Week 4: The Original

From Goodreads:

Hugo Award-winning authors Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal team up in this exclusive audio-first production of The Original, a sci-fi thriller set in a world where one woman fights to know her true identity and survive the forces that threaten her very existence.

In the near future, humans choose life for a price. Injectable nanite technology is the lifeblood that flows through every individual wishing to experience the world through the lens of their own theme. While death from mortal wounds is still possible, life is made easier in a socially liberated society where automation and income equality allow passion pursuits to flourish over traditional work. Renewal stations are provided to every law-abiding citizen for weekly check-ins, which issue life-sustaining repairs in exchange for personal privacy. But what becomes of those who check out, of those who dare to resist immortality and risk being edited under the gaze of an identity-extracting government surveillance system?

When Holly Winseed wakes up in a hospital room, her memory compromised and a new identity imposed on her, a team of government agents wastes no time stating their objective. With intent to infiltrate and defeat the terrorist group ICON, the agents tell Holly that she is now a Provisional Replica and has one week to hunt down and kill her Original for the murder of her husband, Jonathan. If she succeeds, shell assume her Originals place in society. If she fails, her life will end.

Holly's progress is monitored by an assigned contact that feeds her information as she confronts the blank, robotic world around her, discovering that others view life through the theme of their own choosing. With her newly implanted combat and deduction skills, Holly fends off both attacks by terrorists and doubts about her own trustworthiness as clues lead her to her Original and to the truth about Jonathan. In the end, one body remains and one walks away. Although questions persist, one thing is certain: life will never be the same. 

My Review:
Wow, I enjoyed reading this book so much! The idea of a copy being made of a person-so they can hunt their original down-was so interesting, and I had a great time reading it! I listened to this audiobook in 1.5x speed, which is about my normal, and it was so great! 

The technology in this world is pretty stunning. That people could back up their memories, so that if they died, they could be reborn with everything up to that point-so cool. But that the government, in special cases, when you've committed a crime, to create a replica from those memories to hunt you down! It's so interesting! 

This book was part mystery, of hunting down her original, of finding out about the death of her husband, and part social commentary on technology. Because the average person has a device that you can program themes-and it can also, as Holly finds out, block out things. Like when she went to the forest campsite, that was an eye-opener!

That reveal of what happened, why all of this was happening, wow was it shocking! But it made absolute sense, and it was really excellently plotted, and I really enjoyed that! It all came together very well! 

That ending was just pure evil, it's so ambiguous, it could've been the original, or it could've been the copy we'd been following who said that. And we don't know which! And I desperately want to know! I really hope we get a sequel, because I just need more! 

Loved this so much, and I really hope we get a sequel! 

Authors: Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal, Narrated by Julia Whelan
Read: January 24th, 2022
Source: Library
Reason Why: Sounded really good, and it's a SAC 2022 Book! 
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Published: September 14th 2020

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars