Tom Shippey picks his favorites for The Wall Street Journal.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR STRONGER, FASTER, AND MORE BEAUTIFUL
“A deep and suddenly necessary exploration of the beautiful and terrible futures we face. Every story leaves you desperate for more. Somehow, the further from today Dayton travels, the more real it becomes.”
—Hank Green, Vlogbrother and #1 New York Times bestselling author of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
“An alternately charming and horrifying exploration of what it means to be human and how far we’ll go in pursuit of personal and societal ‘perfection.’ Dayton’s newest is imagination at its best and most terrifying. I devoured this book.”
—Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein
“Haunting, challenging and provocative—this is an extraordinary book. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
—Amie Kaufman, New York Times bestselling coauthor of the Illuminae Files
“Great science fiction inspires humanity and paints our future possibilities. In Stronger, Faster and More Beautiful, Arwen Elys Dayton explores the next era of humanity with astonishing heart, a future filled with longer lifetimes, the human-technology interface, a life free from our current physical constraints.”
—Peter H. Diamandis, MD, founder of XPRIZE and Singularity University and author of the New York Times bestsellers Abundance and BOLD
“Bioengineering has dramatically improved the productivity and efficiency of global agriculture, while giving rise to extraordinary debate about its consequence. We are now entering a new age, where technologies allow us to bioengineer ourselves. Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful—fast-paced, tightly plotted, and engaging from the first page—puts a human face on the prosperity or catastrophe that is waiting just around the corner.
–David Friedberg, founder of Climate Corporation
“A work of unforgettable vision and imagination. This book is everything I love about science fiction.”
—Jay Kristoff, New York Times bestselling coauthor of the Illuminae Files
“Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful is a remarkable book, visionary and very hard to put down. The characters live in compelling, personal stories that have relevance to the future of the human race itself.”
—Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of The Dark Between the Stars
“It's almost December, which means it's nearly time to close out another year of young adult books. Luckily for all of us YA lovers out there, this month does not skimp on the books that need to be added to the ol' end of year TBR pile. From highly anticipated sequels like Sara Holland's fantasy novel Evermore to witty sci-fi reads like M.K. England's debut The Disasters (which is being billed as The Breakfast Club meets Guardians of the Galaxy and all I can say to that is "yes, please") there is truly something for every kind of YA reader to enjoy this month.”
-Bustle
“Arwen Elys Dayton, author of the science fiction Seeker trilogy, invites readers to consider the future with Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful, a standalone SF novel told through six interconnected stories that successively look further into the future, where scientific and medical advancements blur the definition of humanity and right and wrong. Dayton spoke with PW about the role of research in writing science fiction, plotting interconnected stories, and the importance of young people’s awareness of the medical advances that will shape the future.”
-Publishers Weekly
“Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful began with a revelation. After reading dozens of articles about gene editing, methods of growing human organs outside the body, and all manner of coming wonders, I thought, “This is it. Soon we’ll be able to eradicate disease, extend our lifespans, turn humans into superhumans!” But a few minutes later, I had a very different thought: “We will definitely find some way of messing this up in spectacular fashion.”
This novel was born in the space between my first thought and my second thought.”
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/stronger-faster-and-more-beautiful-excerpt?
“SYFY WIRE is poised to propel you into that near future where the yearnings of personal perfection meet a bold frontier of possibilities with an exclusive excerpt from an exhilarating new sci-fi "novel in six parts" titled Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful.”
-SYFY WIRE
“My new book is called Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful, and it's a fictional look at human genetic modification in the near and distant future. The book is told through six interconnected stories, each exploring a different aspect of our future world and the evolving face of humankind.”
Could we accidentally bestow human-style awareness into a pig?
https://www.tor.com/2018/11/30/excerpts-stronger-faster-and-more-beautiful-arwen-elys-dayton/
“In Arwen Elys Dayton’s latest book, readers follow six interconnected stories about our relationships to our bodies, set in the near future. In one story, a family has to determine how to use the organs of one of their twins to save the other, while in another, a teenager is augmented following a horrific car accident. Publishers’ Weekly gave the book a starred review and says that “Dayton’s brilliant collection of stories is best described as a scientific Twilight Zone.”
–Andrew Liptak