A woman is dying. Cleo Porter has her medicine. And no way to deliver it.
Like everyone else, twelve-year-old Cleo and her parents are sealed in an apartment without windows or doors. They never leave. They never get visitors. Their food is dropped off by drones. So they're safe. Safe from the disease that nearly wiped humans from the earth. Safe from everything. The trade-off?
They're alone. Thus, when they receive a package clearly meant for someone else--a package containing a substance critical for a stranger's survival--Cleo is stuck. As a surgeon-in-training, she knows the clock is ticking. But people don't leave their units.
Not ever. Until now.
Apparently, this novel was started over two years ago. Jake Burt is a psychic, that's all I'm saying. In his novel, a deadly form of influenza struck late in the 21st century. As a result, enormous apartment buildings were built, people were sealed in, and the outside was abandoned. Robots tend the fields and deliver the produce to the buildings, where drones deliver them to each apartment. Surgeons use drones to operate on people. Recreation happens in simulators. It's all very...tidy.
I really enjoyed reading this. Cleo is a great hero, brave and steadfast, determined even when faced with things so far out of her understanding she literally has no words for them. Her side characters are wonderful, too. I like them all, but I think Yorick has to be my favourite, late story twist notwithstanding.
I love this story. I love the world, and I'd love to come back to it someday, if Jake feels inclined to return to it. (Also I'm taking notes, just in case...)
Cleo Porter and the Body Electric publishes on the 6th October, 2020.
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