Captive Girl Read Online Free PDF

and
she’s lost.

Also by Jennifer Pelland
    “Pelland handles difficult topics with
assured storytelling chops, bringing us to the brink of tears,
fear, desire, and beyond. Worth your time AND money AND sincere
attention.” —Steven Gould, author of Jumper
    UNWELCOME BODIES
    Seven short stories, three novelettes, and one
novella of dark science fiction including “Captive Girl,” from
multiple Nebula Award nominee Jennifer Pelland. Author commentary
is provided at the conclusion of each tale.
    Pain. Pleasure. The sensation of touch.we feel
everything through our skin, that delicate membrane separating "I"
from "other," protecting the very essence of self.
    Until it breaks. Or changes. Or
burns.
    What would you do if you were the one called
on to save humanity, and the price you had to pay was becoming
something other than human? Or if healing your body meant losing
the only person you've ever loved?
    Wander through worlds where a woman craves
even a poisonous touch, a man's deformities become a society's
fashion, genetic regeneration keeps the fires of Hell away, and
painted lovers risk everything to break the boundaries of their
caste system down.
    Separate your mind from your flesh and come
in.
    Welcome.
    Find out more at Apex
Publications and other fine
bookstores.
    MACHINE
    Celia's body is not her own, but even her
conscious mind can barely tell the difference. Living on the
cutting edge of biomechanical science was supposed to allow her to
lead a normal life in a near-perfect copy of her physical self
while awaiting a cure for a rare and deadly genetic
disorder.
    But a bioandroid isn’t a real person. Not
according to the protesters outside Celia’s house, her coworkers,
or even her wife. Not according to her own evolving view of
herself. As she begins to strip away the human affectations and
inhibitions programmed into her new body, the chasm between the
warm pains of flesh-and-blood life and the chilly comfort of the
machine begins to deepen. Love, passion, reality, and memory war
within Celia’s body until she must decide whether to betray old
friends or new ones in the choice between human and
machine.
    Find out more at Apex
Publications and other fine
bookstores.