Models and Citizens

A thought-provoking dystopian sci-fi novel about privilege, class, and what it means to be human.

It's not so much that Ordell Bentley craves captivity. The problem is that he can't see freedom as a true possibility. A genetically-altered clone called a model, Ordell was taught that his kind were worthless, dangerous creatures only good for manual labor. Among his peers, rumors abound of a secret society that can whisk models to freedom and deliver them to the far away land of Canada abound, but Canada is a long way from League City, Texas, where he spends his days working construction. Ordell has seen first-hand what happens when models step too far out of line. When his clandestine non-model girlfriend is murdered by a blood-purity group called HPM, Ordell finds himself running for his life -- a life that he's not sure that he still wants.

Stumbling into his dead lover's abandoned daughter, Harper Rawls, the two form a bond that can only come from shared tragedy. Meanwhile, his owners seek to make an example of him. Hounded by bounty hunters and extremists alike, Ordell and Harper navigate through an escape plan from multiple pursuers while testing the boundaries of a legal system designed to keep the models confined to lifetime servitude. Canada is a far-off dream. Will either of them live to see it?

Fans of science fiction novels that test the boundaries of what it means to be human will love Models and Citizens. A cross between Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Bladerunner (based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), this novel entertains from the first paragraph to the last word as Harper and Ordell struggle to survive in a post-climate change world. If you loved Atropos by John Lapuntich, you will enjoy this gripping thrill ride.