The Book Of Phoenix

As we have seen in books like Man Plus, one way to achieve posthumanity is to remake ourselves in a new form. But experimenting upon ourselves in that way comes at a cost for the subject of that experiment; it also reveals something unpleasant about those carrying out the experiment. Phoenix is the subject of such an experiment. Her development has been artificially accelerated, so although she is only two years old, she has the body and mind of an adult. She has been raised in Tower 7, and is quite happy there until her best friend discovers something and dies. Phoenix breaks out of the Tower, and as she slowly begins to realise her awesome powers (she has wings, she bursts into flame, she dies and is reborn), so she also uncovers the sinister motives of those who created and imprisoned her. Why it’s on the list: Like a strange mix of traditional oral storytelling and modern superhero adventures, with a powerful postcolonial subtext, this is the most extraordinary recent novel about the costs of creating a posthuman.