ISBN ? (US hbk),,, 0-380-79278-8 (US trade pbk)

"Artificial life forms made of soft plastic and gene-tweaked molds and algae, moldies are evolved robots in the year 2053 -- anatomically inventive and universally despised. In a sleazy, low-rent future, sexual fraternization with moldies is strictly taboo -- a societal sin that is of no concern whatsoever to Randy Karl Tucker. A Kentucky boy who has seriously strayed from the Heritagist religion's stern teachings about the evils of artificial life, Randy feels a definite something for Monique, moldi bookkeeper and maid at the Clearlight Terrace Court Motel. But Monique's sudden and inexplicable abduction from the planet -- coupled with unsettling revelations about Randy's own dubious origins -- is dragging the degenerate flesher and all those around him into an ugly, conspiratorial mess...even as it pulls an unsuspecting humanity ever-closer to a stunning encounter with intergalactic intelligence." [jacket blurb, US trade pbk, 1997]

"Amusing meat-bop romp." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , April 1997).