The Changeling Plague

Rating:
Summary: powerhouse
Review: A scientist working on a project to eradicate hemophilia inadvertently releases the virus that causes Mahn's disease. The global wide pandemic propels the world's powers to sign the Beijing Treaty of 2013, banning any work on viral engineering.

Geoffrey Allen, a young very wealthy man dying of cystic fibrosis buys a viral engineered therapy illegally from a reputable scientist for a large of money. The cure works but anyone Geoffrey goes near catches what becomes known as AHMS (Acquired Human Mutagene Syndrome), a plague that spreads around the world. Diverse groups such as the American CDC and renegade hackers work feverishly to find a vaccine that will stop the spread of the disease. They then have to convince unsympathetic governments and corporations not to let die the plague victims who are hidden away in internment camps.

There are many heroes running the human spectrum in THE CHANGELING PLAGUE. They range from the man who served as the host of this plague to the doctors who risk their own health so that others may have hope to the scientific hackers who fill the gap when all else fails. Syne Mitchell's latest work revisits hot potato social issues providing a powerful magnitude of perspectives which gives credence to the naysayers as much as the supporters. This is a powerhouse novel.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: powerhouse
Review: A scientist working on a project to eradicate hemophilia inadvertently releases the virus that causes Mahn's disease. The global wide pandemic propels the world's powers to sign the Beijing Treaty of 2013, banning any work on viral engineering.

Geoffrey Allen, a young very wealthy man dying of cystic fibrosis buys a viral engineered therapy illegally from a reputable scientist for a large of money. The cure works but anyone Geoffrey goes near catches what becomes known as AHMS (Acquired Human Mutagene Syndrome), a plague that spreads around the world. Diverse groups such as the American CDC and renegade hackers work feverishly to find a vaccine that will stop the spread of the disease. They then have to convince unsympathetic governments and corporations not to let die the plague victims who are hidden away in internment camps.

There are many heroes running the human spectrum in THE CHANGELING PLAGUE. They range from the man who served as the host of this plague to the doctors who risk their own health so that others may have hope to the scientific hackers who fill the gap when all else fails. Syne Mitchell's latest work revisits hot potato social issues providing a powerful magnitude of perspectives which gives credence to the naysayers as much as the supporters. This is a powerhouse novel.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Fast and Fun but don't expect it to make sense!
Review: Another story misusing the word changeling. A changeling is a person switched at birth (tradionally by elves), not a shapechanger.

A virulent genetic plague is the catalyst for a tale of a world first decimated by and later evolved by genetic tampering.

Like many action films, the story moves fast and furious with a very interesting cast of characters (yay, Mr. Yi!), but don't pay too much attention to the details as they are quite contradictory.

In a world where people are to frightened to leave their homes and industry grinds to a halt, you can still get pizza delivery (even in remote locations), there is no shortage of food, even auction houses stay open to sell their Chippendale chairs.

If you don't like inconsistency, avoid this one like the plague. But if you are looking for a fast entertaining read and details don't derail your fun, give this one a try.

Rating:
Summary: Fast and Fun but don't expect it to make sense!
Review: Another story misusing the word changeling. A changeling is a person switched at birth (tradionally by elves), not a shapechanger.

A virulent genetic plague is the catalyst for a tale of a world first decimated by and later evolved by genetic tampering.

Like many action films, the story moves fast and furious with a very interesting cast of characters (yay, Mr. Yi!), but don't pay too much attention to the details as they are quite contradictory.

In a world where people are to frightened to leave their homes and industry grinds to a halt, you can still get pizza delivery (even in remote locations), there is no shortage of food, even auction houses stay open to sell their Chippendale chairs.

If you don't like inconsistency, avoid this one like the plague. But if you are looking for a fast entertaining read and details don't derail your fun, give this one a try.

Rating:
Summary: Fast-Paced Medical Sci-Fi Thriller
Review: Bio-engineering must be an "in" thing to base fiction on these days among hard sci-fi writers the way cyberpunk was for the mid-to-late 90's. The Changeling Plague reminded me of nothing so much as Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio (also an excellent read). Both use a base hypothesis of what would happen if genetic propogation began to do odd things. How would that change us and how would various societies and their governments respond? But while Bear's story hypothesizes it could happen from spontanous mutation due to environmental stresses such as industrial pollution and over-populated regions Ms. Mitchell's novel envisions a world where illegal gene therapy research escapes the control of the scientists conducting it.

