Every Friday during Sci-Fi Month, you can join in with some fun Friday prompts. Today’s prompt is Upgrade Me and we’re taking a look at books where humans and technology intersect. Think bionic eyes, cybernetic limbs, etc. This prompt was a little harder for me, I had to dig back a few years for some of the examples, but here’s what I’ve come up with:
I Am Ai by Ai Jiang. This novella features a character who is slowly becoming more machine than human, as she keeps upgrading various parts of her body.
The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel. You can see by the cover that this fun, baseball-centric story deals with cybernetic body parts. Kobo is a “biofarm scout” who is always on the search for cutting edge doctors to help the baseball team he scouts for.
Lock In by John Scalzi. In this story, people who have survived a disease called Haden’s syndrome become paralyzed, but they are able to move freely by having their brains uploaded into androids called threeps. This was my first Scalzi and it was a ton of fun!
August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White. This was such a fun read! The main character August “Gus” Kitko is chosen to act as vanguard to a powerful, deadly mecha, and he’s physically hooked up in a very painful way in order to fulfil his duty. I wish the sequel would come out!
Nightwatch on the Hinterlands by K. Eason. How would you like a needle socket surgically inserted into the base of your spine, a device that communicates with your high tech battle rig? That’s just one surprise in this excellent SF story.
I really enjoyed The Body Scout. Some earlier examples of this theme were Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space books and William Gibson’s Sprawl books.
I was focusing on recent books, but I’m glad to hear there are lots of older books that could fit this prompt.
Cool list!
Just added your first and last to my TBR.
I had a hard time, well, too little time, to think about the theme and do a post.
I just posted instead on 3 classic scifi movies I just watched
Emma @ Words And Peace recently posted…Scifi month 2023: three classic scifi movies
You would think finding five books would be easy, but it’s not:-)
Great selections! I love the Scalzi book, and the others look really good too!
All of these are excellent:-)
Great list! I don’t think I’d be able to come up with 5 to do this. Once you read CALAMITY, though, (not a spoiler) you’ll have one more to add to this kind of category.
Celeste | A Literary Escape recently posted…A-Z Book Tag
Now I’m curious about Calamity:-)
So I own the John Scalzi and K Eason books and haven’t managed to read them yet. Sigh.
Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher @longshotauthor @AceRocBooks
When you need something lighter to read, they are good choices.
I think Lock In was my first John Scalzi book too. ☺️
It was so good:-) Also the sequel is a lot of fun too.
I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this sort of story before but I like the sound of August Kitko and the Mechas from Space 😀
Pages and Tea recently posted…Book Review: The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell
OMG I adored August Kitko. It’s supposed to be a series but there’s no sequel on the horizon, so sad…
I’m enjoying checking out everyone’s choices for the Scifi Month prompts! I don’t read enough scifi to participate in many of these, but now I have more books to add to my TBR 😀
I’m getting a lot of new recs too:-)
A great selection – and I’m ashamed to say that the only one I’ve read is Scalzi’s Lock In. Which I think is my favourite Scalzi read to date…
It’s my favorite too!
Scalzi has a lot of “upgrade” books! I actually forgot about Lock In, but thought of Old Man’ War.
I would have struggles with this one I think. Well done for coming up with five great examples.
Lynn 😀
I just bought the August Kitko ebook like a week ago when it went on sale! I’ll prob wait for the sequel to come out first, but I’m looking forward to reading it.
Kit @ Metaphors and Moonlight recently posted…Bookish Musings: When the Main Character Remembers, But No One Else Does
I still really need to read August Kitko. The title alone sounds killer haha.
Annemieke @ A Dance with Books recently posted…Eat Your Greens | Books with Future or Alien Foods | Sci-Fi Month 2023
Lock In is such a good call!
And I have August Kitko on my tbr – must get round to reading that one!