Necroville

Ian McDonald's stimulating ideas and rich prose have won him a devoted readership on both sides of the Atlantic. Now comes his most provocative novel yet. Los Angeles is much like any other city; the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting more numerous, and the dead are working hard to pay off their resurrection debts, the cost of their immortality. Science has finally conquered the last barrier to immortality, death itself, with the microscopic machines of nano-technology. Like any other city, Los Angeles has its Necroville or "City of the Dead," the segregated, walled ghetto where the dead sleep, eat and live, off-limits to living humans. Except tonight. Tonight is the Night of the Dead and anyone who is anyone will be in Necroville. Because this is the wildest party Los Angeles has ever seen. And as mysterious events and the Night of the Dead conspire, the fate of humanity soon hangs in the balance.