Judgment, No. 15

Frozen

by Robin Wasserman

"She's not the same person she used to be. Maybe she's not even a person at all."

*

This is some major sci-fi. Something I'm not usually comfortable with, that I usually avoid. Yet here I am. Why? One, it was only 9.99--the exact amount of cash I had in my pocket at the time. Two, Scott Westerfeld said it was "spellbinding." But why am I so intrepid? One, it was only 9.99--and we all know how cheap cheap books usually are (remember that trio of $5 books I bought? Unfortunately, I still do). Two, Scott Westerfeld really disappointed me when he sold himself out and made his epic Uglies trilogy a series. Which brings me to point number three: This is, in fact, a series. And, not only that, it is a reprinting of an old series originally called Skinned. As if they're hoping for more success come round two. Which feels like cheating. But they went for edgy, concept cover-art where the three books stand together to reveal--you guessed it--a (metal?) woman...dripping...with water. So...there's that. And it sounds a lot like Bicentennial Man, but a girl. And it's about a teenager. And they tend to be pretty stupid/annoying/ultra-angsty.

Still. I'm reading it.

And I think/plead that, maybe, it just might be good. The story goes that this girl in a futuristic world gets in a car wreck and her memories are transferred onto a microchip and put in a robotic body Thus, is she alive? Is she human? Is she anything? It's like A.I. Artificial Intelligence meets The Island. That's what I'm getting/hoping for at least. And, hey, if we're lucky, and seeing as she's a non-human entity and all, there won't be a love triangle. Or any romance at all! But...seeing as this is YA fiction, there's bound to be something. I just hope it's stomachable/awesome.

Man, I'm such a pessimist. I should work on that, but I probably won't.