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This was a while ago and I can't remember very much, but I really loved this book but it was lost in a car crash :(

Anyway, so the main character was grown and genetically engineered. At one stage he is walking along train tracks with another character deep in thought but never loses his balance which impresses the other character.

The book is set in the near(ish) future. There's two main branches of development, which I think have both built a colony ship for some reason; there's a technological side, metal and computers, that sort of stuff, and a more 'green' side, they've made trees more efficient, grow in the shapes of furniture and the like, their entire spaceship was grown rather than built. (Very similar to the "Adamist" and "Edenist" cultures in the Night's Dawn Trilogy)

I know it's not much to go on, but I hope someone has some sort of idea.

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  • Is it anything like The Silver Ship and the Sea?
    – HDE 226868
    May 31, 2015 at 22:48
  • I've never read that. I don't think Space travel was common in the book I'm looking for. They only leave at the end in the two colony ships I think because the planet was dying or something not sure. There's only one man who was genetically altered, sounds similar to those in that book, ie. to be better, faster smarter and the like. I think that they say he will live a long time too because he didn't get pollutions and stuff while he was growing up (because he was grown in the lab). I think it's quite a lot older than 2007 also.
    – Aequitas
    May 31, 2015 at 23:15
  • How long ago is "a while ago", e.g. 5 years? 10 years? Might help narrow it down...
    – user22478
    Jun 3, 2015 at 1:32
  • @Nathan it would've been at least 6 years since I read it, but I'm not sure if it was published around then or before that.
    – Aequitas
    Jun 3, 2015 at 1:34
  • The Night's Dawn Trilogy? I was looking it up on Wikipedia and it seems to somewhat fit your description.
    – Mithical
    Jun 3, 2015 at 14:39

2 Answers 2

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The book Anton York, Immortal by Eando Binder comes to mind. It has been a while since I read it. All I remember is that he is extremely intelligent, and lives 'forever' somehow and learns to go into suspended animation to stay out of the limelight, and saves the world a few times.

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  • I don’t think this is it, the person was just a better human, not a god like being. Still needs to eat and drink and will die of old age, just takes a lot longer
    – Aequitas
    Nov 14, 2019 at 7:41
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+100

I am not familiar with many of the works (excluding the superb story Swarm) but the two-faction future you describe has elements in common with the Shaper/Mechanist series by Bruce Sterling. In this universe, the Shapers use genetic engineering, and the Mechanists use traditional technology.

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  • Thank you for trying, and it is similar to that organic/mechanic duality but unfortunately it is not any of those. :(
    – Aequitas
    Sep 3, 2015 at 3:15
  • Thanks for the feed back. Good luck on your search! Sep 3, 2015 at 3:27
  • Not the correct answer, but am giving you the bounty just so the points aren't wasted.
    – Aequitas
    Nov 19, 2019 at 22:55

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