Pretentious title. Something of a brief history of man's view of and seeking for immortality. And the current state of the science of ageing as told by a layman to the field.

The writing is somewhat uneven, repetitious and fluffy. The author did a fair amount of research; perhaps not enough for a Doctoral thesis.

Of value is the recounting of undertakings, ever unsuccessful, to defeat old age and death, from ancient efforts through today's newest remedies. More wealth is wasted now than ever in this quest. The difference is that our age has more science to misuse, more people to confuse and more money to lose. And the mountebanks and quacks grow fatter, as always, and then get old and die.

Were it likely that readers, perhaps seduced by the title, might reach this realization and not waste their thousands of dollars on modern elixirs, then the book should have another star or two.

The author's unfortunate musings on the philosophy of science towards the end of the book was sufficiently inexact that I was impelled to finish the last 50 pages in under ten seconds. ( )