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OLDER FICTION
Vlahos, Len

Hard Wired

314 pp. | Bloomsbury | July, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-68119-037-2 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-68119-038-9
(2) YA Quinn's ordinary life is upended when his father, believed dead, reappears to deliver some unsettling news: Quinn isn't a fifteen-year-old boy at all, but a quantum intelligence living in a computer simulation until the moment he could become self-aware. This is a lot to take in, but given access to the internet, Quinn learns to enjoy flexing his awesome computing power. His creators continue his evolution by placing him in a seven-foot-tall robot body, but Quinn's frustration grows as his requests for greater freedom are met with delays, to the point where he sees no alternative but to sue for his independence. But will the courts agree that Quinn is a person? Vlahos (Morris finalist for The Scar Boys) crafts a sci-fi narrative reminiscent of Peter Dickinson's Eva (rev. 7/89) in the way it questions what it means to be an individual and self-aware. The contradictions of Quinn's existence--mighty intellect that can be "rebooted" at another's whim; synthesized neural transmitters sending data up the hierarchy of consciousness that nonetheless feel sadness and love--are housed in an unassuming, very-fifteen-year-old-boy personality that will win readers' empathy. As the plot uses natural developments and misunderstandings to bring out the humanity and pathos of Quinn's predicament, tension swells to an Asimovian finale that earns its catharsis of pity and terror.
Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2020

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