The Eternal World

The discovery of the fountain of youth kick-starts this excellent fantasy thriller from Farnsworth (Blood Oath and two other Nathaniel Cade vampire novels). In 1537, Simón de Oliveras y Seixas and five of his closest soldiers claim the fountain of youth in the Florida swamps after slaughtering the members of the Water Clan of the Uzita, who guard “The Water.” Nearly 500 years later, Simon Oliver III, as Simón now calls himself, heads Conquest Biotech, a firm best known for its anti-aging pharmaceuticals, and his fellow Spanish conquistadors run the board. With the fountain’s water supply dwindling, Simon hires scientific genius David Robinton to find its secret. Meanwhile, Simon and his cohorts remain locked in a centuries-old war with Shako, the daughter of the Uzita chief and the massacre’s only survivor. Each man is obsessed with living forever, yet exhausted from the lies and hiding they’ve done for centuries and bored by life’s pleasures. “To live forever, you have to have something to live for,” one of them thinks. The realistic approach is one of this inventive novel’s major strengths. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM. (Aug.)