As with most novels there are some odd situations. For example, in Ms. Mitchell's novel (as a previous reviewer noted) the world quite understandably has a mass panic (the infection rate climbs to 96% with almost certain death to follow). It is never clear how extensive the damage is beyond a few scenes sketched out showing general public panic. In a world where it is admitted this virus is highly communicable (the author never quite pins down if it's airborn or only transmitted via touch) and mass-panic ensues apparently pizza-delivery boys think they're immune so you can still order delivery knowing it will be at your doorstep a half hour later. And since the story explains earlier that bio-hazard suits sell for thousands of dollars on the black market I doubt pizza-delivery suddenly becomes a lucrative career option. This is only one example of some odd disjunctures. It had the effect of reminding me I was reading a story. Thankfully though it didn't happen often.

If I had to classify it I would say this book is more plot-driven than character-driven. You see the 3 main characters (the medical researcher Lillith, Patient 0 Geoffrey Allen and hacker extraordinaire Idaho Davis) and what they think and how they react to the events around them but unlike some I didn't get a sense of getting to know or understand each character *except* in relation to their handling of the plague and it's consequences on them, their family and friends. This is what I mean about it being more of a plot-driven novel than a character-driven one. Having said that these 3 do get a lot of air-time with everyone else getting bit roles. Using terms of a standard hollywood tv-drama the main 3 carry the novel and get the majority of lines while a few other regulars get a few lines per chapter.

The pacing is also tight. Unlike some novels there isn't a lot of time spent building a backstory that makes people often say of a novel, "it's slow through the first part.". Ms. Mitchell jumps right in and never lets up. It is a fun, entertaining read and the author succeeds overall more often than not. If you are a sci-fi fan give this book a shot.

Rating:
Summary: Started out ok... turned to crap shrortly thereafter
Review: I only got about halfway through this novel, whilst the plot was fairly interesting I found the characters themselves rather 2 dimensional.
It was the unconvincing portrayal of the characters that led to me just not careing enough about them to finish the book. the final straw came when the when the computer wizard (who, by the way, is obsessed with making love with a facimile of his dead sister of all things!) begins to program genetic mutations like retractable claws and venomous fangs in people. Such comic book science soundly terminated the suspension of this readers disbelief. Had the author invested more into creating more belivable (and Interesting) characters I would have finished what had started out as a promising read.

Rating:
Summary: Was fine up to a point
Review: I picked this book up on a whim, it had a recommendation by one of my favorite authors on it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It wasn't a bad book, although it does go pretty weird at one point.

In the future, genetic engineering for existing diseases is outlawed, thanks to one Dr. Mahn whose potential cure for a life threatening disease caused even worse problems in those not affected. Despite it being illegal, there are still doctors and scientists that will do genetic engineering, for a price. Geoffery is willing to pay that price to be rid of the cystic fibrosis that he's lived with all his life. He finds a doctor willing to make his cure, and it works. Within days he's much improved, but then strange things start happening.

People who attend a dinner party he throws start coming down with rare genetic diseases, and from there it spreads. It's up to Lilith to find the person responsible for the disease, and find a cure or some kind of containment for it. This is the main plot of the book, and as it stands it would make a pretty good futuristic thriller in the vein of the Andromeda Strain. That's not the only plot in the book though.

Another character, Idaho, was a child who showed immunity to Mahn's disease, back when he was a small child. However, his sister, Blue, was not so lucky, and died as a result. Idaho's never really gotten over her death, and still carries some pretty serious emotional baggage. He's also a computer whiz, and spends most of his time plugged into what the internet has become in the future. When he reads about the plague and discovers his quasi-girlfriend is affected by it, he sets up a small lab to find a cure for her.

Along the way he discovers that by altering certain genes, he can make himself faster, stronger, and pretty much change himself however he wants. He starts experimenting, and eventually turns his girlfriend into a clone of Blue, and gives his friends all kinds of enhancements. As word gets out people are willing to do almost anything to get Idaho to perform his gene therapy.

