SubscribeSomewhere in Nevada, science has gone terribly wrong.
Jack, a self described “househusband”, stays home and takes care of his three children. Julia, his wife, is a scientist, working on a top secret project that Jack, (and the other spouses), know almost nothing about. It turns out that no one, not even the scientists in charge of this project, were very well informed about what it was they were up against.
The whole book takes place in about a week, and is a quick read. At first, things are fine, though Jack does feel a bit strange being the only dad at the grocery store, and at the park. Soon, he notices Julia acting a bit strange. She seems a bit distant to him, and also with their children. She’s started heading directly to the shower immediately upon returning home from work. A bit of poking around leads Jack to believe that Julia’s strangeness towards her family might just be due to the fact that she is having an affair, with one of the other scientists. Jack is suspicious, but, has no direct evidence. He doesn’t want to believe his worst nightmare is happening.
If only it were that simple! What Jack doesn’t know is that Julia is involved in an experiment that involves nanotechnology. What started out as a test run of a prototype designed to be used by the government as either a weapon or as an electronic spy, has changed. The nanotechnology seems to be forming swarms, and doing things it wasn’t designed for.
This brings up all sorts of interesting questions. Is it alive? If so, does that mean each individual unit is alive, or just when it forms a swarm? Is any part of the swarm sentient? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then, is it ethical to be creating these little nanotech bots? If it’s alive, and can think, what does it want ?
Jack has some more immediate questions. What is going on with Julia? Is she having an affair, or is something even more sinister going on? How can this swarm be stopped?
This book is a quick read, with lots of action, and quite a bit of mysterious circumstances going on. I found it interesting, but it did leave me wanting to know more. If you are looking for a thriller that has something to do with science, nanotech, and infection, this might be your book. The whole story takes place in about a week, from start to finish, which might be good if you are looking to read a thriller. If, however, you are looking for a read that is heavy on the science, or that goes into more about how the nanotechnology in the story affects the rest of the world, well, then you might be a disappointed as I was. Like I said before, it was good, but it left me wanting more.
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If you like SciFi books by Michael Crichton, another great author named Dan Ronco, writes similar to Michael Crichton in a book called Unholy Domain.
Check it Out! Unholy Domain!
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If you are interested in a good book on the potentials of nanotechnology as well as a good story look for Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Comment by Anonymous 04.05.08 @ 10:46 am