From Publishers Weekly
With this compelling biotech thriller, Nagata, who was trained as a zoologist, shifts from the far future of her trilogy--The Bohr Maker, Deception Well and Vast--to a scientific revolution even now a-brewing: nanotechnology, the creation of microscopic organisms that can penetrate the inner workings of complex beings like man, curing illnesses, correcting genetic flaws, even, as here, evolving its hosts into utterly different forms of life. Virgil Copeland, sole survivor of three idealistic young biologists who willingly became hosts for "LOVs," an experimental type of intelligent, emotion-enhancing nanoorganism, causes the escape of a colony of other, constantly mutating LOVs into the torrid Mekong Delta of a brutally overpopulated Vietnam. There a strange cult of throwaway Asian children joins Virgil and Eurasian journalist Ela Suvanatat to preserve the LOVs from Daniel Simkin, the nefarious director of the International Biotechnology Commission, who pretends to protect Earth from the LOVs while ruthlessly pursuing them for the wealth and power they could bring him. Nagata enlivens this extended chase through the steamy murk of Mekong swamps and the monsoons of the southeast Pacific with fascinating biotech hardware and gadgetry as well as clever extrapolations into nanotech potential. She constantly reinforces her theme that "the only way out is forward" at the risk of making her characters occasionally preachy and two-dimensional, but that's a small price to pay for an idea-provoking narrative that is genuinely innovative in conception.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The death of a young researcher exposes a conspiracy involving an illegal experimentation in sentient nanotech lifeforms, forcing co-conspirator Virgil Copeland to flee for his life. His encounter with a reporter investigating a youth cult in the Mekong Delta offers him a chance to preserve his discovery while avoiding the ruthless powers that wish to control the next phase in evolution. Nagata (Vast) blends hard science with cutting-edge technology in a fast-paced technothriller that is recommended for most sf collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
