January 6, 2020
Nicholas (SINdicate) introduces a far future in which humans stave off death by transferring their consciousness into new bodies in this briskly paced, noir-infused space opera. Three-hundred-year-old Carter Langston and his salvage crew explore a derelict spaceship full of coils, lab-grown human bodies without working brains. When one of the coils attacks, Langston dies, but his brain had been backed up and can easily be installed into a new coil, a procedure he’s gone through often. This time, a strange glitch causes the re‑coiled Langston to lack key memories that could help him understand the attack, and the majority of his crewmates haven’t been able to re-coil at all. To investigate, Langston teams up with hacker Chan. Their search leads from the habitats orbiting Venus to the domed cities of Mars, the base of Genetechnic Corporation, whose well-intentioned nanobots have created cyber zombies. Nicholas leavens his cynical noir ethos with a genuine connection between Langston and Chan; a sensitive, albeit rudimentary, exploration of the identity politics that would arise from humans frequently swapping bodies; and unexpected, if somewhat naive, optimism about corporate integrity. Readers will be drawn in by the compassionate characters and captivating premise. Agent: Laurie McLean, Fuse Literary.
February 15, 2020
Extravehicular specialist Carter Langston serves on the four-person crew of the deep-space salvage ship Persephone. When a routine salvage job of a mid-range shuttle goes bad, he wakes up back in port in a newly grown body, or coil. Like every other person's in a future that became more technologically stable as humanity spread across the solar system, Carter's consciousness was backed up before he left on the mission. As he adjusts to his new coil, he has no memory of the mission that killed him or what happened to his shipmates or their ship. When an assassin tries to kill him, he needs to find his crewmates?in their new forms?and solve the mystery of that last mission. It's a classic story of a cover-up, told in a fun, fast-paced way. In a society that offers practical immortality in the form of back-up consciousnesses being uploaded into replacement bodies, issues of identity and gender are also addressed. Fans of James S.A. Corey's Expanse series will enjoy this tale of high-tech mystery and shifting loyalties.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)