The Immortals (novel)

The Immortals by Tracy Hickman is a science fiction novel originally published in hardcover by Roc. The novel describes a future America in which a virus similar to AIDS has panicked the U.S. government into setting up internment camps to contain the sufferers. Published in 1996, the AIDS-like disease serves as backdrop and plot device to examine human relationships in circumstances of extreme duress.

Plot

When a cure for AIDS turns out to be more virulent than the disease, the U.S. establishes quarantine camps in the desert southwest. Michael Barris, a TV producer, masquerades as one of the infected and travels to the camps in search of his son. He finds horrific conditions, and learns that the so-called quarantine camps are death camps where the infected are gathered, purposefully brutalized, and ultimately cremated alive, their ashes bulldozed into the desert sand. Barris's son escapes the camp before the cycle of immolation, carrying the evidence he needs to expose the governmental mis-information campaign.

Publication history

• 1996, U.S., Roc, ISBN 0451454022, hardcover
• 1996, U.S., Penguin Group, ISBN 0614967775, Mass Market paperback
• 1997, U.S., Roc, ISBN 0451454049, Mass Market paperback
• 2008, U.S., Sovereign Press, ISBN 1931567395, paperback

Adaptations

In 2006, DragonHearth produced the work as a podcast novel, and made it available as a free download from...
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