Book excerpt: Helen Roderick assumed life would get easier after she died. The plan was simple: scan her neural paths, simulate her brain on an enormous bank of computers, then live an untroubled life free of aging, dandruff, or any of the other drawbacks of hauling her own squishy meatsack around. But nothing's going according to plan. Even as the government is trying to shut her lab down and steal their research, Helen must use her growing powers to find the culprit of a nuclear attack. She uncovers a force bent not on geopolitical conquest, but on the extinction of all humankind. Will our heroine be enslaved or deleted by the Feds? Can she avert an impending war with China? When will she find time to complete her doctorate? And we're trying not to judge, but isn't Dr. Mellings way too old for her? Alternately goofy and dark, The Improbable Rise of Singularity Girl is the story of a singular woman and a life lived at exponential speed.