Hammered

She was engineered for combat—in a world that is running out of time. “Very exciting . . . very impressive debut.”—Mike Resnick Once Jenny Casey was somebody’s daughter. Once she was somebody’s enemy. Now the former Canadian special forces warrior lives on the hellish streets of Hartford, Connecticut, in the year 2062. Racked with pain, hiding from the government she served, running with a crime lord so she can save a life or two, Jenny is a month shy of fifty, and her artificially reconstructed body has started to unravel. But she is far from forgotten. A government scientist needs the perfect subject for a high-stakes project and has Jenny in his sights. Suddenly Jenny Casey is a pawn in a furious battle, waged in the corridors of the Internet, on the streets of battered cities, and in the complex wirings of her half-man-made nervous system. And she needs to gain control of the game before a brave new future spins completely out of control. “A gritty and painstakingly well-informed peek at a future we’d all better hope we don’t get . . . Elizabeth Bear builds her future nightmare tale with style and conviction and a constant return to the twists of the human heart.”—Richard Morgan