Extras (novel)

Extras

Extras by Scott Westerfeld
Author	Scott Westerfeld
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Young adult, Science fiction novel
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	October 2, 2007
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	417
ISBN
OCLC	148318216
Preceded by	Specials

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 earlier protagonist 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 the New York Times's James Hynes.

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 amateur journalist, filming stories with her modified hovercam Moggle and posting them for the city to see.

Aya Fuse is a young 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 an underground cave, where she is ambushed by the mag-lev riders, who call themselves the Sly Girls. The group's leader Jai 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. Aya also happens upon a story about Frizz, discovering that he started a clique based around brain surgery which enforces honesty. That evening, Aya goes mag-lev surfing with the Sly Girls, enjoying the experience in spite of not having a camera to film it with. During the journey, the girls are surprised when the train stops, and they see inhuman figures loading the train up with a variety of items hidden within a secret underground room.