Marta Randall's Islands

Marta Randall was a Readerville regular for many years and when she quit posting in the forums there I missed her. So I was pleased when another poster sent me a reissue of Islands, Randall's first novel, first published in 1975, which, of course I managed to shelve before reading. Story of my life.

Islands was my 8th read in the Girl Detective's 15/15/15 project. The islands themselves are those of Hawaii, underwater due to global warming ice melt centuries in the past, and the location of an underwater excavation for 67-year-old Tia and a group of youthful immortals. Procedures now exist that wipe out both aging and death; Tia, unfortunately, proved resistant to these treatments and has spent her life being regarded as a freak, a mere animal instead of a real human. Despite her alienation, she has experienced as much of life as possible, while the immortals had "taken the most important advance in history and used it to stop advancement forever."

Things got a little too mystical for me to follow at the end, but a good read for anyone in the mood for some science fiction.