Biblo_Wyrm asked Polly Holyoke:

I just read The Neptune Project, and I want to know... What year does the book take place in and what exactly is the Western Collective? And what made you decide to use the Euginics Wars from Star Trek, and why did Robry look at his feet? (I'm assuming it was to see if they look flipper-like, but how did he know anything about it if they did? Why didn't he think he just had fused toes if they were?)

Polly Holyoke TNP takes place roughly 250 years from now. The Western Collective is composed of the three west coast states: CA, OR, and WA. I didn't know Star Trek had a Eugenics War, but lots of sci fi authors end up assuming there will be one. It will be too tempting for some governments to create super soldiers once we get better at discovering the gene clusters that can lead to being smarter and stronger. Robry has a hunch he's been engineered because his feet are so big for his size. Genetic engineering is not an exact science, and someone in the Project was tempted to make the kids have bigger feet for swimming and then removed the genes for that trait, but somehow Robry still received it. Interesting questions!

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