Scott Westerfeld's Extras - a superb volume in the Uglies series
Scott Westerfeld's Extras is the latest volume of the series that includes Uglies, Pretties and Specials, picking up the story with a new cast of characters who are even more likable, and a premise that is even more gripping, than those of the original books (and that's saying something!).
The three books concerned themselves with the adventures of Tally Youngblood, who inhabits a world where children are surgically modified to be esthetically "perfect" on their sixteenth birthday, under a self-serving political system that uses strict social order to enforce total mental and political control over its citizens.
In Extras, we meet Aya, a citizen of a different city, one where the social order is determined by one's social rank, as calculated by a central computer that counts how many times your fellow citizens mention you. Aya is a would-be super-blogger (a "kicker" in local slang) who hopes to accumulate "face rank" (reputation) through breaking stories about famous "faces" -- highly ranked fellow citizens. This ambition entwines her destiny with the Sly Girls, a clique of fame-eschewing rule-breakers, and that leads her to discovering a secret so dark that it upsets the entire social order of her world.
Reputation economies -- where resources are allocated based on popularity -- are of great interest to me (I wrote a novel about 'em), and I'm as skeptical as the next writer about 'em, so I was really impressed with Scott's deft and thoroughgoing handling of the subject in Extras, a real exploration of all the social- and story-problems you can get out of a reputation system.
But as with all Westerfeld novels, it's not the great ideas that make them sing (though the ideas are great!), it's the wrenching pacing and deeply likable characters. Aya and her friends are some of the most interesting, flawed and inspirational people I've met in a young adult novel, making this yet another great Westerfeld to use in turning your kids onto sf. Link
See also:
Uglies: young adult sf that perfectly captures adolescent anxiety
Conclusion of Westerfeld's Uglies and Pretties trilogy is out
Vampire novel as a work of first-rate science fiction
How an sf writer names his characters
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I just finished reading this series (the trilogy) and now I am terrified. He writes some of the most gut-wrenching cliff-hanger endings I have ever read... so if he is planning on continuing this series, I really need to know so I can have all the books ready at once.
It was hard enough waiting for a year after Pretties to find a copy of Specials. I don't think I can go through that again.
I am very excited for this particular volume (like most Westerfeld fans) but, in this case, my book buzz is even more than for previous books.
The reason? The Uglies series has so far led one of the most interesting investigations into technology and its effect on society while still maintaining an atmosphere just the same as that of modern day.
With the loss of technological restrictions (and the implementation of a reputation economy, as Cory mentioned), the scope of this exploration will (I hope) go beyond even that of the Uglies series while continuing to maintain an excellent plot and set of characters.
Needless to say, the release is going to be very icy. (October 2nd!)