Orion's Arm Universe Project
Syne Mitchell
Background Information:
Wikipedia Bio:
Reader's Thoughts:
The Changeling Plague - Ms Mitchell's book is a fairly-hard-science look at some of the problems with gene-tech, as well as some of the opportunities thereof. The book follows two people who meet in a plague zone, a doctor who's an expert in altered geneomes and a child whose sister dies from a plague caused by a flawed genetic treatment for a disease. This plague leads to a worldwide moratorium on genetic technologies, yet a second plague is later caused (using in part the initial doctor's work, stolen by a less-than-ethical coworker) to treat a rich man.
To go on further would be to spoil the twists and turns of this pretty gripping book. Just for reference, this takes you less than a third of the way through the fairly slim (200-300 page) book, and the best story bits are yet to come.
There are some points where suspension of disbelief is required, IMO, but on a scale of 1-10, I'd give the book a 9 for enjoyability and an 8 for scientific plausibility. I'd reccomend it in general, and especially for those interested in genetic modification . These latter people I'd suggest the book as a thought experiment for ONE possible way we might end up developing the technology.
(I've read one other book by Ms Mitchell, Technogenesis, and found it also quite interesting, if somewhat less feasible)
John B
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Wikipedia Bio:
Reader's Thoughts:
The Changeling Plague - Ms Mitchell's book is a fairly-hard-science look at some of the problems with gene-tech, as well as some of the opportunities thereof. The book follows two people who meet in a plague zone, a doctor who's an expert in altered geneomes and a child whose sister dies from a plague caused by a flawed genetic treatment for a disease. This plague leads to a worldwide moratorium on genetic technologies, yet a second plague is later caused (using in part the initial doctor's work, stolen by a less-than-ethical coworker) to treat a rich man.
To go on further would be to spoil the twists and turns of this pretty gripping book. Just for reference, this takes you less than a third of the way through the fairly slim (200-300 page) book, and the best story bits are yet to come.
There are some points where suspension of disbelief is required, IMO, but on a scale of 1-10, I'd give the book a 9 for enjoyability and an 8 for scientific plausibility. I'd reccomend it in general, and especially for those interested in genetic modification . These latter people I'd suggest the book as a thought experiment for ONE possible way we might end up developing the technology.
(I've read one other book by Ms Mitchell, Technogenesis, and found it also quite interesting, if somewhat less feasible)
John B
BACK