Fountain of Age by Nancy Kress

“Fountain of Age” is a 2007 science fiction novella by Nancy Kress. It is about a wealthy, reformed criminal who tries to track down his famous long lost lover.

Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell:

Max Feder’s life takes a very interesting turn when he meets Daria, a beautiful prostitute, while on shore leave on Cyprus. Their relationship is short to be sure, but it’s smokin’ hot and he never forgets it! In fact he goes back to try and find her, but alas – she is gone. Fast forward several years and Max sees Daria on the news – apparently she has married a British billionaire and has been found to have a brain tumors. But when the doctors operate they find something amazing – Daria’s tumors have the ability to generate spare stem cells! This makes her priceless and she is immediately removed from the public eye and used to start a very profitable (although morally questionable) company that uses her unique cells to stop people from aging. Max, meanwhile, is in a loveless marriage, has an annoying son, and decides that he can make loads of money in less-than-legal ways. He gets rich in his own right, but near the end of his life decides that he will do whatever it takes to see Daria once again. Ahh, true love is so compelling… but his consuming desire to see her turns out to be more difficult and dangerous than he ever imagined.

And oh, she was so beautiful! Not genemod misshapen like these modern girls, with their waists so skinny and their behinds huge and those repulsive breasts. No, she was natural, a real woman, a goddess. Black hair wild as stormy water, olive skin, green eyes. I remember the exact shade of green. Not grass, not emerald, not moss. Her own shade. I remember. I-

“Grampops?”

—met her while I was on shore leave on Cyprus. The Mid-East war had just ended, one of the wars, who can keep them all straight? I met Daria in a taverna and we had a week together. Nobody will ever know what glory that week was. She was a nice girl, too, even if she was a . . . People do what they must to survive. Nobody knows that better than me. Daria—

“Grampops!”

—gave me a lock of hair and a kiss pressed on paper. Back then I kept them in a cheap plastolux bubble, all I could afford, but later I had the hair and tiny folded paper set into a ring.

My Two Cents:

• The good:

• The whole idea of D-treatments was awesome! I know there have been a lot of other stories to write about aging-suppression schemes, but the idea of using stem cells from a genetically mutated tumor is definitely the coolest one I’ve seen.
• “Fountain of Age” was totally fun to read, and it kept me engaged the entire time. There is nothing quite like a story that keeps you turning pages and wanting to read just a little bit more. Plus – the ending… Wow! I didn’t see that one coming!
• Stevan, Rosie and the rest of the Rom were extremely interesting characters who added a whole other layer of coolness to this story!

• The bad:

• There are several incidences of strong and adult-oriented language.

Fact Sheet:
• Page Count: 45
• Word Count: 21,790
• “Fountain of Age” garnered the following awards:

• It won the 2007 Nebula Award for Best Novella.
• It was nominated for the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Novella.
• It placed 7th in the novella category of the 2008 Locus Poll Awards.

Where you can find “Fountain of Age”:

• This novella first appeared in the July 2007 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction.
• You can read a free online version of “Fountain of Age” at Asimov’s web site.

Some Interesting Links:

• Did you know that Nancy Kress was once a fourth grade teacher? Yep. You can learn more about this science fiction author by reading the bio page on her website.
• If you like this story you may want to check out Nancy Kress’s very famous and award-laden novel Beggars in Spain.

Craving More Stories?
If you enjoyed this story then you might also like Memorare, about a man making a documentary of the dangerous tombs built in asteroids, by Gene Wolfe.

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