Publisher's Synopsis
A hacker and a teen secret agent team up in this sci-fi techno-thriller that blends music, mind control, and conspiracy. For fans ofLittle Brother,Brain Jack, andProxy.
"There's something in that sound. Something bad. Something dangerous."
Fifteen-year-old Ani Lee is a skilled hacker researching a strange .wav file that she's downloaded when it behaves as no file ever should.
Joe Dyson is a seventeen-year-old American transplant recruited into a secret teen division of the British intelligence service who's looking into the disappearance of a friend caught up in an underground music scene that might be more than it appears.
When Ani and Joe's investigations intertwine, they discover that the .wav file and the music scene are linked--somone's embedding the file into tracks to create a mind-controlled teenage army.
But who's behind it? And why? And how do you stop a sound?
Praise forThe Future We Left Behind:
ABooklistTop 10 YA SciFi/Fantasy 2013 pick
*"Lancaster effortlessly incorporates into his whiz-bang plot big ideas of science versus religion, along the way borrowing from the sf masters: the large-canvas orchestrations of Asimov; the yearning nostalgia of Bradbury; the who-stole-my-memories paranoia of Dick; the pro-gaming, pro-hacking bent of Doctorow; and the spirituality of Clarke. Fans ofHuman.4didn't see this giant leap forward coming--and that more than anything is the hallmark of great sf." --Booklist, starred review
"Fans of Anderson'sFeedwill . . . find this stimulating read well worth contemplating."--BCCB
Praise forHuman.4:
A 2012 YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers
ABooklistTop 10 YA SciFi/Fantasy 2012 pick
*"Wringing his Stephen King-like premise for all it is worth . . . few plots race along with this kind of speed and purpose." --Booklist, starred review
"Freaky and interesting . . . Lancaster writes in an authentic teen voice, effectively creating a Matrix-like world." --RT Book Reviews
