Wired »

One year ago, Lia Kahn died. A few days later, she woke up. She had a new body Mechanical, unfeeling, inhuman. She had a new family Mechs like her, who didn’t judge her ...

VOYA

Wired, the final book in Robin Wasserman's Skinned trilogy, finds Lia, once again, up against BioMax. Lia, a 'mech'(a mechanical body whose brain was downloaded from her real brain when she died in a car accident) discovers that BioMax, the company that developed the download process, has grander plans than helping accident victims. They have maintained the discarded human brains from these accident victims and are attempting to manipulate them to cultivate certain aggressive characteristics, which ,when downloaded into robots controlled by BioMax, would supply them with a robotic army of unlimited proportions. An added benefit would be the elimination of all mechs, which would please the orgs (humans) of the world. Along with fellow mech, Jude, and orgs Auden (former friend) and Zo (Lia's sister), this quartet must stop the demise of the mechs and proliferation of robots. Skinned (Simon Pulse, 2008/VOYA October 2008) and Crashed (Simon Pulse, 2009/VOYA August 2009) must be read to understand Wired. Wired does not contain much action. The plot is not realistic, nor is it very interesting. Wasserman spends too much time setting the scene and reintroducing characters from the trilogy's first two books, and not enough time or energy describing the BioMax threat and the plan to defeat the corporation. The apparatus needed by the quartet to thwart BioMax's plans seem to appear out of thin air. They basically have no plan, and much of the book is taken up with this realization. Lia's ultimate victory over BioMax was confusing to this reader. Fans of this trilogy might be disappointed with the finale. Reviewer: Ed Goldberg