Cyberpunk meets Irish Countryside

There are some books my mind returns to regularly. One of them is a retro-cyberpunk novel set in rural Ireland by the German author Andreas Eschbach. Imagine the US military had secretly experimented with enhancing humans with high-tech computers, cameras and electrical muscles, developing the perfect soldier—but in the 1980s.

This should have been the life of Duane Fitzgerald, giving his body up for his country and fighting as a man-made superhero. But the project was dropped as costs doubled and tripled. Prematurely retired, Duane dwells in a tranquil village in Ireland, waiting for his multimillion-dollar body to rust and coping with the side effects of his aging technology. One day, however, a stranger visits the village and seems to know more than he should about the secret cyborg project.

In this novel, Eschbach explores the honest truths of aging with wit and charm, while also bringing suspense and action to the picturesque setting of Ireland. Combining themes of cyberpunk and the Roman philosopher Seneca shouldn’t have worked, but Eschbach made it possible. Sadly, “Der Letzte seiner Art” has no English translation, though Czech, Dutch, Russian, French and Italian editions exist. Not everyone will like this, but it influenced me a lot.