The 13th Immortal

Twelve immortal dukes have ruled the ruins of Earth for twelve centuries, each a god-king presiding over the remnants of humanity from their fortified domains. No one remembers the catastrophe that made them, or why there are exactly twelve. Dale Kesley is a man adrift in this strange world, haunted by gaps in his memory and a compulsion he cannot explain: he must reach Antarctica, to the place where the ice holds its oldest secrets. What he discovers there threatens to shatter the carefully maintained order of centuries. Silverberg builds a meditation on power, mortality, and what humanity loses when a select few are granted eternity. The mystery of Dale's identity propels a story that asks uncomfortable questions about who deserves to rule, and what price eternal life truly demands. For readers who prefer their dystopias atmospheric and philosophical, who don't need explosions but do need a good puzzle about selfhood.