Blog Tour: Bluescreen by Dan Wells – Guest Post + Giveaway

 

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Title: Bluescreen

Author: Dan Wells

Release Date: February 16, 2016

Pages: 352

Publisher: Balzer+Bray

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Synopsis:

Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. That connection is a djinni—a smart device implanted right in a person’s head. In a world where virtually everyone is online twenty-four hours a day, this connection is like oxygen—and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it.

Marisa Carneseca is one of those people. She might spend her days in Mirador, the small, vibrant LA neighborhood where her family owns a restaurant, but she lives on the net—going to school, playing games, hanging out, or doing things of more questionable legality with her friends Sahara and Anja. And it’s Anja who first gets her hands on Bluescreen—a virtual drug that plugs right into a person’s djinni and delivers a massive, non-chemical, completely safe high. But in this city, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, and Mari and her friends soon find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy that is much bigger than they ever suspected.

Dan Wells, author of the New York Times bestselling Partials Sequence, returns with a stunning new vision of the near future—a breathless cyber-thriller where privacy is the world’s most rare resource and nothing, not even the thoughts in our heads, is safe. 

Guest Post

Do you feel like with the technology we currently have, that we are quickly approaching a day and age in which having a smart device planted in one’s head is considered normal?

Of all the scientific predictions I make in this series, that’s the one that’s probably the most tenuous–but I don’t think it’s as tenuous as a lot of us might suspect. Maybe I’ll put it this way: I absolutely believe that cybernetic technology (implanting computers and other devices inside the human body) will be *normal* by 2050, in that most of us will known someone with an implant, but I don’t think it will be truly *ubiquitous* for another generation or two after that.

In my life time, I’ve watched computing technology swell and explode to encompass almost every aspect of our lives, with no sign of slowing down. Computers are only going to become more common, and more connected, and more unavoidable. More to the point, in my daughter’s life time we’ve all watched computing technology become more and more closely connected to daily life. When she was born 14 years ago, the average American didn’t even own a cell phone, and today the average American adult owns two, and probably a tablet or notebook computer as well, and that’s not even counting a laptop or desktop PC. Computers are inescapable now, just in the span of a few short years, and the ones that we use the most are the ones that we can take with us wherever we go, like a physical extension of our brains and senses.

The children and teens that read my books–and who, more importantly, will be the leaders and decisions makers of tomorrow–have grown up in a world where constant Internet connection is so prevalent that it’s occasional absence is strange or downright shocking. Already we’re seeing a world where connected technology is so important to us that we’re desperately trying to put it in watches and glasses and even rings, Often before we even figure out why a smart ring might be useful. And then, while the pixels are still cooling on the latest blog about the pointlessness of smart rings, some genius comes up with an amazing new use for them that two years down the line we won’t be able to live without. What if something as simple and unobtrusive as a ring was also your house keys, your car keys, your credit card, your business card, your movie tickets, and your driver’s license? What if you could go to a restaurant, place your order, eat your food, and then when you walked out the door to leave your ring would recognize that you were leaving, pay your bill automatically, and summon your self-driving car to pick you up, all without you ever having to lift a finger or tap on a screen, let alone fumble in your pocket for a wallet and keys? What if your ring or your watch or your earrings could monitor your blood pressure, your blood sugar, your heart rate, and a dozen other biological signals, and then not only inform you of changes but order medication for you? What if the change it detected was the early signs of a heart attack? Today my grandfather would have to search through a purse for some pills, and open the bottle with scared, trembling hands, and try not to spill them, and pop one in his mouth and hope he got it in time. By the time I’m his age, the smart device somewhere in my body will detect it, analyze it, and then dispense the right medicine directly into my bloodstream, all while simultaneously alerting my doctor and, if it’s serious, calling an ambulance.

Implanting these devices in our bodies is a logical and inevitable next step–maybe not for us, and maybe not for our children, but by 2050 my daughter could have grandchildren of her own, and what’s “normal” for them will be very different than what’s “normal” for us now. They’ll be able to search the Internet merely by thinking it; they’ll be able to make a phone or video or virtual reality call just by saying someone’s name, and being instantly connected. They’ll be able to take photos and videos with their eyes, and share them with their thoughts, and edit them with their fingers like a sculptor using holographic clay. Sooner or later a generation will be born for which cybernetics are so normal–and so jaw-droppingly useful–that they don’t even question it.

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Meet The Author

Dan Wells is a thriller and science fiction writer. Born in Utah, he spent his early years reading and writing. He is he author of the Partials series (Partials, Isolation, Fragments, and Ruins), the John Cleaver series (I Am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Monster, and I Don’t Want To Kill You), and a few others (The Hollow City, A Night of Blacker Darkness, etc). He was a Campbell nomine for best new writer, and has won a Hugo award for his work on the podcast Writing Excuses; the podcast is also a multiple winner of the Parsec Award.

You can find him on Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, and his website.

Giveaway

3 winners will receive a finished copy of Bluescreen.

US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule

Week 1:

2/8/2016- Fire and Ice– Interview

2/9/2016- A Dream Within A Dream– Review

2/10/2016- One Night Book Stand– Guest Post

2/11/2016- 5 Girls Book Reviews– Review

2/12/2016- Kindle and Me– Guest Post

Week 2:

2/15/2016- Fangirlish– Review

2/16/2016- Two Chicks on Books– Interview

2/17/2016- Ryan’s Bookish Confessions– Review

2/18/2016- Wishful Endings– Interview

2/19/2016- Downright Dystopian– Review