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Title details for Edge of the Known World by Sheri T. Joseph - Available

Edge of the Known World

A Novel

by Sheri T. Joseph
Marnye Young
Audiobook
39 of 39 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
39 of 39 copies available
Alexandra Tashen is a brilliant student, adoring daughter, merry wit, and exuberant prankster. After a blissful childhood on a Texas ranch, she learns the truth: She is a refusé, an illegal refugee smuggled into the Allied Nations as an infant. Everyone from her birth region carries a harmless but detectable bit of viral DNA from a flu vaccine. If detected by the rapid genetic testing at security screens, Alex will be returned to the Federation and a likely death. Her adoptive father developed a gene therapy to mask her g-marker, but it is not fully effective. Every g-screen presents a nerve-racking one-in-ten chance of getting caught.
When her father goes missing, Alex abandons her cloistered academic life in San Francisco for a globe-trotting Commission in a desperate race to warn him of a trap that will destroy them both. As Alex dodges g-screens on her precarious and often hilarious adventure, a love triangle develops between her and two men: Eric Burton, a commanding and disgraced intelligence officer, and his blood brother, Strav Beki, a charismatic and dangerously unhinged diplomat. Betrayals mount and secrets unravel, building to the most confounding choices that people can face—choices between love, family loyalty, and moral obligation.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 10, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9798855586794
      • File size: 350725 KB
      • Duration: 12:10:40

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 27, 2024
      In this smart, multi-layered debut, Joseph constructs a thoughtful dystopian near-future adventure complete with genetic screening, international thrills, playful wit, and a welcome touch of romance. A global war 25 years ago between the Allied Nations and the Federation Regime resulted in a dirty bomb that forced Allied forces into Central Asia where a devastating virus killed a billion people. Those inoculated with a gene therapy carry a trace in their DNA that shows up on g-screens. People detected with the marker in their DNA, called refusés, are deported or shot. Indian-Swedish Nations TaskForce academic Alex Tashen carries the DNA marker, which despite her adoptive father and doctor, Patrick, manipulating her DNA, will still trigger a positive in one in ten g-screens. Confined to San Francisco, Alex is hindered in her ability to travel because every checkpoint requires a g-screen.
      But the personal and political compel her to action when Patrick, a Nations prisoner, is threatened after exposing the torture refugee refusés endure when deported. Joseph touchingly dramatizes Alex’s courageous choice to risk detection and save him by accepting her Kommandant’s offer to be an analyst on a security assessment Commission to the Nepal Protectorate. Throughout, Joseph’s vivid worldbuilding and her scarifying descriptions of an oppressive state never detract from the psychological drama of these convincing, complex characters. Alex surprises herself in being attracted to her Commission teammates—Viking-sized Eric Burton, the TaskForce Security Operations Director and math and science genius, and Eric’s adoptive brother Strav Beki, a Mongolian linguist.
      The tension mounts as the trio navigates the peculiar specifics of diplomacy and Alex fights the clock in her endeavor to save her father. Survival amid draconian societal laws, questions of privacy, advances in science, and issues of refugee status and treatment provide careful readers with rich material for contemplation as they follow Alex, Eric, and Strav’s adventures through political intrigue, suspense, twists, and affairs of the heart.
      Takeaway: Dystopian SF thriller of complex science, relatable characters, and romance.
      Comparable Titles: Malka Older; Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous.
      Production grades
      Cover: A
      Design and typography: A
      Illustrations: N/A
      Editing: A
      Marketing copy: A

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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