Upgrade / Sensuous Cindy

The Twilight Zone #2

by Pat Cadigan

Upgrade: Harassed mom Anna escapes from the mayhem of her all-too-real home life by fantasizing about an ideal family. But she didn't really expect to wake up one day and find they've been replaced by better versions of the people she once knew and loved...

Sensuous Cindy: When a friend offers Ben a hot new kind of virtual reality program to check out, he finds himself enjoying the delights of Sensuous Cindy. But it isn't really cheating when you get it on with a computer program, is it?

Genres: Science Fiction

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 8, 2004

About the author

Pat Cadigan is an American-born science fiction author, who broke through as a major writer as part of the cyberpunk movement. Her early novels and stories all shared a common theme, exploring the relationship between the human mind and technology.

Her first novel, Mindplayers, introduced what became a common theme to all her works. Her stories blurred the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real and explorable place. Her second novel, Synners, expanded upon the same theme, and featured a future where direct access to the mind via technology was in fact possible.

She has won a number of awards, including the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award twice,in 1992, and 1995 for her novels Synners and Fools.

She currently lives in London, England with her family.

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is this Black Mirror? No? No. This is The Twilight Zone. Be careful what you wish for, it may seem innocent enough but it can turn into a real nightmare.

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upgrade - Annie is going to move into her dreamhouse, a house that she had been dreaming about forever and her life will be in disarray as she tries to comprehend how her family has changed before her eyes. Her pet, her children, her husband have all been drastically improved, might even say perfected but Annie is reliving her old not so perfect family.