Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful

Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful
Arwen Elys Dayton

‘Will send shivers down your spine’Teen Vogue‘A work of unforgettable vision and imagination. This book is everything I love about science fiction’Jay KristoffBlack Mirror with a touch Westworld re-wiring, STRONGER, FASTER, AND MORE BEAUTIFUL is a novel in six interconnected parts about what it means to be human – and where those boundaries lie.Set in our world, spanning the near to distant future, the author, Arwen Elys Dayton, explores the possible consequences of advanced medical breakthroughs and how they may shape and reshape humanity. From organ donation to plastic surgery to full bodily reconstruction, these stories take you by your (for now, organic) hand and lead you into a future where the line between person and machine becomes increasingly blurred.Deeply thoughtful, poignant, horrifying, and action-packed, this novel strikes new ground while also seeming so strangely… likely.Just try to disconnect.

Copyright (#u43673d2a-a8f3-58d2-bc14-e26d5d8e8612)

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

Published by HarperVoyager

an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2018

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins 2018

Copyright © Arwen Elys Dayton 2018

Cover design by Mike Topping © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

Cover images © Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com)

Arwen Elys Dayton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008322380

Ebook Edition © December 2018 ISBN: 9780008322397

Version: 2018-10-25

Dedication (#u43673d2a-a8f3-58d2-bc14-e26d5d8e8612)

To the next generation

and the next and the next

(and hopefully the next)

Epigraph (#u43673d2a-a8f3-58d2-bc14-e26d5d8e8612)

We have got to the point in human history where we simply do not have to accept what nature has given us.

—Jay Keasling, professor of biochemical engineering, University of California, Berkeley, in Wired, 2009

Contents

Cover (#u57f709bd-6f5c-5c12-a8a3-f5914fec07a9)

Title Page (#ub1c8cba8-70d7-56a5-bfed-519d2a8e3cd3)

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Part One: Matched Pair (#u3703b12c-c86f-57d2-8c52-3357acaa161d)

Part Two: St. Ludmilla (#u6afac0b2-b2d1-575b-b684-4a9c6eba8d86)

Part Three: The Reverend Mr. Tad Tadd’s Love Story (#u9c40ff2c-c122-5e19-be43-9635465bdfe7)

Part Four: Eight Waded (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Five: California (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Six: Curiosities (#litres_trial_promo)

Author’s Note (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

A few years from now …

PART ONE (#ulink_ccecf5ae-fb1a-5243-80fb-791ac14814d8)

Human!

Stop!

… is what I’m thinking. As if I’ve already become something else, a different species, and I’m tired of hearing all of his worn-out, human-person logic.

The man is reminding me that Julia’s heart will be combined with my own heart, so it’s not like I’m “taking” hers. It’s a synthesis. The new heart will fuse both in a way that’s better than either of the originals. A super-heart, I guess you could call it.

He is reminding me of this, and every time I say “But—” he cuts me off by continuing his explanation, only more loudly. Now he’s almost yelling, though he’s just as cheerful as he always is.