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There are so many new technological advances nowadays that are allowing humans to accomplish feats straight out of a science fiction magazine. As amazing as technology can be, a very pressing question comes to mind: what will happen in the future?
Arwen Elys Dayton's latest work Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful answers this question through six individual narratives that span through time. These narratives chronicles the different stages of humanity's technological advances and bioengineering from merging two twin hearts to the creation of a chimera.
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About the Book
Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful
by Arwen Elys Dayton
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: December 4, 2018
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Synopsis:
For fans of television shows Black Mirror and Westworld, this compelling, mind-bending novel is a twisted look into the future, exploring how far we will go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimen and what it means to be human at all.
Set in our world, spanning the near to distant futures, Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful is a novel made up of six interconnected stories that ask how far we will go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimens, and how hard that will push the definition of "human."
This extraordinary work explores the amazing possibilities of genetic manipulation and life extension, as well as the ethical quandaries that will arise with these advances. The results range from the heavenly to the monstrous. Deeply thoughtful, poignant, horrifying, and action-packed, Arwen Elys Dayton's Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful is groundbreaking in both form and substance.
Book links
About the Author
Arwen Elys Dayton is the author of the Seeker series—Seeker, Traveler, and Disruptor and the e-novella The Young Dread—and the science-fiction thriller Resurrection. Arwen lives with her husband and their three children on the West Coast of the United States. You can visit her at arwenelysdayton.com and follow @arwenelysdayton on Twitter and Instagram.
Review
Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful delved into how insatiable the human condition is and how humanity is always striving to achieve the impossible. Dayton's novel uses the six narrative individuals who all have firsthand experiences with humanities quest to surpass the restraints of our human condition. These six stories are utterly stimulating because they are brutal at times yet they entirely captivate you because of the characters' compelling voices that inevitably make readers reflect on our future as a society.
I really enjoyed the different personalities within the story that conveyed an accurate reflection to all the great feats humans can accomplish; this went hand in hand with the foreboding of everything that could go wrong and a glimpse to what may lead to humanity's downfall. Similar reads that came to mind were Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series and Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell.
Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful was such a compelling portrayal of all the technological advances that are all well within our reach that I absorbed every word until the final tale. Dayton's portrait of the future is so convincing because of its precision and foundation on realism. I felt the story became more fact than fiction in the same fashion as George Orwell's 1984 because both Dayton and Orwell presented readers with an unforgettable window to the all that may come to pass.
*Without any spoilers*
The fourth story with Alexios, the chimera, had to be my favorite. Alexios's narrative showed an entirely new perspective to what can be achieved with bioengineering. This was the story that was especially thought provoking because of how blurred the lines of human and other became.
I'd like to finish by saying:
Welcome to a future that will both enthrall and horrify.
Giveaway
1 finished copy of
Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton
(US Only)
Click here
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