- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books (May 17, 2016)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0765382903
- ISBN-13: 978-0765382900
- Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 8.5 inches
Are you a science fiction aficionado? I've been reading more sci-fi (or as a character in another sci-fi book pronounces it, skiffy) lately, mostly because of recommendations. I have been so happy to delve into this genre. Take Company Town by Madeline Ashby as a "for-instance." This is a setting where it's almost the present. Or it's the present with a few tweaks. Plus noir.
In the first few pages CRISPR, oil rig platforms, and sex workers all make an appearance. It's a very ingeniously written noir/sci-fi thriller. Imagine a future where you can enhance or even replace your body-- with bioengineered elements. Better than plastic surgery, these enhancements allow you to access augmented reality. So not only can you be beautiful and perfect, but you can also have secondary powers, and everyone is doing it. But it takes money (doesn’t it always?) and some people just can’t do anything about that-- they’re too poor, or alternatively no one thinks they’re “worth it.” Hwa hasn't had any such enhancements and works as one of the last wholly "organic" body guards. While working for the Sex Workers Union as a protector, she is offered a position that will lift her out of poverty and allow her more autonomy. Part of the twist is that she has to go back high school to do her job (imagine Lisbeth Salander goes back to physics class with a dorky science student). Meanwhile, the sex workers she had been hired to protect are being murdered. And not just your run-of-the-mill murders, either. They all happen right in front of Hwa, which is almost too much to bear. She is determined to find out what's going on, but realizes this is a bigger force than she originally thought.
What's cool is the way the story spins out, the atmosphere Ashby is able to project, and the clever writing and plays on words. It was so fun to read! And there really are oil rig platforms in the Canadian Maritimes, so there is quite a bit or reality built-in to this story.If you like noir, science fiction, and YA, this novel is for you. I'm ready to read more by Ashby!
