Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

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Description from the May 2005 issue of Things To Come, the monthly catalog of the Science Fiction Book Club.

My name is Jake Sullivan. I was born with a rare brain disorder, and for all my 44 years, I lived under the threat of sudden death. Then Mindscan, the most sophisticated technology of 2045, showed me how to cheat fate. I underwent the process, which copied my consciousness into a virtually indestructible android form.

Life as an upload is strange and wonderful. I don't sweat, sneeze, get tired or hungry. I see colors I never knew existed. And I've found love — something I avoided when I was encased in fragile flesh — with the android version of Karen, a famous children's book author, who's rediscovering all the joys of life now that she is free of her geriatric body.

There are downsides, too. My mother refuses to accept me as her son, and even my dog has rejected me. Then Karen's old body dies, and her son takes her to court, claiming that by uploading, she did him out of his inheritance. And in the midst of all this, I start making contact with other uploads of myself, uploads I never authorized and that somehow aren't quite right ...

Meanwhile, on the far side of the moon ...

When I, the original Jake Sullivan, got Mindscanned, I thought I'd escape sudden death by having my consciousness copied into an android body. Operative word: copied. Because the reality is that I'm still here, while the machine me has taken over my old life — virtually forever. I retired to the moon to live out my life in luxury, and then they found a cure for my condition. Now I have a new lease on life, but the life I want is the one I signed away all rights to on Earth. Only the imposter is legally real. And I'm mad enough to do something rash ...

More Good Reading

More about Mindscan
Other novels by Robert J. Sawyer
John W. Campbell Memorial Award press release

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