Book Review: The Genius Plague, by David Walton
A whiz-kid from the NSA outwits a fungus-zombie apocalypse.
Pyr, 2017, 384 pages
The contagion is in your mind
In this science fiction thriller, brothers are pitted against each other as a pandemic threatens to destabilize world governments by exerting a subtle mind control over survivors.
Neil Johns has just started his dream job as a code breaker for the NSA when his brother Paul, a mycologist, goes missing on a trip to collect samples in the Amazon jungle. Paul returns with a gap in his memory and a fungal infection that almost kills him. But once he recuperates, he has enhanced communication, memory, and pattern recognition. Meanwhile, something is happening in South America; others, like Paul, have also fallen ill and recovered with abilities they didn't have before.
But that's not the only pattern - the survivors, from entire remote Brazilian tribes to American tourists, all seem to be working toward a common, deadly goal. Neil soon uncovers a secret, unexplained alliances form between governments that have traditionally been enemies, and Paul becomes increasingly secretive and erratic. Paul sees the fungus as the next stage of human evolution, while Neil is convinced that it is driving its human hosts to destruction.
Brother must oppose brother on an increasingly fraught international stage, with the free will of every human on earth at stake. Can humanity use this force for good, or are we becoming the pawns of an utterly alien intelligence?
Neil Johns is a 21-year-old genius whose equally genius brother is a mycologist studying funguses deep in the Amazon. He meets a random hot girl, who escapes a terrorist attack with him, only to die later like a random NPC. Neil's brother returns to Maryland, but he's infected...
So this is a story where a smart young kid joins the NSA, immediately impresses his superiors despite repeatedly getting in trouble in ways that would be firing offenses for most, and has to stop a conspiracy born in the Amazon jungle. This is a very traditional sort of story in a lot of ways. It's also a super-nerdy technothriller that delves into mycology, epidemiology, neurology, cryptography, and other -ologies. You'll either like this kind of Mighty Whitey Dudebro Saves the World With Science! narrative or you won't.
I tend to groan when I see a book featuring the NSA, the CIA, or other Intelligence Community agencies. Even if the author isn't an ideologue who watches too many Oliver Stone movies, the research tends to be almost non-existent. Admittedly, it's not exactly easy to get internal details about how IC agencies function... but it's not that hard to get a lot of details right. There is quite a lot of public information available.
David Walton obviously did a fair amount of research, and probably actually talked to some people who work at the NSA. It's not perfect (in particular, he has the main character traveling with DIRNSA, who apparently goes on impromptu field missions with junior analysts unescorted), but he understands the basics of federal civil service, the differences between the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI (most authors can't even get that much right), and just presenting the NSA as not-the-bad-guys was refreshing.
This isn't really a zombie apocalypse story, though. The fungus is much more interesting than that, and the author goes into a lot of detail, through Neil's eyes, as he figures out how this infection works. The fungus isn't sentient and it doesn't really "mind control" its victims, yet it creates a network of people all acting, seemingly of their own volition, in a coordinated, determined way. As Neil and his coworkers try to combat the threat, there are a lot of plans and counterplans, ending in a dramatic world-saving climax that was somewhat anticlimactic in the way things essentially go back to normal despite the new existential threat, almost like at the end of a comic book. A supervillain was defeated, a world-ending threat was averted, so back to the old routine.
Nonetheless, I did enjoy this book, with all its nerdiness and (relative) attention to detail.
My complete list of book reviews.
Pyr, 2017, 384 pages
The contagion is in your mind
In this science fiction thriller, brothers are pitted against each other as a pandemic threatens to destabilize world governments by exerting a subtle mind control over survivors.
Neil Johns has just started his dream job as a code breaker for the NSA when his brother Paul, a mycologist, goes missing on a trip to collect samples in the Amazon jungle. Paul returns with a gap in his memory and a fungal infection that almost kills him. But once he recuperates, he has enhanced communication, memory, and pattern recognition. Meanwhile, something is happening in South America; others, like Paul, have also fallen ill and recovered with abilities they didn't have before.
But that's not the only pattern - the survivors, from entire remote Brazilian tribes to American tourists, all seem to be working toward a common, deadly goal. Neil soon uncovers a secret, unexplained alliances form between governments that have traditionally been enemies, and Paul becomes increasingly secretive and erratic. Paul sees the fungus as the next stage of human evolution, while Neil is convinced that it is driving its human hosts to destruction.
Brother must oppose brother on an increasingly fraught international stage, with the free will of every human on earth at stake. Can humanity use this force for good, or are we becoming the pawns of an utterly alien intelligence?
Neil Johns is a 21-year-old genius whose equally genius brother is a mycologist studying funguses deep in the Amazon. He meets a random hot girl, who escapes a terrorist attack with him, only to die later like a random NPC. Neil's brother returns to Maryland, but he's infected...
So this is a story where a smart young kid joins the NSA, immediately impresses his superiors despite repeatedly getting in trouble in ways that would be firing offenses for most, and has to stop a conspiracy born in the Amazon jungle. This is a very traditional sort of story in a lot of ways. It's also a super-nerdy technothriller that delves into mycology, epidemiology, neurology, cryptography, and other -ologies. You'll either like this kind of Mighty Whitey Dudebro Saves the World With Science! narrative or you won't.
I tend to groan when I see a book featuring the NSA, the CIA, or other Intelligence Community agencies. Even if the author isn't an ideologue who watches too many Oliver Stone movies, the research tends to be almost non-existent. Admittedly, it's not exactly easy to get internal details about how IC agencies function... but it's not that hard to get a lot of details right. There is quite a lot of public information available.
David Walton obviously did a fair amount of research, and probably actually talked to some people who work at the NSA. It's not perfect (in particular, he has the main character traveling with DIRNSA, who apparently goes on impromptu field missions with junior analysts unescorted), but he understands the basics of federal civil service, the differences between the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI (most authors can't even get that much right), and just presenting the NSA as not-the-bad-guys was refreshing.
This isn't really a zombie apocalypse story, though. The fungus is much more interesting than that, and the author goes into a lot of detail, through Neil's eyes, as he figures out how this infection works. The fungus isn't sentient and it doesn't really "mind control" its victims, yet it creates a network of people all acting, seemingly of their own volition, in a coordinated, determined way. As Neil and his coworkers try to combat the threat, there are a lot of plans and counterplans, ending in a dramatic world-saving climax that was somewhat anticlimactic in the way things essentially go back to normal despite the new existential threat, almost like at the end of a comic book. A supervillain was defeated, a world-ending threat was averted, so back to the old routine.
Nonetheless, I did enjoy this book, with all its nerdiness and (relative) attention to detail.
My complete list of book reviews.