibly accurate portrayal of the future in an extraordinary story of her children traveling by cryonic suspension into the transhumanial future.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain created the sub-genre of science fiction when his character, Hank Morgan, transports back into time. This was the first true book of time travel back in time rather than forward in time as The Time Machine. Similarly, Vyff creates a sub-genre for transhumanial literature with 21st Century Kids. Mark Twain was commenting on the existing society of the 19th century in a satire. Vyff has created a paradigm shift for the 21st-century by traveling forward in time by using cryonics as the transport medium.

This work is much superior to Robert A. Heinlein's To Sail beyond the Sunset or The First Immortal by James L. Halperin. This novel is devoid of all the superfluous sex and violence to move a story, yet at the same time is a page-turner all ages find hard to put down.

The first chapter begins with a bang! No time to explain the life style of the principal characters, an accident happens very quickly.

A bright light just flashed near my window. I'll look out to see what it is. Was that a flying saucer? No, it is just the full moon behind the clouds. I think.

The initial narrative point of view is from Avianna, a twelve-year-old girl, re-animated into the new world. She gets through the event and finds the information that leads her to her ambition. To find her clone; akin to The Descent of Inanna, (Ishtar), Avianna has a feminine journey structure. She finds that the world is a beautiful place but she feels that she cannot grow because she does not know what happened to her clone. Avianna has learned about a spaceship that will travel to search for the lost colonists, but she would have to be a stowaway...

The first thing Avianna encounters in this new world after her awakening are transhuman (ist?) themes: A.I.; enhanced ageless humans and animals; telepathic, with different perceptions of time, watch-recorders, check justification here robots, nanotechnology; uploading and downloading sequences, such as schoolwork or even entities into supplementary forms of life. Oh, yes there are also flying cars!

The School of Langeles is where the children collectively reside, using nano-minting to create whatever they want. They can change their rooms just by thinking of a new design and then the nanobots construct the environment to whatever they desire. However, her genetic copy is missing in deep space. Avianna has new dolphin acquaintances; will she leave them for outer space?

There is an eerie sound resembling a low hum near the door, but I need to finish this review.

The second narrative point of view is from Avryn, a ten-year-old boy who was also cryo-vitrified. He decides to make a sacrifice similar to The Epic of Gilgamesh, Avryn takes a masculine journey structure. When he was re-animated, his sister has vanished into deep space. Avryn needs to take a robot form for the expedition in space. Can he locate her? I don't believe what I'm seeing! A gray being with large black eyes, just stepped out of the shadows! It’s coming toward me!

I woke up. What was I doing? I look at the bookshelves and I notice that there is a book missing, a gap between two other books. I can't remember which book was there. I notice the computer is on the internet. It is the book club forum. 21st Century Kids. Wow, what an interesting sounding story! I'll have to buy that book. Shannon is offering Long Life readers a 20% discount off the cover price of $14.95. This comes to $11.95, plus $1.00 for postage. If requested, books will be signed by the author. For book orders:

Shannon Vyff

2011 Lantana Drive

Round Rock TX 78664

Shannon Vyff started her career out of high school as an award winning photographer and writer, including the Madeleine L'Engle Young Writer's Award. She continued her writing endeavors by contributing an essay to the Imminst book The Scientific Conquest of Death.

As a spokesperson for anti-aging research and lifestyles, she has been interviewed by numerous magazines and news organizations, including Barbara Walters, 20/20 and the Marie Claire, and Oprah magazines. Shannon is an Alcor member, a Methuselah Foundation supporter and Calorie Restriction practitioner.

Shannon in addition to donating to and volunteering for several National and International organizations, volunteers for her local Unitarian Universalist Church and La Leche League group. Hailing from America's heartland in Wichita, Kansas, she has also lived in Eugene, Oregon and Austin, Texas. Shannon still calls Austin home, where she lives with her three children: Avianna, Avryn and Avalyse and husband Michael.

Click here for her page on transhumanists.org

21ST CENTURY KIDS might out-magic Harry Potter. One can hope, anyway. Shannon Vyff conveys the flavor of ‘magical’ science, beginning with cryonics and stretching to the limits of what we may achieve and become. It's a great read for any age.

- Robert Ettinger