Machine

Celia’s body is not her own, but even her conscious mind can barely tell the difference. Living on the cutting edge of biomechanical science was supposed to allow her to lead a normal life in a near-perfect copy of her physical self while awaiting a cure for a rare and deadly genetic disorder.

But a bioiandroid isn’t a real person. Not according to the protesters outside Celia’s house, her coworkers, or even her wife. Not according to her own evolving view of herself. As she begins to strip away the human affectations and inhibitions programmed into her new body, the chasm between the warm pains of flesh-and-blood life and the chilly comfort of the machine begins to deepen. Love, passion, reality, and memory war within Celia’s body until she must decide whether to betray old friends or new ones in the choice between human and machine.

The Other

Readers know Luff Imbry from many of Matthew Hughes’ earlier novels. For the first time, Imbry is placed front and center in a novel dedicated exclusively to him. Luff Imbry is an insidiously clever confidence man who always maintains the upper hand in his criminal dealings. But when an unknown business rival gets the drop on him and plumps him down on Fulda — a far-off, isolated world — Imbry learns just how exceptional he is. Unable to blend in and furious for revenge at an anonymous perpetrator, Imbry has to rely on his infamous criminal wit to survive Fulda’s crusade to extinguish the Other.