Book Description

In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computing make human cloning a reality. For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it’s an abomination against nature. For young Constance “Con” D’Arcy, who was gifted her own clone by her late aunt, it’s terrifying.

After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness—stored for that inevitable transition—something goes wrong. When Con wakes up in the clinic, it’s eighteen months later. Her recent memories are missing. Her original, she’s told, is dead. If that’s true, what does that make her?

The secrets of Con’s disorienting new life are buried deep. So are those of how and why she died. To uncover the truth, Con is retracing the last days she can recall, crossing paths with a detective who’s just as curious. On the run, she needs someone she can trust. Because only one thing has become clear: Con is being marked for murder—all over again. 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56326737-constance?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=88qM7BrYWO&rank=1

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RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

CONSTANCE (Constance #1) by Matthew FitzSimmons is an exciting and thought provoking dystopian sci-fi mystery thriller that is the first of a two-book series. In the near future, if you have the millions to spare, human cloning is a reality.

Constance “Con” D’Arcy is a talented musician, who survives a horrible traffic accident which kills almost every member of the band she plays in. The accident moves her to accepting the gift of her own clone from her aunt who is the co-founder and brilliant mind behind the Palingenesis clinic.

After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness which should only take hours, Con wakes up months later in the body of her clone. She is told her original is dead, but the transition that should have happened with memories from her last upload has left her with no memory of the last 18 months.

Con is determined to find out what happened to her original and discover what has happened in the last 18 months. She cannot trust anyone who is offering to help because they all have ulterior motives and agendas. Caught between the wealthy and powerful Vernon Gaddis and Dr. Brooke Fenton fighting over what is hidden in Con’s brain and the Children of Adam who want the death of all clones, Con can trust in only herself.

This is an amazing story! I could not put it down. Constance “Con” is a protagonist that is memorable. She at times is a little too curious for her own good, but she is also fearless and resilient. She must face discrimination and bigotry as a clone at the same time she deals with the ethics of being a clone herself. Mr. FitzSimmons takes the reader through ethical and philosophical questions on cloning intertwined in the story and dialogue of his various characters. Also, and no small part of the story is an intricate crime mystery that has so many twists and surprises I could not stop turning the pages. Throw in some great rock band references and I was hooked. This book does not end with a cliffhanger, but there is an open question at the end of the story and the promise of a second book to come. I cannot wait!

I highly recommend this dystopian sci-fi mystery!

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Author Bio

Matthew FitzSimmons, an American boy from Illinois, grew up in London in the 1970s under the baleful eye of the Kings Road punks. His otherwise idyllic childhood was shattered by the traumatic experience of seeing Star Wars on December 27, 1977 in Leicester Square, listening to his father sleep through what was clearly the greatest cinematic achievement of all time, and fearing he was adopted.

For college, he attended Swarthmore College where he earned a B.A. in Psychology but lived largely in and for the theater.

After several years in New York City, and having learned he wouldn’t do absolutely anything to make it, he absconded to China. There he wrote a first novel (the less said about which the better), played center back for a foreigner’s soccer team, sparked a near riot and was forced to write a ziwo pipan (self-criticism) by the University of Nanjing—his first work of political fiction.

He now lives in Washington, D.C., where he taught English literature and theater at a private high school for over a decade. He cohabitates with a pair of old boots, collects bourbon and classic soul LPs, and wonders if he will ever write anything half as good as the first sentence of James Crumley’s The Last Good Kiss.

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