Description: Life exists in the Nekropolis -- but it is a life with no future. To escape, Hariba agrees to be "jessed, " a technobiological process that enhances natural loyalties. At 26, she enters a wealthy household as an indentured servant, free, she believes, of the Nekropolis. Akhmim, a beautiful, charming harni, an intelligent, machine-bred creature, also enters Hariba's new household. Occupying the lowest stratum of society, harni are despised -- and feared -- by their "superiors" for their cool detachment. And though he is considered less than human, Akhmim asks Hariba troubling questions she cannot answer, questions that cut to her soul.

Hugo Award-winning author Maureen F. McHugh has imagined a breathtaking story of humanity and individuality, creating a society in which two misfits defy rigid conventions as they dare to do the impossible . . . fall in love.

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