gilda_elise

The Far Arena chronicles the adventures of Eugeni, a Roman gladiator from Domitian's period, who, due to an unlikely series of events, is frozen in ice for 1900 years before being found by the Houghton Oil Company on a prospecting mission in the N. Atlantic.
Lew McCardle is a geologist working for Houghton. While running a test drill, the machine accidentally uncovers a frozen body. Lew is given charge. He immediately calls Semyon Petrovitch, a Soviet scientist. Petrovitch, who specializes in cryonics takes the body to be revived, explaining that it's easier to treat such a case as alive until it's proven life cannot be restored. The blood is pumped from it & various treatments are administered until, amazingly, it comes back to life. It spends the next 15 days in a deep sleep, muttering to itself. The mutterings are recorded, but no-one can figure out the language. Finally, Lew McCardle, who has eight years of Latin, sends for a Catholic nun, who joins him & Petrovitch on their quest to sort out the mysteries of the body.

I pull out this book every few years for a reread, though it had been several years since the last time. I have to admit to being concerned that it might have lost something since the last rereading. I needn’t have worried.

From the start, the reader is pulled into the life of Eugeni, who, while still unconscious, relives how he ended up where he was and why. But we learn so much more, about his time and ours, once he wakes up.

Eugeni has a unique perspective on the 20th century. He’s not as amazed by our civilization as one would think. Because of the life he’s led, he knows people, and why they do what they do. That includes governments and organizations. He’s a sympathetic character who holds a mirror up to our way of life. But, having lost everything, he must discover a new meaning for his own.