32. The Legacy Human by Susan Kaye Quinn

#1 Singularity

listened on Chirp

narrated by Nick Podehl

Unabridged audio (10:05)
2014
413 pgs.
YA Fantasy
Finished 4/6/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.93 - 1247 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Future/Fantasy America

First line/s:  "I want to ascend so badly, I can taste it.:

My comments: Eli/Elijah is a painter.  He's 17.  He's not even a great painter, except when he mysteriously disappears into what he calls a fugue state, where he crazily paints masterpieces although he can't remember any of it. He is a human, the extreme lower class of current world society.  He very badly want so become an ascender, and the only way that can happen is he he wins the artistic Olympics.  Most of the book is what takes place once he gets to Los Angeles and the current Olympics, the dancer he meets there, his best friend, Cyrus, and his devious sponsor Marcus.  The story ends abruptly as Eli is helping transport his very ill mother to a place that can perhaps cure her.  Oh yes, I'd like to read the sequel asap!  Note:  The Duality Bridge, book 2 in the series, is available in Chirp of $12.99.

Goodreads synopsis:  What would you give to live forever? Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.