A novel that is simply too good to ignore.
On Gaby’s world, disheartening judgments such as ‘You’re not fast enough’ or ‘You’re not tall enough’ are problems of the past, at least for some. Thanks to gene-editing therapy, anyone can become taller, look younger, or see more clearly as long as they can afford the treatments, which Gaby unequivocally cannot. When a deal with a black-market CRISPR broker goes terribly wrong, Gaby has to admit that she will never qualify to serve as a soldier in Swayy Corp.’s elite military, never follow in the footsteps of her fallen brother, and never escape her impoverished town on the dismal breeder world she calls home. So it is no surprise that when Gaby receives a visitor from the Intelligence Division, she views it with trepidation. With no obvious strings attached, Admiral Davis invites Gaby to observe a secret training exercise, offering her a future in the stars if she wants to join his team. The admiral even promises paid CRISPR treatments and a preauthorized transfer to gausser training camp if she doesn’t like what she sees. The offer is too lucrative to refuse, so Gaby leaves everything behind and travels to Discordia, a ship carrying secrets that will change the tide in an ongoing war. Unfortunately, what Gaby doesn’t know can, indeed, hurt her and many others. When she finally understands her role on Discordia, she’ll have to decide if following orders is the mark of a loyal soldier, or if she’s better off thinking for herself. But first, she’ll have to learn what she’s really made of and in this, the learning curve is steep.
Breathtaking worldbuilding is only a part of the dominance in Wesley Watts’s stunning sci-fi extravaganza, Me and the Machine. What was once science fantasy is now merely futuristic as off-world colonization and AI proliferation become part of our collective conversation. Watts capitalizes on these alarming concepts by playing out some worst-case scenarios and giving them a convincing technical backbone. Elevated prose gives this story a polished edge, while subtly reminding readers that it is fiction. In a moment that feels equally predictive and damning, Gaby visits the Honortorium to pay respect to the exalted presidents of the five great megacorporations. In our modern, money-driven society, this scene feels scarcely outside our current reality. Complexity and creativity are on full display at every stage of the story. Jaw-dropping imagination is fully realized when audiences are invited into a shared hallucination courtyard, a virtual training ground where users learn infiltration skills in a lifelike setting. VR factors heavily in this novel, and these exciting scenes daringly push boundaries and open up possibilities. A novel that is simply too good to ignore, Me and the Machine is a meticulous and melancholic lesson on standing up to hypocrisy, corporatocracy, and our own insecurities.
