The Changeling Plague
by Syne Mitchell

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Book Reviews of The Changeling Plague

Book Review: Superior medical/cyber thriller
Summary: 5 Stars

And so, in this tale the vaccine is found rather early on in the novel, after which Mitchell turns her attention to what happens next. Most people demand the virus, of course, while a small percentage do not, because they like the body modifications the disease can cause (one character wants wings). As for the victims themselves, they're simply quarantined.

There are three main characters: Mitchell's hacker character, Idaho (he wires himself into the net and feeds himself via IV while on line), quickly sees how he can turn his skills from altering the virtual world to altering the real one, by manipulating DNA. He realizes that by doing so he can modify people and he goes about doing just that. The other two protagonists are Lillith, a health worker (she's a save the world type who still wants to keep her day job) who tries to help solve the mystery of the plague while aiding the victims, and Geoffrey, the rich young man who's inadvertently started the whole while looking for a cure for his own cystic fibrosis.

As in "Murphy's Gambit" and "Techogenisis," Mitchell creates interesting characters who don't always make the right decisions. You'll probably find yourself caring about them (one especially effective scene is when Geoffrey, who is kept in quarantine as the "patient zero" of the plague, is transferred to a quarantine facility for other victims--it's his old family estate). Mitchell keeps things moving along briskly and efficiently and the book reaches a satisifying and logical conclusion, with room for a sequel although one isn't inevitable. She also raises some ethical issues that are definitely worth pondering.

Summary of The Changeling Plague

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