Summary
Winner of 2014 Italia Award as Best Italian Science Fiction Novel
Winner of 2013 Odissea Award by Delos Books
First Italian novel to be published in English and Chinese
“Francesco Verso brings classic cyberpunk attitude to grand romantic obsession… a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human and an exciting peek into a world that is just around the corner.”– James Patrick Kelly (Nebula, Locus and Hugo Award winner)
Theme: An imaginary city is endangered by the spread of “kipple” (garbage & trash) that overruns everything. Most of the people live by recycling and reusing dump materials, while a lucky few upload themselves into new artificial bodies. They are called nexhumans and represent the upcoming evolution of man (post humanism).
Plot: Peter Pains, a 15 year-old disabled “trashformer”, sees his older brother Charlie, leader of a teenage gang called The Dead Bones, killing Alba, a nexhuman girl. Peter is in love with her and decides to gather her electronic body parts to rebuild her with the help of Ion, a homeless tramp. Peter will have to face the members of the Dead Bones one by one to recover all of Alba. And it will take him more than 15 years to accomplish it. The novel has three alternative ending, each one leading to a different solution.
They said about the book:
Essay by Jana Vizmuller Zocco “Science Fiction and Ontologies of Leadership”
Review by Jana Vizmuller Zocco on Reading rascal.
Review by SFRA Review nr 314 by Fernando Porta.
Review by Rachel Cordasco on Strange Horizons.