Fascinating SciFi Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter Starts A Series That Should Prove Outstanding...

The Syndrome arrived in the first decades of the twenty-first century, slipping unnoticed into virtually every human community on the planet. It revealed itself gradually, via a slow increase in neurological disease among the young. In the west it was generally diagnosed as a particularly pernicious and difficult form of epilepsy, presenting shortly after puberty, refusing to be outgrown and causing more and more damage until the patient was wheelchair-bound and catatonic, usually before their thirtieth birthday.

In rapidly developing countries it was variously identified ass brain damage due to high pollution levels, a neurological reaction to industrial poison, or mental illness caused by parental absence as families creaked under the strain of upward mobility. It was slowest to take hold in the most deprived regions of Africa, but even where cell webtech was only just beginning to shift populations out of abject poverty neighbors saw it strike down the children of the most successful, and ascribed the new madness to the jealous application of witchcraft. The variation in presumed causes and apparent characteristics, and errors in prognosis and estimates of prevalence, delayed its identification as a unique globally distributed disorder for almost twenty years.

The incidence of the Syndrome mapped perfectly onto the worldwide growth of what the previous century had dubbed information technology. It occurred where children had, from infancy, been exposed not only to a plethora of computing and communication devices, but to the immense load of interactions, analysis and responses they demanded...

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Gemsigns:

(R)Evolution Book 1

By Stephanie Saulter

A worldwide Syndrome has placed the entire world on the same level...There has not been wars for many years and race, religion, and other issues have been ultimately accepted as world-wide. Oh, sure there are some who have not accepted things. The Godgangs being one of those who has their own plans at this time. Their message is not much different that it has been in the past...

During the time of the Syndrome, Gemtechs became much more involved in genetic engineering. Natural procreation could resume and instead of stopping this program, the companies went on to the creation of "specialists" to handle specific needs...

The way was clear for specialist
gens to be created; gems hyper-
designed senses of smell and taste
for toxic waste detection; gems with the
strength, lung capacity and altitude
tolerance for mountaintop mining,
gems who could breathe underwater...
~~~

As society stabilized and slowly began to recover, genetic engineering objectives became more focused. After over half a century of crisis, natural procreation would resume. The vast scientific and technical capacity that had rescued the human race found itself in danger of becoming redundant. Those bright minds looked out on a landscape of need and saw opportunity.  They redeployed to commercial production. The original gems had been crude, brute-force laborers, but their impact on both science and society had been immense. The bioengineering conglomerates, the gemtechs, had learned more from the unconstrained experimentation of their manufacture than they ever could have from the focused fight against the Syndrome. The public were accustomed to gens being the default resource for work deemed difficult or dangerous' indeed, having grown up wit the arrangement, the Syndrome orphans found it in no way strange.

 

It was something about her littleness and delicacy
of bone structure, her excessive prettiness and the
shyness with which she carried it...
He was struck by her hair. It was shoulder length
and stylishly cut, but the dull, matte-black color
was at odds with her modish grooming and
fashionable clothes. He considered whether it
was a wig or a dye job, decided on dye. A wig
might slip, and besides, if this woman had
decided to take such a risk she have chosen a
better wig. No, she'd dyed her hair, poured on
layers of layers of light-barring pigments and
fixatives to block the telltale gem glow.  He
wondered what color it really was. A gentle
rose pink maybe, or pale lilac...
~~~

        If you haven't guessed what has happened now, I'm surprised... Of course, the gems have been around long enough to begin to see they are not very different from those that are called, "humans..."

In fact, other than their being created by gemtechs, and given special abilities or designed for specific jobs, they could see no difference... So, why were they owned???

And naturally as it would be from such an enlightened society that existed at that time... there was a confirmation of equality and a conference was established with an expert designated to put together what in essence would be voted on at the conference...

Eli had not even finished his report and was heading to talk with gems when he was approached by a representative of one of the gemtech companies. He had no desire to begin to negotiate with either side, but he was willing to listen...which he did, and accepted her presentation, parts of which are provided above.

In many ways, readers will visualize what has occurred over and over in history as people fight to be accepted for their race, religion, etc. Gems are, themselves, so widely different though--imagine being a woman who was to be a "baby-maker" who is impregnated over and over while the babies are immediately taken and passed on to somebody else.

Or imagine a gem who has been mentally enhanced and has a major skill set for being an engineer, but is now faced with the possibility of competing with "norms" who do not have the advantage of the gem's intelligence. Obviously, norms will feel they are losing jobs that should be theirs...

Yes, much will sound familiar...

But then, there are those who have been engineered to fight in wars...or some who had never had to socialize with anybody... But no matter what you may consider for the ending...it will not be what actually happens! 

The book has much to intrigue readers as they explore an entirely new and different set of humans who are actively seeking freedom and recognition. Book 2 is already out in the UK... Start with this first one! Anybody who loves scifi is going to love this! Don't miss it!


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About the Author

Stephanie Saulter is a freelance business consultant who read biology at MIT before majoring in English Literature and minoring in Anthropology. Interested in developing social media for creative collaboration, in 2010 she launched http://scriptopus.com, an interactive website for writing short fiction. Born in the Caribbean, she now lives in Devon.