The two plots tie together when a vaccine is found for the plague. Idaho's friends help synthesize the vaccine in exchange for body modification, and the rest of the world gets a vaccine to help those not affected.

The whole secondary plot about genetic modification was really strange, and started to twist the book. As the book goes on and the plague becomes secondary, it just gets kind of weird, and the last two chapters or so are really, really strange. It's like the author decided that it was okay to deviate from the story by fast forwarding 80 years.

It's not a bad book, but it does go kind of strange, and unfortunately it's strange enough to affect my enjoyment. Hard core science fiction lovers will probably love this.

Rating:
Summary: Was fine up to a point
Review: I picked this book up on a whim, it had a recommendation by one of my favorite authors on it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It wasn't a bad book, although it does go pretty weird at one point.

In the future, genetic engineering for existing diseases is outlawed, thanks to one Dr. Mahn whose potential cure for a life threatening disease caused even worse problems in those not affected. Despite it being illegal, there are still doctors and scientists that will do genetic engineering, for a price. Geoffery is willing to pay that price to be rid of the cystic fibrosis that he's lived with all his life. He finds a doctor willing to make his cure, and it works. Within days he's much improved, but then strange things start happening.

People who attend a dinner party he throws start coming down with rare genetic diseases, and from there it spreads. It's up to Lilith to find the person responsible for the disease, and find a cure or some kind of containment for it. This is the main plot of the book, and as it stands it would make a pretty good futuristic thriller in the vein of the Andromeda Strain. That's not the only plot in the book though.

Another character, Idaho, was a child who showed immunity to Mahn's disease, back when he was a small child. However, his sister, Blue, was not so lucky, and died as a result. Idaho's never really gotten over her death, and still carries some pretty serious emotional baggage. He's also a computer whiz, and spends most of his time plugged into what the internet has become in the future. When he reads about the plague and discovers his quasi-girlfriend is affected by it, he sets up a small lab to find a cure for her.

Along the way he discovers that by altering certain genes, he can make himself faster, stronger, and pretty much change himself however he wants. He starts experimenting, and eventually turns his girlfriend into a clone of Blue, and gives his friends all kinds of enhancements. As word gets out people are willing to do almost anything to get Idaho to perform his gene therapy.

The two plots tie together when a vaccine is found for the plague. Idaho's friends help synthesize the vaccine in exchange for body modification, and the rest of the world gets a vaccine to help those not affected.

The whole secondary plot about genetic modification was really strange, and started to twist the book. As the book goes on and the plague becomes secondary, it just gets kind of weird, and the last two chapters or so are really, really strange. It's like the author decided that it was okay to deviate from the story by fast forwarding 80 years.

It's not a bad book, but it does go kind of strange, and unfortunately it's strange enough to affect my enjoyment. Hard core science fiction lovers will probably love this.

Rating:
Summary: She just keeps getting better!
Review: In the very near future, virus engineering is understandably illegal, but a rich man with CF pays millions for an engineered retro virus to cure his condition.

The whole world pays the price when the virus does the impossible and mutates to infect others. The virus rewrites every victim's genetic code. It's a new and constantly changing plague. The CDC, doctors the world over, even computer hackers race for a cure...at least at first.

This is the absolutely excellent third novel by a woman who SHOULD have a hardcover contract soon. She's compared to Crichton on the cover, but she's better. She's written a Sci-Fi Thriller for intelligent readers that will keep you reading into the wee hours. This one has only been out a short time, and I already can't wait for her next book. Pick up Murphy's Gambit and Technogenesis if you haven't already.

Rating:
Summary: First Rate Science Fiction
Review: Mitchell's third novel is first rate science fiction. The science (primarily genetics) has clearly been meticulously researched. I have to admit to some unpleasant synchronicity in reading this book about a new disease running rampant and the news reports of SARS. Luckily this is a real science fiction novel and not "merely" a medical thriller, and the story veers off into interesting territories reminiscent of Greg Bear's Blood Music. I especially liked the notion that genetic programming was indeed akin to computer programming and that hackers might excell at it.

To the reviewer who complained that the use of "changeling" was incorrect, I disagree. When the term comes up in the novel, it refers to genes being replaced with something "wild" which seems to me to be a perfectly good match to the more traditional one (babies replaced by something wild, if you will).