Customer Reviews

Awesome tale! - By: Detra Fitch, 08 Aug 2007
George Galen is a brilliant (but insane) geneticist, black-listed for unethical & illegal genetic tampering. He has created a method to alter human DNA to heal diseases, but uses it to also "improve" those who receives his treatment. Galen makes his patients stronger, faster, able to heal quickly, & compliant to his will.

Dr. Monica Owens is one of the best thoracic surgeonsin her field. Needing Monica to make his plans work, Galen has Wyatt, her six-year-old son, kidnapped. To keep Wyatt from harm, Monica must accompany Galen & his goons to an abandoned & forgotten nursing home. It is there that Galen has set up an impressive genetic lab, along with some unwilling test patients. Hating herself for what she is forced to do, Monica begins altering the DNA of the prisoners.

Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hartman is a brilliant (and sane) virologist. Working for the government's biohazard agency (BHA), he has discovered how to neutralize Galen's DNA-changing virus, V16. Needless-to-say, Galen is not happy.

***** This began as a short story titled MALPRACTICE which was publishedin a sci-fi magazine around 1977. After years of emails to each other, Card & Johnston expanded the tale to novel size.

Although this is a combination of sci-fi & medical thriller, with a little government military thrown in, it is labeled as simply fiction. If you expect to find a fantasy or sci-fi storyin the lines of ENDER'S GAME, then you are going to be disappointed. This book proves that author Orson Scott Card has the rare ability to cross genres with his writing. So begin reading with an open mind & be prepared to be blown away! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.