The last of its kind

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The last of his kind is a science fiction - novel by German author Andreas Eschbach appeared in 2003. It tells the story of a survivor of a military project that a person with technical implants into a cyborg should convert. After the project ended, he lived in Ireland for a few years, but was later hunted by the US military to destroy the traces of the unsuccessful experiment.

After its publication in Germany in 2004, the novel was translated into Czech and Dutch and in 2006 into Russian, French and Italian.

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"The last of his kind" is a cyborg, a person named Duane Fitzgerald , in whose body numerous technical "improvements" have been built in secret and sometimes unsuccessful attempts by the US military to create the perfect fighting machine. He lives secluded in a house in the small Irish town of Dingle on his pension, which he is entitled to as a former soldier, until he notices that a Japanese man is looking for him. He talks about it with the only person he has privy to himself, a doctor named Doctor O'Shea , who also repeatedly operates on his implants if they show signs of wear or other problems. When Duane can no longer evade the Japanese, the latter reveals to him that he is a lawyer, knows his secret and wants to help him bring a claim for damages. The lawyer is murdered and Duane tries to bring the perpetrator to the scene, but has to realize that despite his superhuman abilities, he cannot prevent the perpetrator from escaping. Duane realizes that his days as a cyborg are numbered as the military apparently decided to wipe out any survivors to clear all traces. Via an interface implanted on his arm, he accesses the printer in the local library and prints out his life story, which he wrote in the course of the plot. She ends with the words that he wants to face the military, but wants to tell his story before he is killed like the others.

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In first- person form, the novel describes critically and in detail the fears and needs of this antihero who retired in the small Irish town of Dingle. But while he just wants to live his life in peace, the US military is striving for a definitive solution to keep the secret of these experiments and to be able to implement new, genetic engineering-based projects in the future.

As is usual with Eschbach, current socio-political issues (in this case transhumanism ) are concretized and illustrated by linking them to the common stylistic devices of the adventure novel . The plot and the arc of suspense remain in the foreground. The author contradicts the fact of his protagonist , who is pointing towards the future through the artificial connection of biology and technology, by his constant recourse to Seneca , a Roman philosopher who had adopted positions of the Stoa (Fitzgerald constructs his story as a parallel to the life and teachings of Seneca , a Seneca quote precedes each chapter).

Dramatis Personae

The most important figures in alphabetical order.

  • Mrs. Brannigan, Dingle Library Manager
  • Duane William Fitzgerald, retired cyborg of Irish descent
  • Harold Itsumi, American attorney of Japanese descent who see Duane Fitzgerald
  • Bridget Keane, Hotel Brennan's receptionist, sister of Finnan MacDonogh
  • Finnan MacDonogh, Irish singer, brother of Bridget Keane, former IRA member
  • Doctor O'Shea, doctor in Dingle, friend of Duane Fitzgerald
  • Eugene Pinebrook, Police Officer
  • Lieutenant-Colonel Reilly, officer in the US Army, responsible for the "Steel-Man" project
  • Billy Trant, postal worker in Dingle
  • Gabriel Whitewater, retired cyborg, former comrade of Duane Fitzgerald
  • Seamus Wright, police sergeant investigating a murder involving Fitzgerald

Awards

expenditure

Foreign language

  • 2004 Czech: Posledni Sveho Druhu. (Albatros, Prague) ISBN 80-00-01440-8
  • 2004 Dutch: Het fatale zwijgen , translated by Peter de Rijk. (Karakter Uitgevers) ISBN 9061122228
  • 2006 Russian: Железный человек. ISBN 5-8159-0609-3
  • 2006 French: Le dernier de son espèce , transferred by Joséphine Bernhardt and Claire Duval. (Éditions L'Atalante) ISBN 2-84172-325-9
  • 2006 Italian: L'ultimo dei perfetti , translated by Nora Tigges Mazzone. (Fanucci Editore, Rome) ISBN 978-88-347-1141-5

literature