The Swan Riders
CBC Books | Posted: June 27, 2018 2:14 PM | Last Updated: June 27, 2018
Erin Bow
Greta has become AI. New transmitters have silvered her fingerprints. New receptors have transformed her vision. And the whole of her memory has become one book in a vast library of instant knowledge. Greta is ready to rule the world.
But the new technology is also killing her.
Greta is only 16 years old, but her new enhancements are burning through her mortal body at an alarming rate. Of course the leader of the AIs, an ancient and compelling artificial intelligence named Talis, has a plan. Greta can simply do what he's done when the time comes, and take over the body of one of the Swan Riders, the utterly loyal humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult.
First though, Greta will have to find a way to stay sane inside her new self. Talis's plan for that involves a road trip. Escorted by Swan Riders, Greta and Talis set out on a horseback journey across the strange and not-quite-deserted landscape of Saskatchewan. But there are other people interested in Stuart, people who want to change the world…and the Swan Riders might not be as loyal as they appear…(Margaret K. McElderry Books)
But the new technology is also killing her.
Greta is only 16 years old, but her new enhancements are burning through her mortal body at an alarming rate. Of course the leader of the AIs, an ancient and compelling artificial intelligence named Talis, has a plan. Greta can simply do what he's done when the time comes, and take over the body of one of the Swan Riders, the utterly loyal humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult.
First though, Greta will have to find a way to stay sane inside her new self. Talis's plan for that involves a road trip. Escorted by Swan Riders, Greta and Talis set out on a horseback journey across the strange and not-quite-deserted landscape of Saskatchewan. But there are other people interested in Stuart, people who want to change the world…and the Swan Riders might not be as loyal as they appear…(Margaret K. McElderry Books)
From the book
So.
It is perhaps not everyone who asks to be murdered, gets their wish, and then, three days later, finds that their most immediate problem is that they cannot ride a horse. I was trying at least to be wryly amused by the novelty of the situation.
The horse, on the other hand, seemed rather put out. It kept slowing to a stop, or wandering off at some strange angle. "Please don't go that way," I said to it. "Go with the other horses."
It didn't. It was peeling off to the left. My datastore provided me with the procedure here, and I pushed it up into my brain so that it would come to m more easily, as if I had really learned it. (Only I hadn't, of course. I had never been on a horse in my life.) The procedure went
1. Get horse's attention.
2. Pull rein to right.
3. Hope for the best.
From The Swan Riders by Erin Bow ©2016. Published by Simon & Schuster.