Thanks to Alex’s souped-up body, he can assess distance and velocity at a glance, retain mobility at six Gs and stay conscious up to 12Gs. It’s fair to say we’re in the rather distant future, where humanity is living throughout the universe thanks to loosely explained six-dimensional hyper-channels, and can genetically predispose their offspring for certain jobs. Things start out well as we meet Alex Romanov, a genetically altered “master pilot-spesh” who’s just had half his body regrown after an accident at work. The success of that film will likely draw a fair few new English-speaking readers to this novel, but they’re likely to find the book as frustratingly baffling as the film’s sequel, Day Watch. Credit: Channel One Russia/Bazelevs Company I recommend it highly.Anton (Konstantin Khabenskiy) in Night Watch. There is action enough to keep things moving along and situations enough to have your brain whirling at possibilities as you digest this thoughtful book by Sergei Lukyanenko. There are also several sub-plots in action that will keep your imagination involved on many levels. Note that there are adult situations (okay, sex, though not too graphic) that might not be appropriate for very young readers. There’s way more to all of this, but I don’t like to give spoilers to a story I’m sure you’ll enjoy. The second half becomes a whodunit and features a Spesh of the ultimate specialization. The first half of The Genome concerns the often contentious clash of characters as the ship is crewed, launches, and the tour begins. Then the passengers arrive and they turn out to be two aliens of the species Zzygous, not exactly the most popular breed amongst humans (“Naturals”) or their offshoots. The owners leave the rest of the crew hires to Alex and he manages to gather quite a collection of misfits - mostly Speshes themselves. It’s more a fascinating study of freewill or the lack of it when your DNA has been altered to enhance certain functions.Īlex Romanov is a spaceship pilot Spesh who is hired by a mysterious company to captain their tour ship. This isn’t “space opera” nor anything nearly as action-packed as that.

The Genome presents an interesting stew of characters.

All of that specialization comes at a price, as they - and you the readers - will discover.

It’s also about the ethics behind “Spesh” - humans who had their DNA altered at conception to become specialized in an occupation at a later time during their teens. The psychological interactions and tensions between humans, genetically engineered humans, clones, and aliens, is probably the best way to describe The Genome, by Sergei Lukyanenko (Amazon link) in this unusual entry into the science fiction field. Posted by Jeff Soyer on in Science Fiction | 0 comments

The Genome by Sergei Lukyanenko