I enjoyed reading gentech as a high-tech skin laid over a magic system, with snatches of code standing in for spells. This Mortal Coil is a book bursting - as it were - with ideas, and Catarina's voice and perspective are compelling.
That is, until a Cartaxus soldier named Cole turns up with a message from her father, telling them that they need to work together to unlock the vaccine while keeping it a secret from Cartaxus.
But Catarina's a brilliant geneticist too - albeit one hobbled by her body's inability to run the tech most other people can - and has been surviving on the surface for two years on her own, evading Cartaxus and reluctantly keeping herself immune to Hydra clouds. Forced to cooperate with Cartaxus at gunpoint, Lachlan tells Catarina to hide aboveground and never let Cartaxus take her. In a neat reversal of the usual zombie-virus trope, the healthy have to eat the sick in order to stay alive - and keep eating them, because the immunity wears off after a few weeks.īook Reviews Better (?) Living Through Chemistry In 'Afterparty'Įnter Catarina Agatta, daughter of Lachlan Agatta, a brilliant geneticist who's been working on a vaccine. The resulting fine pink mist gets airborne and infects anyone within a mile radius - unless they've first immunized themselves by eating the flesh of the infected. The Hydra virus literally makes people explode. But in the face of humanity's increased medical prowess, viruses have evolved to compete.
In the not-so-distant future, gene technology - gentech - allows people to program and hack their bodies, downloading vaccines, cures, hormones as easily as we download phone apps. Everything I knew about This Mortal Coil's fascinating premise led me to believe it wouldn't hew to genre conventions, staples and clichés - which meant I was disappointed when it seemed to, and then thoroughly blown away (as it were) when it ultimately didn't. There is a species of book that presents itself as the thing it's skewering, making it tricky to review do you cover the experience of reading the bulk of it, or do you let the twists, reversals and switches work backwards, changing everything, and cover the experience of reading it in hindsight?Įmily Suvada's debut - a high-stakes, high-tech, near future dystopian young adult thriller complete with first-person present-tense, enemies-turned-friends, love triangle, and a cliffhanger every chapter - is that kind of book. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title This Mortal Coil Author Emily Suvada
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