If you lived in Valve, lawlessness wasn't a vice, it was a life skill. Syd Carton, a proxy, knew this well. He still had two years debt to pay of the eighteen years he originally owed. "The Benevolent Society charged ten years for rescue from the desert and another three for installing datastream into your blood. Three more years got tacked on for foster care, and two more just to get into school. That made eighteen years altogether." Syd's patron, Knox Brundle, was born into one of the wealthiest families and was a playboy who indiscriminately borrowed whatever struck his fancy. When he borrows a fancy car, drives recklessly, and kills his passenger, Maria, Syd is to be punished for Knox's crimes - theft, trespassing, destruction of property, and homicide. Knox's father had purchased Sydney's debt and when Knox broke the rules, Syd was punished. "He was just a body for the rich to use and discard when it suited them." He was to be shocked, branded, and sent to Sterling Work Colony for sixteen years. "There was no escape. The Mountain City was the only civilization on the continent. The rest was swamp and desert and ruins..." But escape they do... This is a 'fast-paced thrill ride of a novel full of non-stop action, heart-hammering suspense and true friendship - just as moving as it is exhilarating..."
"Using the poor to control the poor kept everyone in the Valve at one another's throats and kept them from working to far up the sky scrapers and private communities."
"You cannot nourish the soul with data."
Gateway Award Preliminary Nominee 2015-16
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