Shannon Sheu, a rising sophomore at High School North and a resident of Plainsboro, has written and self-published a book. “Bionic” is a sci-fi novel available through Amazon in print as well as Kindle. “It is about a dystopian society where the government takes accident victims and fits them with advanced prosthetics (artificial limbs) to convert them into soldiers,” says Sheu. She presents a book talk and signing at the Plainsboro Library, on Friday, August 17, at 7 p.m.
Born in Flushing, New York, her father Jonathan (Mungyo) works in finance and her mother Susan (Chunghui) works at home. They moved to Plainsboro 13 years ago. “My parents searched New Jersey for about a year when I was about two years old,” she says. “They were looking around for a suburban area, and happened across West Windsor and Plainsboro.” She is an only child.
“I started out doing a research project for a competition, and most, if not all, of the research was done online,” she says. “I found designs from existing companies, such as Ossur and Touch Bionics, and also looked into the biomechatronics work being done by a small team at MIT.”
Sheu has been involved in Science Olympiad and Science Bowl for the past four years. Also a member of the Environmental Club she recently helped with a clean-up of the Millstone River. She is the tennis team at North.
An excerpt from the book follows:
“Your meal.” The pale-skinned man at the counter spoke sadly and didn’t even look at Zven — but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because she just took the tray and went on with her business. She seated herself at an empty table. Eating alone was what most Bionics did, except for the occasional ones that sometimes got along with each other. But that was an extremely rare occurrence. It was probably much better to say that Bionics were solitary.
She eyed the food carefully first, then slowly curled her fingers around the fork. Raising it up a bit with her right hand, she spun it.
It spun so fast, only a light blur could be seen.
It spun so fast, it almost wasn’t human.
Maybe that was what a Bionic was. Not human.
The fork stopped and speared a chunk of meat.
The full idea for a story did not happen until several months after she did the research. “I mostly just ran on my imagination and what I already knew to write the story,” says Sheu.
Author Event, Plainsboro Public Library, 9 Van Doren Street. Friday, August 17, 7 to 8 p.m. Shannon Sheu, author of “Bionic,” a sci-fi novel about a dystopian society. A rising sophomore at High School North, this is her first novel. Booksigning follows. 609-275-2897. www.lmxac.org/plainsboro.
