Assessment:
Plot/Idea: From the start, Casey's thriller boasts high stakes and engaging conflict. Teagan, a co-creator of technology that enables dying humans to inhabit the body of an android, struggles with her wife's desire to be uploaded into the NeuroNet Teagan's designed. Added to the mix are androids suddenly dying by suicide, a dangerous wrinkle in Teagan's software that spells potential doom for her company—and the fragile human-android balance of their world. The dilemmas Casey introduces are spellbinding, and the novel keeps its lightning pace until the end.
Prose: Casey’s prose is crisp and direct, with minimal jargon, making for a fast and easy read. The style reflects the worldbuilding, as the vocabulary and lexicon for this world are seamlessly incorporated into the story, allowing readers to jump into Teagan's surroundings with ease.
Originality: Casey's sci-fi universe is unique and her characters diverse. Readers who relish all-or-nothing scene setting, character sacrifice, and entertaining writing will vote this a win.
Character/Execution: Teagan is both strong and independent, yet so widely universal in her characterization that many readers will find her relatable and down to earth. Her moral dilemmas resonate, and supporting characters are equally compelling.
Date Submitted: May 25, 2024
Casey (author of Song of Lyran) delivers snappy storytelling and an intelligent, persistent hero in Teagan, who undergoes several events that test her resolve, including her cancer-stricken wife, Em, whose insistence to be uploaded into NeuroNet troubles Teagan. Together, the team must quickly uncover why the androids are killing themselves, a quest that poses philosophical questions on the nature of humanity and its need to evolve. As the characters ruminate on the ethics of keeping loved ones around versus letting them go in a natural way, they come across a hint of something deeper at play: some of the androids seem to be exhibiting potentially homicidal intent as well.
Casey’s characters are a satisfying mix of flawed and honorable, commendable for their good-hearted intentions, as Teagan—struggling with her devotion to her wife despite their frequent arguments and disheartened at her role as Em’s “guardian” once she’s uploaded into an android—reveals she “created NeuroNet so that you’d never have to say goodbye to the ones you love.” When Teagan undergoes a tragic event, a frank and emotional discussion of death, grief, and loyalty ensues. Readers will appreciate this sympathetic and forward-thinking consideration of humanity’s future, made all the more enjoyable by Casey’s dramatic and shocking twists.
Takeaway: Smart—and humane—scientists probe human evolution vs. AI.
Comparable Titles: Piers Furney’s Alkaline Dawn, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
