Body Electric:
Manuel Aguilar
language
(Manuel Aguilar, July 1, 2016)
Sixteen-year-old Artemio “Mio” Madrigal is a nazent student at Volta Academy. That means he can conduct electricity through the palms of his hands. Thanks to his nazent abilities, Mio is allowed to control the sleek exoskeleton suits called Electro Skins. Mio plans to master a Skin so that he’ll get a secure position in his city’s military, preferably in the Brute Force where the Skins come in green and where they’re enhanced for strength and heavy weaponry. Mio just has to get through two more years of his academy’s program, but he may not make it after a strange dragon-like creature invades his city and starts kidnapping Volta students.News coverage about the dragon is instant, and city leaders assure citizens of the creature’s origin. It’s just one of the many genetically engineered terrorist monsters that threaten their borders, they say. But, as the elusive dragon continues to interact with students and evade capture, Mio slowly starts to uncover the real truth behind its appearance. Truth or no truth, however, Mio is stuck between corrupt officials and a laser-shooting, EMP-wielding/Skin-repelling dragon. He might make it to graduation but surely not in one piece.In this first part of The Nazent Vidas, enter the futuristic, hi-tech world of the city-state chain known as the Vicity Cadena, and get to know three of its citizens (Mio and his two classmates Saba Hadi and Damacio Quijano) as well as the mysterious dragon whose narrative perspective features the author-crafted, gender-neutral pronoun “ce.”