The Family Experiment: John Marrs

A Novel John Marrs Paperback Fiction / Literary 384 pages 8 in H | 5.2 in W | 0.9 in T | 0.6 lb Wt From the author of The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is the next dark and brilliant addition to the acclaimed speculative Dark Future series, about families: real and virtual. Some families are virtually perfect... The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality tv show called The Substitute. It w ill follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby... Set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate "tamagotchi"--a virtual baby.