Filled with themes of cybernetics, prosthetics, consumerism, over-consumerism, robotics and transcendence, Livid expands on classic tropes to build a world as deep and compelling as the main character.
"Francesco Verso brings classic cyberpunk attitude to grand romantic obsession. Alba is a nexhuman, uploaded into a beautiful plastic body. Peter is the impressionable young boy who falls in love with her. When he witnesses a brutal attack in which she is dismantled and scattered, he begins a lifelong quest to restore her, a quest that brings him into conflict with his family and his throwaway society. Although the odds are long, only his love can save her. Livid is a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human and an exciting peek into a world that is just
around the corner." - James Patrick Kelly, winner of Nebula, Locus and Hugo Award.
*Winner of 2013 Odyssey Award by Delos Books
* Winner of 2014 Cassiopea Award
* Winner of 2014 Italy Award for best SF novel
The Italian version of Livid sold around 800 paperback copies and 300 ebook. The English version was published by a small indipendent Publishing House from Australia, Xoum, in October 2014 and sold around 150 paperback copies and 50 ebooks.
CHAPTER 1 Boreal Skies
Kathal Hill is one of the places where I spend my days rummaging through the piles of rubbish. It makes my fingertips so tired I can no longer feel them, and I often have to stop and rest. Today I settle into a discarded pilot seat, extract my military binoculars from my overalls, set the zoom to 10x, and watch her.
Alba is at work behind the window of her travel agency, Boreal Skies, two hundred metres away. She is completely unaware of being watched as she selects sky cruises for indecisive customers and romantic voyages for couples determined to save their relationships.
I increase the zoom to 13x: her ivory lacquered fingernails flick through brochures so gracefully it seems impossible that this same paper, suffused with her perfume, could one day end up here, in my muck-covered hands.
I am too ashamed to walk into Boreal Skies with my crumpled catalogue and show her the trip I would like to go on. With her.
The perfume she leaves on the paper is not erased so quickly by the kipple.
Someone calls to me from below.
‘Peter! Get your arse moving or I’m taking you off today’s shift.’
From the bottom of the hill the team leader is summoning me. I ignore him – Alba’s vivid red hair is tied in a ponytail, her friendly appearance able to convince anyone to take a holiday rather than stay home in the company of their regrets.
‘I told you to move it! If I have to call you again, you can say goodbye to your pay.’
I ignore the threat and watch her for a moment longer.
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Italian
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Unavailable for translation.
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