Vacuum Flowers: Michael Swanwick

Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark is hot property: the body she awakes in isn't her own; her mind is unique; the agency that owns her is deadly. If she stays in the Medial Centre, she has No Future. So she does what anyone sane would do - she escapes. And in the sprawling mad civilisations of the future - a future of plug-in personalities and colonised asteroids, where all human evils blossom in the vacuum of space - she's in for a very interesting time indeed. If she survives... Cover art by Mark Salwowski.