She was running from a ruthless criminal accompanied by someone more than human. When the ship-wrecked stranger washed up, nearly drowned, on the beach near research scientist Samantha Brytons home, she was unaware that he was something more than human: an experiment conducted by Charon, a notorious criminal and practitioner of illegal robotics and android research. The man said his name was Turner Pascal but Pascal was dead, killed in a car wreck. Then she found that Charon was experimenting with copying the minds of humans into android brains, implanted in human bodies to escape detection, planning to make his own army of slaves that will follow his orders without question. Samantha and Turner quickly found themselves on the run across the country, pursued by the most ruthless criminal of the twenty-first century. In desperation, Samantha decided to seek help from Sunrise Alley, an underground organization. Is that had gone rogue? But these cybernetic outlaws were rumored to have their own hidden agenda, not necessarily congruent with humanity's welfare, and Samantha feared that her only hope would prove forlorn.

**

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School - Samantha Bryton, a brilliant young biotech engineer working on machine intelligence, has retired because of unresolved ethical issues concerning how the industry uses her work. On the beach near her secluded cabin, she finds a shipwrecked man, and it quickly becomes apparent that there is something unusual about him. It turns out that the original Turner Pascal is legally dead, but he has been brought back to life in a technologically enhanced but human-appearing body by the shadowy scientist Charon, who uses illegal and amazingly advanced technology. Self-aware, independent AIs (called EIs if they evolve to that state) are extremely rare and prone to psychological instability, and Sam is one of the few people in the world who understands and can work with them. It is no coincidence that Turner has ended up on her beach in his attempt to escape from Charon. As they flee villains who want to acquire Turner's technology, the two try to unravel the mystery of the identity of Charon and the true nature of "Sunrise Alley," a secret society of escaped EIs who may pose a threat to humans. Through many trials and adventures, friendship and sexual attraction gradually develop between Sam and Turner (though she worries about his nonhuman characteristics and dubious legal status). The plot is an epic chase across a near-future landscape, enlivened by twists, complicated puzzles to solve, plenty of intriguing technology, and a strong element of romance. - Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Retired biotech engineer Sam finds the wreckage of a yacht, and its lone, male passenger, on her private beach. She is understandably curious about the man, Turner, who, though his body and brain are artificial, insists, on the basis of his memories, that he is human. Unfortunately, the man he recalls is legally dead. That gets Sam's attention. She retired over ethical disagreements with biotech firms, and Turner is a walking bioethics controversy, created by criminal mastermind and rogue bioengineer Charon, who thereafter captures Turner and Sam, intercepting them as they take refuge with Sam's high-ranking military friends and imprisoning them at his Himalayan fortress. Thanks to Turner's cybernetic enhancements, their incarceration doesn't last long, and they then take temporary refuge in a hideaway, Sunrise Alley, for escaped EIs (systems more advanced than AIs), which have developed in ways their human creators didn't expect. Eventually, they end up with friends and get on with the issues raised by Turner's existence. Asaro reinforces her reputation for combining high-tech adventure and romance. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved