Forever young is a sci-fi thriller written by Claude Nougat. Two hundred years into the future, as a result of global warming, Earth is nearing its sixth extinction. The elite of the world’s citizens are making plans, many of them members of the APP (Age Preserving Program), known as the Forever Young. The great social divide remains. The “Forevers” are a select group, considered only one percent of the world’s population. They wear the status symbol - the “life watch,” a watch that monitors their life and programs their death. When notified, you die a simple, painless death. One group plans an expedition, an immortality trip, to another planet (Earth’s twin) over one thousand light years away. Starting over on the Forever Planet, they hope to build a perfect society. While yet another group, a privately established enterprise known as the Hibernation Party, sets up a hibernation center on the continent of Antarctica. They plan to re-settle the earth after the extinction period. The Hibernation Party isn’t interested in your social status, but in your genetics. They seek those with the longevity gene. “Life suddenly turns into a game and you have to play it. If you don’t, you’re out, you’re a loser.” The game is to survive the earth extinction and its contestants engage in the well-known battle between the elite (haves) and the less fortunate (the have-nots). Time is running out, the earth is falling apart. Who will survive the end, who will be Forever Young?

Claude Nougat writes an interesting account of the extinction of earth in Forever Young. Keeping with the sci-fi genre, it is full of holograms, hovercrafts, laser guns, food on demand (f-o-d) dispensers and advanced scientific knowledge, namely space travel and hibernation. Moreover, the author steps into the new literary genre of Climate Fiction or cli-fi with ease. Claude Nougat states that her objective was to write the “mostly likely future of humanity, given present social and economic trends.” She also felt compelled to include issues regarding climate change, namely global warming, as the cause of earth’s future demise. Time and again, she refers to pollution as the cause of earth’s imminent destruction. Ms. Nougat writes her four-part cli-fi thriller in third person narrative, using vivid descriptions aided by an in-depth, but not overly scientific, vocabulary. She portrays a convincing technical end of the world plot. The development of the core cast of characters grows within each chapter. The reader feels the growing tension among the main characters as the fatal end approaches. As with all “end-of-the-world” stories, it has its surprises; not all characters (likable and unlikable) make it to the end. Forever Young leaves you desiring more because there is no real resolution. You, like its characters are left to hibernate, wondering about the final outcome. This creates anticipation for a sequel.