Old Twentieth (75)

Old Twentieth
By Joe Haldeman

This was another book I found on dearreader.com Science Fiction with an interesting and complex story... Science has reached the point where people can be made imortal.. a pill that will allow their bodies to heal almost any problem. But only for the wealthy.. so a war ensues and a biological agent ends it along with all but 200 million people.. they have to start over and build a new society.
The main part of the book is about a boy who grows up after the war and goes on to volunteer for a 1000 year mission to explore a new planet. His job is to run the Virtual computer simulation (sort of like a holideck) except that someone dies.. this isnt suppose to happen in a world where everyone is immortal.. then it happens again.. and they find out people on Earth are dying too... And the computer has become sentient and is talking to him (about life and being bored).
And engaging story at many levels.. personal, science fiction, war, life, relationships. The ending was not as neat as I would have liked.. but life seldom is - lol.. I might look up other books by this author, I was impressed!