The Original, Brandon Sanderson
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The Original

Narrator: Julia Whelan

Unabridged: 3 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/14/2020


Synopsis

Hugo Awardwinning authors Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal team up in this exclusive audio-first production of The Original, a sci-fi thriller set in a world where one woman fights to know her true identity and survive the forces that threaten her very existence. In the near future, humans choose lifefor a price. Injectable nanite technology is the lifeblood that flows through every individual wishing to experience the world through the lens of their own theme. While death from mortal wounds is still possible, life is made easier in a socially liberated society where automation and income equality allow passion pursuits to flourish over traditional work. Renewal stations are provided to every law-abiding citizen for weekly check-ins, which issue life-sustaining repairs in exchange for personal privacy. But what becomes of those who check out, of those who dare to resist immortality and risk being edited under the gaze of an identity-extracting government surveillance system? When Holly Winseed wakes up in a hospital room, her memory compromised and a new identity imposed on her, a team of government agents wastes no time stating their objective. With intent to infiltrate and defeat the terrorist group ICON, the agents tell Holly that she is now a Provisional Replica and has one week to hunt down and kill her Original for the murder of her husband, Jonathan. If she succeeds, shell assume her Originals place in society. If she fails, her life will end. Hollys progress is monitored by an assigned contact that feeds her information as she confronts the blank, robotic world around her, discovering that others view life through the theme of their own choosing. With her newly implanted combat and deduction skills, Holly fends off both attacks by terrorists and doubts about her own trustworthiness as clues lead her to her Originaland to the truth about Jonathan. In the end, one body remains and one walks away. Although questions persist, one thing is certain: life will never be the same.

Author Bio

American author, Brandon Sanderson, writes of epic fantasy and science fiction. His best known works include Cosmere, a fictional universe in which most of his novels are set. They include, the Mistborn series, and the Stormlight Archive, and also finishing The Wheel of Time, that was Robert Jordan's high fantasy novel (that he began writing before his untimely death). He also made popular the terms "hard and soft magic systems" in his Sanderson's Laws of Magic. The media company, DMG Entertainment has rights to the production movie of the Cosmere universe series.

Sanderson graduated from Brigham Young University. He began studies in biochemistry, to become a doctor, but after a two year break to do mission work for his church, he decided he wanted to write, and changed majors to English Literature. He took a night job at a local hotel in Provo, Utah while at BYU, so he could write while working. His roommate during that time was Ken Jennings, who ten years later had a 74-game winning streak on Jeopardy. After graduation from BYU, Sanderson married Emily Bushman, a fellow English major who later became his business manager.

Sanderson sold his first book to Moshe Feder at Tor in 2003. He had almost given up after submitting his manuscript a year and one half earlier. That first novel was Elantris, and over the next few years, Tor also published the Mistborn Trilogy, The Alloy of Law, Warbreaker, and The Way of Kings, the first in the ten-volume series, The Stormlight Archive. The second in that series was Words of Radiance. Other volumes continue in the works. Sanderson's acclaimed Infinity Blade: Awakening was an ebook best seller for Epic Games, accompanying their popular iOS video game series.

Sanderson, his wife, Emily, and their three sons live in American Fork, Utah.

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