Product Description

At the end of Specials, the conclusion to the Uglies trilogy, things in Tally's futuristic world had stabilised. The walls between the social classes - the uglies, pretties and specials - had been torn down. So Tally took off to live on her own in the wild. Fast forward...Tally discovers another brand new world. In Extras, it's all about who you know, and how much you have. It's just like LA. Only Paris and Nicole are way dead...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9160 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

About the Author
Scott Westerfeld is the author of five adult novels. He has written two books in the MIDNIGHTERS trilogy for teens, as well as SO YESTERDAY. He divides his time between Sydney and New York. Visit his website - www.scottwesterfeld.com

Customer Reviews

A pleasing read
Aya Fuse had been brought up in the aftermath of the "Mind Rain" initiated by Tally Youngblood, so is one of the first to experience this completely new style of life. New surgery is being constantly invented, ranging from new livers and infra red vision to "Radical Honesty", the brain surgery that makes it impossible to lie. True, minds aren't being controlled anymore, but there are disadvantages to this. In "Pretty Time", everyone could have nearly everything they wanted just by asking their high tech homes, but in this new era, only the very famous can have anything like this luxury. The city revolves around the face ranks, numbers representing the inhabitants' degrees of fame. At the top are people like the legendary Tally Youngblood, the clique founders and the best reporters. At the bottom are the hundreds of thousands of "Extras", whose names have never been known and probably never will. Aya is determined to fight her way out of life as an extra, and following the strange ways of the unique new cliques constantly forming is the easiest method of doing so. Aya thinks she has found the key to fame when she discovers some of the least famous people in the city, with face ranks in the bottom thousand, performing incredible stunts. To exploit them, she joins their group, resulting in the discovery of a hidden weapon in the mountains that could destroy life on Earth. Suddenly Aya becomes famous, but fame doesn't seem so good when you're the one risking your life to get to the bottom of this.

Although certainly not as good as the others in this series, "Extras" is still an engrossing read that will keep you captivated. The plot twists come regularly, always completely unpredictable, and the suspense is constantly building up.

A Fame Making Return
I was a little reticent about picking up 'Extras', having found 'Specials' the third instalment of the 'Uglies Trilogy' the weakest of the the three. This combined with the fact the trilogy was now suddenly billed as a quartet, did not bode well. It may have worked for Douglas Adams but as a general rule, revisiting a completed series, produces novels that are shadows of the original stories. Not so in this case.

There is a a very strong argument for Extras being the best of the four. It has the same easy to read style and I found the story more coherent than in the previous novels. It seemed to me, now that Westerfeld has had a few years to kick about in his future world, he feels a lot more at home there.

In Extras, it's our obsession with fame that comes under the microscope; the central characters live in a city where your fame ranking determines everything about you. It's a fantastic metaphor for twenty first century culture. Journalism also comes under the microscope and Westerfeld explores the power of honesty and'Truth-Slanting', the idea that there are multiple ways to spin a story.

Like the previous novels in the series, Extras is a terrific read. Westerfeld writes exciting stories, using shades of grey that should provoke the reader into thinking a little more about the world we live in. I think he is a sadly underrated author, if Westerfeld lived inside his own creation, he'd barely exist and that would be a crying shame.

I love this cover and the pages between it
This is the fourth novel set in the same universe as the Uglies series. I suppose technically it's the fourth book in the series, but as it has an entirely different antagonist, it feels like it is separate. In the previous series, people are given a surgery at the age of 16 that changes them from "uglies" to "pretties," yet it changed their minds and turned them into "bubbleheads." Now, that regime has ended.

Aya Fuse lives in a city in Japan where people are rediscovering their culture (tea ceremonies, manga) but where fame is of the utmost importance. Everyone has a face rank, and their goal is to have the highest face rank possible. They move up and down in rank by "kicking" stories onto their "feed." Aya's face rank is low--around 450,000. Her older brother is an intelligent "techhead" at has recently hit the top 1,000, and Aya is burning with jealousy and anger at being an "extra." One day, Aya Fuse meets the Sly Girls, a group of girls who pull stunts and try to have the lowest face rank possible. Aya decides that it would be an amazing story and goes undercover to spy on them. Aya ends up uncovering a story much bigger than she initially thought she would.

It's different from the first three books (Uglies, Pretties, and Specials), but it's an excellent book in its own respect. As a blogger and reviewer, much resonated with me. I'm pretty far down in the "face ranks" of Amazon and Livejournal, whereas some inane blogger with a pretty face blogging about what dress she should wear that day would rank near the top. Yet this book made me chuckle at how silly such a pursuit fame ultimately is. Aya seemed so silly to bring her hovercam everywhere...but how different am I, taking a camera with me most places, to record what I did that day? I love young adult books that actually push decent morals. The Uglies series are books that are quickly read, but they would make an excellent gift for young adult and "grown-ups" alike.