Product Description

Dr. Sarah Halifax decoded the first-ever radio transmission received from aliens. Thirty-eight years later, a second message is received and Sarah, now 87, may hold the key to deciphering this one, too . . . if she lives long enough. A wealthy industrialist offers to pay for Sarah to have a rollback--a hugely expensive experimental rejuvenation procedure. She accepts on condition that Don, her husband of sixty years, gets a rollback, too. The process works for Don, making him physically twenty-five again. But in a tragic twist, the rollback fails for Sarah, leaving her in her eighties. While Don tries to deal with his newfound youth and the suddenly vast age gap between him and his wife, Sarah struggles to do again what she'd done once before: figure out what a signal from the stars contains.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25938 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
Accepting a rollback, an expensive, experimental rejuvenation procedure, for herself and her husband of sixty years in exchange for deciphering a message from aliens, Dr. Sarah Halifax is faced with a dilemma when the procedure works on her husband, making him physically twenty-five again, but not on her, leaving her in her eighties. Reprint.

Customer Reviews

Interesting Scenario
Sarah Halifax has the knack of de-coding Alien transmissions, but since those transmissions are 38 years apart she goes through an age rejuvenation program known as ROLLBACK.
And as a bonus she gets the authorities to put her husband on ROLLBACK too.
Sadly, only Don's is successful, and suddenly Sarah remains in her eighties whereas Don is now physically a 25 year old.

Sawyer's Hugo and Nebula award winning novel unwraps the almighty problems that gradually evolve between the couple, with the paramount importance of answering the alien message always hovering in the background.
An entertaining read, and an absorbing introduction to an alien concept - it was a worthy start to my holiday reading.

Very readable
Sad, funny, serious all in one. Quite a clever story about getting old and how society treats you. Like all of Sawyers books, the science is fascinating and the information parts are well researched. I am curently wading through his whole output.

Thought provoking
This is very readable even for a non si-fi fan. The thought provoking Story unfolds along two timelines, ensuring you read "just one more chapter". Sawjer is not only a great visionary and futurist, but a superb story teller.