The Buzz...About Books

Jane Rogers has won Britain's most prestigious Science Fiction award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award,  for her novel The Testament of Jessie Lamb.

Set  in the near future, the world has been forever changed by an act of bioterrorism.  A virus that kills pregnant women is on the loose and women are dying by the millions.  The future of the human race is in serious peril.

Jessie Lamb is an ordinary sixteen year-old girl who decides to save the human race.  She volunteers to become impregrated with an immune embryo, which will require her to to be put into a coma from which she will never recover.  Her paren'ts are horrified by her decision.  They see it as an idealistic act by an impressionable young woman and set about to stop her.

The Testament of Jessie Lamb is Jane Rogers first venture into Science Fiction and appeared on the  Man Booker Prize's Longlist last year. 

 The other books on the shortlist were:

• Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear
• The Postmortal by Drew Magary
• Embassytown by China Miéville
• Rule 34 by Charles Stross
• The Waters Rising by Sheri S. Tepper