Smarter

Smarter is a near-future science fiction thriller following Ell Donsaii, who was introduced in the earlier book Quicker. A nerve mutation gives Ell a speed that leaves every rival behind on the track. Her mind is just as unusual: like Lisbeth Salander in Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, she is a gifted mathematician, and her best ideas about quantum mechanics arrive when she is trying to fall asleep.

Ell is shy and uneasy about her social skills, yet the people around her care for her. She enters graduate school to learn experimental physics, and there she finds a way to greatly improve communication using quantum entangled molecules. Her theories draw attention from industrial spies, foreign governments and envious physicists alike. The people who come after her overlook one thing: the same abilities they covet are what make her difficult to bring down.