Set in a future where what it means to be human is defined by each individual, where posthumans augment their minds and bodies to assume forms sometimes unrecognizable as human; where Earth is a sweltering hole controlled by disorganized factions of TruHumans bent upon eradicating posthumanity from the Sol system; where near-human artificial intelligences are feared by some, and incorporated by others into their very brains...The Cut-Up Man: And other Posthuman Cycle stories contains four works of short fiction that delve into disparate segments of this universe. Presented in chronological order, these stories include:
The Cut-Up Man (a novella): After nearly ten years, Hansson finally has a chance to redeem himself to Head Council. Someone on Centralport Station needs to be killed, and it's Hansson's job to do it. Now Hansson finds that Centralport Station is under martial law, his mission handler has gone AWOL, and he doesn't know who he's supposed to assassinate...and something is disturbingly wrong with the synthetic body he's wearing. Aborting the mission isn't an option; Hansson is going to have to improvise.
(Please Don't) Put Your Wires In My Brain (a novelette): Locked in a dank cell somewhere on Earth, visited only by a nameless technician, Dana has become the subject of a mysterious research project centering on the posthuman bioware illegally implanted in her brain. Hardened by a life in the sex slave underworld, determined to rise above her years of degradation, Dana struggles to discover the aims of this research, and to somehow parlay that knowledge into freedom, power and...revenge.
"Watching the Watcher" (a previously published short story): A frantic call from a space lane traffic controller is fielded by a helpline representative. Out in the main asteroid belt of Sol, stationed on a three-kilometer long space habitat, why does the caller find himself utterly alone? And why does the helpline representative keep fielding exactly this type of call?
"Born Into Shadows" (a previously published short story): Five posthumans working as a crew together for the first time are sent on a fact finding mission to a remote and seemingly uninteresting nebula. Their mission: investigate an anomalous object hidden there. Only one of the crew knows the identity of the expedition's mysterious backers and...what they fear the nebula might conceal.
