Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire. This was a Hugo-nominee for "best novel" in 1997. If there was ever a man who could look into the future and bring back glimpses - I say that man is Bruce Sterling. He understands how technology can change our lives, and the people in his futures take their strange or extravagant surroundings for granted - the way we do for things undreamed of 50 years ago.

In this 21st century future, power is in the hands of conservative senior citizens who have watched their health and capital investments with equal care, thus having access to the latest in life-extension technology. Meanwhile, the young live on the fringe of society, eking out a meager survival on government-issued rations and a black market in stolent technology...

Mia Ziemann is a 94 year old medical economist who has come to an awful realization: she has lived her life with such caution that it has been totally bereft of pleasure and adventure. She is given a chance to do it all over - an experimental procedure that can make her young again. After escaping her medical keepers, Mia hitches a plane ride to Europe, where she searches for spiritual gratification, erotic revelation, and the one thing she missed most: the holy fire of creative experience. To this end, she joins a group of outlaw anarchists whose leader may be the man of her dreams - or her undoing...