“You want better?” He slipped a small, hard cube into my palm. “For later.”
“You know I don’t do that crap.” But I closed my fingers around it.
“For later,” he said again. So smug.
I just kept staring out the window, wondering what it would feel like if the plane crashed. How long would we stay conscious, our mangled bodies melting into the burnt fuselage? Would we be aware as fuel leaked from the wreckage, lit by a stray spark? What would it feel like at the moment of explosion, our brains and bodies blasted into a million pieces?
I would never know. The moment this brain burst into fire, someone at BioMax would set to work retrieving my stored memories, downloading them into a newly made body, waking me to yet another new life. That “me” would remember everything up to my last backup and nothing more. No flying, no crashing, no explosion.
For the best, I decided. Maybe when it came to dying, once was enough.
About the Author
ROBIN WASSERMAN is the author of the Cold Awakening trilogy (Frozen, Shattered, Torn), Hacking Harvard, the Seven Deadly Sins series, and the Chasing Yesterday trilogy. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
PRAISE FOR FROZEN
“A spellbinding story about loss, rebirth, and finding out who we really are inside.”
“Set in a well-drawn future world highly reminiscent of M. T. Anderson’s Feed … Futuristically blurring the boundaries of life and death, this text intimately tackles tough ethical topics, including faith, identity, suicide, and genetic engineering, through blunt dialogue and realistic characters.”
“Well composed and engaging, this is an obvious choice for readers of Peter Dickinson and George Orwell.”
“Wasserman paints her protagonist undergoing a realistic and dramatic transformation … ample futuristic technology to draw in science-fiction buffs, even if the ultimate focus is a more contemplative coming-of-age story.”
“An interesting and engaging look at medical ethics and humanity.”
ALSO BY ROBIN WASSERMAN
The Cold Awakening trilogy
Hacking Harvard
The Seven Deadly Sins series
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
This Simon Pulse paperback edition October 2011
Copyright © 2008 by Robin Wasserman
Previously published as Skinned.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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Also available in a Simon Pulse hardcover edition.
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Designed by Mike Rosamilia
The text of this book was set in Edlund.
Manufactured in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Wasserman, Robin.
Skinned / Robin Wasserman.—1st Simon Pulse ed.
p. cm.
Summary: To save her from dying in a horrible accident, Lia’s wealthy parents transplant her brain into a mechanical body.
ISBN 978-1-4169-3634-3 (hc)
[1. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.W25865Sk
[Fic]—dc22
2008015306
ISBN 978-1-4424-2038-0 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4424-3359-5 (eBook)