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Format

Paperback
320 pages

Author

Nicky Singer
More books by Nicky Singer

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Publication date

21st September 2006

ISBN

9780192742018

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GemX

Nicky Singer

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The Lovereading comment:
If you read this book you’ll certainly think twice about genetic modification – the 'benefits' of which scientists in the world today are all too keen to deliver to the human race. GemX is a frighteningly unforgettable contemporary read where wealth and poverty collide and where flawlessness rules over the flawed, until that is Mr perfection discovers he’s no longer perfect.  The reader’s emotions will see-saw throughout a brilliantly inspired plot and some terrific characterization.

Synopsis

In a world where perfection rules, Maxo Strang is king. He is a GemX, a boy genetically manipulated to be flawless. Nobody is better looking, more intelligent, of better social class...or more lacking in human empathy. Until Maxo discovers a crack  in his face. This can't happen to him! It happens only to the Dreggies - the wretched underclass of unenhanced 'naturals' who live outside the Polis. Terrified, Maxo begins a search for a cure. It is a search that takes him into the Dreggies' world, a place unbelievably different from his own, where violence, poverty and ugliness are routine. There, Maxo meets Gala and Stretch, Dreggies who are searching for their father who 'disappeared' while volunteering for scientific research in the city. For some horrifying yet compelling reason, he finds himself attracted to Gala. Gala and Stretch will do anything to find their dad, and Maxo may be the key. His father was the last person to see theirs before he vanished. Now, they will use Maxo to get some answers - whether he consents or not. What none of them realises is that they are all pawns in a bigger game.;The city's Supreme Leader has plans - plans that will leave their lives hanging in the balance...

About The Author

Nicky Singer was born in 1956 and has worked in publishing, the arts and television. She began her writing career at the age of 15, with lyrics for a cantata Jonah and the Whale, and has since written four adult novels - To Still the Child, To Have and to Hold, What She Wanted and My Mother's Daughter - and two works of non-fiction - The Tiny Book of Time (with Kim Pickin) and The Little Book of the Millennium (with Jackie Singer). She was co-founder and co-director (1987-1996) of Performing Arts Labs, a charity dedicated to training new writers for theatre, screen and opera. In 1995 she presented BBC2's highly acclaimed documentary series on women's fertility, Labours of Eve, and wrote the preface to the book which accompanied the series. Feather Boy, Nicky's first novel for the younger market, won the Blue Peter Book Award in 2002. It is a compelling, utterly convincing account of young teen life, written in an unforgettable voice. Her agent, Clare Conville, described Feather Boy as, "One of the best children's books I have read since becoming an agent." Nicky Singer lives in Brighton with her husband, their two sons and a daughter.

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