Arwen Elys Dayton’s Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while. It’s a cross between a novel and a short story collection, consisting of six interconnected stories, each subsequent story set further in the future than the last. The characters in the stories never meet each other and aren’t related, but they share a common thread: all stories deal with physical manipulation of the body, including organ transplants, robotic implants, and gene editing.

The first story begins in the near future, where a pair of teenage twins are struggling to survive. One is soon to succumb to her illness, and the other is pressured to try a radical new experimental medical procedure that just might save his life. The catch is that it requires using the body of his sister – after she has died – to work. Further in the future, a teenage girl who survived a horrific car accident thanks to robotic implants must endure the bullying of other teens who mistrust this still-new kind of technology, who wonder if she is even human anymore.

As Dayton moves her readers further and further forward in time, the ways humans change themselves – right down to the DNA – become more and more extreme. Factions develop on each side of the debate: those who think these advances are a net good versus those who believe humans have gone too far. Spurring the debate on is a religious man who initially urges his followers to eschew any kind of advanced (to us in 2019, at least) medical or physical transformation, including those that would save someone’s life. He pops up for a time in most stories, often as a throwaway reference, but he serves only as a tenuous connecting thread – the stories belong to the characters, not to this representation of the eternal argument over what makes us human.

I am in love with Dayton’s concept of using a series of interrelated short stories to examine a timeless science fiction topic that feels more immediate (and perhaps less science fiction) than ever. It will thrill science fiction fans new and old, who will be treated to not just one vision of the future, but six of them. Dayton’s imagination is on full display, and it’s clear she’s thought through each of her premises and rooted her ideas deeply in human experiences and human relationships. Her characters propel the stories; this is not just a sketchy concept of the way humans might use advanced technology, but a fully realized exploration of human behavior, feelings, and perceptions when building, using, fighting, and simply existing with such technology. Each character is memorable and each story is unique.

I listened to the audiobook version, which uses six different narrators, one for each of the stories. Christopher Gebauer does a particularly good job in the fourth story, about a teenage boy whose own body modifications were thrust upon him before he was even born – and who was then discarded when they didn’t produce the desired results. It might be the most creative of the stories with the most memorable protagonist, and it doesn’t end in quite the place I thought it would (a good thing).

This is a great entry point for science fiction newbies, as the stories are handily divided into easily digestible bites and start out pretty familiar, only growing exceptionally weird at the end, when the reader has had a chance to warm up a bit. It also provides some good food for thought for more seasoned readers, who should be intrigued by the format and the exploration of how the tech we’re just getting used to today will impact humanity centuries from now.