Constance

Written by Matthew FitzSimmons

Narrated by January LaVoy

A breakthrough in human cloning becomes one woman’s waking nightmare in a mind-bending thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Gibson Vaughn series.

In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computing make human cloning a reality. For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it’s an abomination against nature. For young Constance “Con” D’Arcy, who was gifted her own clone by her late aunt, it’s terrifying.

After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness—stored for that inevitable transition—something goes wrong. When Con wakes up in the clinic, it’s eighteen months later. Her recent memories are missing. Her original, she’s told, is dead. If that’s true, what does that make her?

The secrets of Con’s disorienting new life are buried deep. So are those of how and why she died. To uncover the truth, Con is retracing the last days she can recall, crossing paths with a detective who’s just as curious. On the run, she needs someone she can trust. Because only one thing has become clear: Con is being marked for murder—all over again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Sep 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781713598565

Matthew FitzSimmons

Matthew FitzSimmons is the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling Gibson Vaughn Series, which includes Debris Line, Cold Harbor, Poisonfeather, and The Short Drop. Born in Illinois and raised in London, he now lives in Washington, DC, where he taught English literature and theater at a private high school for more than a decade. Visit him at www.matthewfitzsimmons.com.

Reviews for Constance

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For some reason my library has categorized this as just plain fiction. Unless you take a very limited view of science fiction as taking place in space, to my mind this book is definitely science fiction. I first read about it in John Scalzi's blog, Whatever. A number of times a month Scalzi gives the post to an author with a book being released to talk about "The Big Idea" that inspired their book. Matthew Fitzsimmons' Big Idea was what would happen if cloning was available but so prohibitively expensive only the richest of the rich could afford to have a clone? This book is the result. Doesn't that sound like science fiction?Constance D'Arcy is a musician. Three years ago she and her bandmates were in an motor vehicle accident just outside of Washington, D.C. Two of the band members died instantly; the other female band member and Constance (Con) survived with some physical damage and Con's lover, Zhi, went into a coma from which he has never recovered. Con still has physical pain from her right knee that had been broken in the crash but more than that she is severely depressed. The day after Christmas she goes to see Zhi and then goes to her appointment at the Palingenesis Clinic to have her memory refreshed. Con is certainly not wealthy but her aunt is the brains behind Palingenesis which provides clones to replace clients who have died and she gifted Con a clone. The clinic keeps a scan of the memory of each client to be downloaded into the clone and they recommend it be refreshed at least every 30 days. So that's what Con is here to do. Except when she wakes up it is 18 months later and her body doesn't have any of her tattoos or scars and her leg is fine. Her clone has been automatically resurrected because the original Con died. She doesn't remember anything about the past 18 months because she never went back to the clinic after December 26, 2038. Palingenesis is supposed to delete any clones if the original hasn't uploaded for 90 days but somehow Con's clone and memory file were retained. The director of Palingenesis wants to terminate Con but with some inside help Con is able to sneak out. Then she has to find out what happened to her original and recover the missing months of memory all while evading some scary looking guys who don't seem to have her best interests at heart. She is going to need help but her old friends are antagonistic to her because of things that happened in that gap time. She could possibly trust her aunt's business partner (also a clone) or maybe the police detective from Richmond Virginia who is investigating the disappearance of the original Con D'Arcy. It's a hard call. There's lots of interesting background stuff about that near future. Global warming has happened. All vehicles are driven by computer and are electric. Communication is by LFD (not sure what that stands for) which projects a virtual screen in front of the user and combines phone and computer into one. I may have to read the next book in the series.

[tuusannuuska-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting take on the concept of cloning, if not a completely original one.

What if we could make an upload of our consciousness, a back if you will, and in the even the original were to perish, we could upload that consciousness automatically into a body that is a carbon coby of the original one? And what if you were uploaded and woke up a year and a half in the future with only the knowledge that someone had murdered said original? Oh, and there also existed a violent group of religious zealots murdering clones because they were unnatural? What if?

This was a very entertaining and fast paced read. The subject matter is intriguing, and it doesn't really try to sell the tech to you as anything that could actually happen (so this is by no means hard sci-fi) but it's still thoroughly enjoyable.

I feel like this would work very well as a film or TV mini series adaptation as well, get a little meat on the side plot bones, raise the stakes a little.

[lunarsong · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting idea. Quick read.

[paulagalvan-323293 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting tale exploring the pros and cons of cloning. When Constance, known as "Con", makes her routine trip to Palingenisis to refresh her clone with her memories, she wakes up knowing something has gone horribly wrong. To make matters worse, the last 18 months of her life have been erased from her brain, and she's being hunted by strange men. So is she human, or a clone? And, if she is a clone, is she still human? Complex questions in our future, no doubt, but right now, for Con, it's all about surviving the next twenty-four hours. Suddenly nobody is who they seem to be and everyone has their own reasons for wanting Constance D'Acy dead. This face-paced thriller is entertaining but not as good as this author's Gibson Vaughn series...which I love.

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a world where the very wealthy can clone themselves, the question of self becomes murky. Constance gets pulled into a mystery when she wakes up as a clone of herself. What happened to her original? Who is behind all the people trying to track her down? And what does it mean to be Constance when she's in a different body? Really good mystery/thriller with a bit of sci fi thrown in.

[scottjpearson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What happens when a character investigates her/his own murder? How exactly could that happen? In this book, FitzSimmons explores exactly that situation. He presents a dystopic vision of human cloning in which this “new” advance is used as an excuse to denigrate human life. By so doing, he advances the notion that progress in extending our science should correlate with progress in deepening our humanity. While doing so, this work of science fiction develops into an ever-building – and page-turning – mystery.The scenario is straightforward enough, if a bit strange. In the future, human cloning advances alongside societal conflict about the advance. Cloning, originally developed for military purposes, is now offered commercially as a deluxe extravagance only for the rich. But Constance, as the niece of the founder, is given hers free of charge. Eighteen months after saving (“downloading”) her consciousness to her inert clone, the clone is awakened. Seemingly, the world has changed, and Constance’s clone is imbedded into an unfolding, action-filled, and mysterious drama that extends far deeper than one clone.FitzSimmons divides this book into four parts. The first two parts are intriguing enough, but he completely lost me in the third part. It’s a bit unbelievable. In this third section, he extends begins to overturn the security of the book’s former narrative. The entire drama of human cloning is reexamined and re-understood. Frankly, it seems too theoretical and not grounded in enough action. I work in scientific research, but his depiction of having a scientist seek to control everything through theory is not grounded in reality. Its hypothetical nature also makes for weaker fiction.Still, this book interested me. It makes the case that human understanding is at least as important as scientific understanding – a theme that history seems to support. Unlike a lot of science fiction, it does not neglect humanism. Those who, like me, prefer their science fiction mingling with an examination of human nature will find a home in this book. I hope I’m never put in a situation where I have to investigate my own murder; at least, I now have some initial sketch about how I should proceed and can anticipate some potential pitfalls!