20

I believe it's by a woman author. It's her most famous book.

It depicted a world far in the future, where humans live in domes and are more or less immortal. Every time they die they return to a machine that tries to teach them and then return them to life in whatever form they prefer.

The narrator starts off as a woman and becomes a man later in the book and it deals somewhat with the trauma of that. She goes camping in a small dome and her dog gets killed. Wealthy people are fitted with wings.

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    Too much of a stretch to write an answer but reminiscent in some ways of John Varley's Eight Worlds stories.
    – Organic Marble
    Dec 16, 2020 at 1:25
  • 1
    Based on 'near-immortal people', 'live in domes' and 'a machine brings them back when they die', I was thinking of Bionicle for a split second...
    – Drubbels
    Dec 16, 2020 at 11:30

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
23

This is possibly the duology by Tanith Lee consisting of Don't Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine. The nameless protagonist is a misfit and is trying to find fulfillment in their life - at their age they're supposed to be all about hedonism - and is constantly suiciding and getting new bodies. The domes are named - I only remember Four BEE and Four BAA.

Improve this answer
4
  • THATS IT!!! THANK YOU!!!!
    – net3431
    Dec 16, 2020 at 3:07
  • 1
    The remaining dome is Four BOO.
    – Invisible Trihedron
    Dec 16, 2020 at 3:52
  • However, it is not Tanith Lee's most famous book. If you liked Don't Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine (which have been published both separately and under a single set of covers), you will probably also like The Silver Metal Lover.
    – Invisible Trihedron
    Dec 16, 2020 at 3:55
  • 1
    The reviewer James Davis Nicoll has a review series "A Year of Tanith Lee" focusing on this writer, with 61 reviews in the category.
    – Ross Presser
    Dec 16, 2020 at 15:41
0

Near immortal people + machine bringing back.

Arthur C. Clark wrote two books, or rather wrote one, then rewrote it. The original was "Against the Fall of Night." The second was "The City and the Stars"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_and_the_Stars

Both are worth reading.

Improve this answer
7
  • Once a story id question has an accepted answer, it's rather pointless to post a different one.
    – Organic Marble
    Jan 2, 2021 at 4:56
  • 1
    Not necessarily. Other people searching for books that match the question's criteria might might their answer in this later, unaccepted, answer.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Jan 2, 2021 at 5:09
  • 1
    @FuzzyBoots Doesn't what you're suggesting make every ID question a list question? "We've got the answer, but what other stories are there with one or more of these elements?" Not that it bothers me any, I'm not the one who passed the rule against list questions.
    – user14111
    Jan 2, 2021 at 5:51
  • 1
    @user14111: I can see that perspective, but to me, there's the fundamental difference between asking for the list, and people providing correct answers which aren't the correct answer.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Jan 2, 2021 at 6:08
  • @FuzzyBoots these string of 'close but no cigar' answers to previously answered id questions look like forum posts to me. Not SE answer posts. I am not sure what a 'correct answer that is not the correct answer' means. These answers are knowingly wrong answers by definition. If the work had not already been id'd this would be a reasonable guess.
    – Organic Marble
    Jan 2, 2021 at 14:01

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.