The Genius Plague
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
WINNER of the 2018 Campbell Award for Best Novel A WALL STREET JOURNAL Best Science Fiction Book of 2017 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 in 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, and deadly, goal. Neil soon uncovers a secret and unexplained alliance between governments that have traditionally been enemies. Meanwhile 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 stakes: the free will of every human on earth. Can humanity use this force for good, or are we becoming the pawns of an utterly alien intelligence?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Walton (Superposition) trades quantum weirdness for the psychotropic action of botanical mind control in this mind-bending ecothriller that posits an Amazonian fungus is out to run the world. Neil Johns, an overly clever rebel, wants to follow in his father's code-breaking footsteps at the NSA. To impress a high-ranking manager of a misfit group, he cracks the mystery of some indecipherable South American messages. At the same time, his older brother Paul, a mycologist, escapes Brazilian terrorists only to fall ill from a fungal infection. Soon, Paul and other infected folks show similar symptoms of increased intelligence and a sudden desire to protect the rainforest. Inevitably, Neil becomes infected and must decide how to use his powers. This original and frightening ecological response to human activity dances tantalizingly on the edge of believability. Adding to questions of species survival are chewy concepts that touch on individual choice and free will, such as a cure for Alzheimer's that steals away individuality. The persistence of the threat of mind control leaves the ending open to interpretation.