Every author who ventures into the science fiction, including menda (see my book Age), on occasion shuffles the issue of cloning due to its double component between the scientific and the moral. Dolly the sheep as the supposed first clone of a mammal is already a long way off. And God knows how things will be in some clandestine laboratory in China or even in the USA.
Put to imagine human clones walking down the street as if nothing had happened, for the moment we have no choice but to throw ourselves into the future. But who knows if there are any of them already circulating around there, with their Pinocchio complex in search of their new God...
In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computers make human cloning a reality. For the rich, the ultimate luxury is cheating death. For militants who oppose cloning, it is an abomination against nature. For young Constance D'Arcy, whose deceased aunt has left her a clone as a gift from her, it's a terrifying thing.
After one of the routine monthly recharges of his consciousness, stored for that inevitable transition, something goes wrong. When she wakes up in the clinic, eighteen months have passed. The most recent memories of her are gone. They tell him that his original has died. If that's true, what does she become?
The secrets of Constance's new life, so bewildering, are buried deep. And also the answers to the how and why of her death. To uncover the truth, she goes back to what she did in the last few days that she remembers and on her way she meets a detective who is just as curious as she is. On the run from her, she needs someone she can trust. Because there is only one thing that has become clear to her: they are trying to kill her... again.
You can now buy the novel, Constance, by Matthew Fitzsimmons, here:
