Simone Wellborn now has to adjust to starting school at Sterling as a digital ghost. Worse, Agent Clifton Nable arrives and explains that he'll be monitoring her. The other student at Sterling who have similar abilities as Simone begin school in a special program. When they learn the Consortium will enter them in gladiatorial contests to challenge the Rogue Artificial Intelligences, Simone begins to test the new bounds of her abilities. During an exhibition gladiatorial match, Simone defeats a Rogueslave in stunning fashion, only to realize they were setup by one of Sterling's students, Joss Beckwith, who has been courting the Rogues. Joss is taken by them, and Simone and her father must get him back.
Book 2 in the Transhuman Warrior series does not disappoint.
Hox continues to unfold the birth of artificial intelligence in the ethereal cyberspace and their desire to exist in realspace. Flesh. As always, Hox creates convincing alternate realities and puts them on a collision course. While book one introduced the reader to a sort of Hogwarts for science-fiction, book 2 put the characters into action. He continues to flesh out the details of his story -- how humans exist without a body, how the rogues manifest -- while illuminating the essence of what it means to be human.
He does all this while satisfying a warrior's instinct to do battle. It's MMA for rogue warriors, for shape-shifters, for artificial intelligence. It's brutish and smart and fun. This is a great book 2 that brings this series into focus and sets up a great beginning for book 3 without a disappointing ending.