Author: Arwen Elys Dayton
Genre: Sci-fi
Similar books: The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgewick
Beta by Rachel Cohn
Rating:
 |
| the thinking person's sci-fi |
Summary (provided by publisher): The future is curious.
STRONGER
Today our bodies define us. We color our hair; tattoo our skin; pierce our ears, brows, noses. We lift weights, run miles, break records. We are flesh and blood and bone.
FASTER
Tomorrow has different rules. The future is no longer about who we are--it's about who we want to be. If you can dream it, you can be it. Science will make us smarter, healthier, flawless in every way. Our future is boundless.
MORE BEAUTIFUL
This is a story that begins tomorrow. It's a story about us. It's a story about who comes after us. And it's a story about perfection. Because perfection has a way of getting ugly.
My opinion: This book is best described as thematically linked short stories. There are some ties in location and character. Personally, I wish the links had been stronger. For instance, a few of the stories directly referenced the character of Tad Tadd. I loved the idea of seeing his perspective and perception of him changing as time passed. We get a few snap shots but it might have been cool to see that constant change, paralleling the societal perception of genetic modification.
The book takes the form of relatively short stories, all with open endings. We never hear how life turns out for individuals but are allowed to imagine their end for ourselves. The implication is that the individual actually doesn't matter but that their experiences are representative of the human species on the whole. The last few stories take us pretty far afield and thus begin to suffer some believability issues. But the writing is tight and clean. By starting in what is essentially our reality and extrapolating from there, Dylan has provided a collection that most every reader will appreciate at some stage.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.
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