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Shortlisted by The Goodreads Choice Awards 

"Speculative fiction at its very best - original, dark and wickedly clever."
​
C.L. Taylor

The Family Experiment

Some families are virtually perfect . . . 

The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, 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. It will 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 . . .

Stockists

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© 2025 by John Marrs.

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