Extras

Extras is a young adult science fiction novel written by Scott Westerfeld. The novel was published and released by Simon & Schuster on October 2, 2007, and is a companion book to the Uglies series. However, Extras differs from its predecessors in that its protagonist is fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse, not Tally Youngblood. Despite the fact that Youngblood is not the main character, she still appears in the book's later chapters in a major role. The book was received well by critics such as James Hynes. Plot introduction Three years after the events of Specials freed the world from the pretty lesions which forced them to be obedient, society is beginning to settle into a new form. Each city has been forced to find a way of dealing with the new pressure on its resources, caused by the freed creativity of the inhabitants. In Japan, one city has chosen a "reputation economy", rewarding citizens either with merits for productive tasks which help the city or with face rank, a measure of popularity. Every inhabitant has their own feed and obsessively tracks their face rank, hoping to gain fame and lose their status as an "extra". Aya Fuse tries to win fame as a "kicker", or journalist, filming stories with her modified hovercam Moggle and posting them for the whole city to see... Plot synopsis Aya Fuse is a 15-year-old girl living in the futuristic city of Yokohama. One night, accompanied by her hovercam Moggle, she crashes a party in New Pretty Town hoping to track down a group she saw surfing a mag-lev train, a story which she believes will make her famous. She follows one of the group's members, Eden Maru, out of the party, but they nearly get away when she is distracted by Frizz Mizuno, a more beautiful and far more famous person who compliments Aya. Aya leaves without telling Frizz her full name, because she is embarrassed by her comparatively low face rank. She then follows Eden into a cave, where she is ambushed by the mag-lev riders, who call themselves the Sly Girls. The group's leader Lai gives Aya a chance to join them, but to do so she is forced to drop Moggle into an underground lake. The next day, she visits her famous brother Hiro in New Pretty Town, another kicker who is celebrating reaching the "top thousand" - a list of the thousand most famous people in the city. Hiro and his friend Ren Machino refuse to believe Aya's tale of the Sly Girls, who are an urban legend in the city, but Ren, who designed Moggle, agrees to help Aya retrieve him.