Richard Laymon Same Vein
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RATING:  |
Date of Release: Nov '99 |
Publisher: Allen & Unwin |
Review Source:  |
THE SECOND ANGEL by Philip Kerr
It is the year 2069 and the Earth is devastated by climate change, killer plagues, and scarce resources.
P2 is a deadly (but curable) virus that suffocates victims by blocking the oxygen uptake in hemoglobin, and it has infected almost the entire population. The cure is clean blood, which is in critically short supply and is affordable only to the very rich, who live in protected enclaves and engage in market speculation on the price of the vital fluid. The virus-free blood is so valuable that a super-secure blood bank has been built on the moon, along with sex hotels and high-security prisons.
No one can break into the blood bank - it's the most secure structure anywhere.
Dana Dallas should know. He designed it.
Dallas is a crack security systems designer and member of the wealthy, healthy elite. But he soon learns that his infant daughter needs clean blood to survive, and so he starts a chain of events that will make him the sworn enemy of some very dangerous people. And these people will stop at nothing to kill him.
Dallas teams up with several shady characters to try and break into the blood bank, and Kerr sprinkles the text with "historical" footnotes to help the reader understand the social context of the action. However, they only serve to distract the reader from the story and become quite annoying as they appear every second page or so. These footnotes cover everything from virology to quantum mechanics to the Doppler effect. Enough to drain all enjoyment from the story.
So, the designer who built the quantum-computerized fortress must somehow face his creation and break it.
The ideas and plot Kerr weaves are terrific, if perhaps occasionally the writing sometimes isn't. Mostly, Kerr's writing style is smart and flows well, resulting in the reader getting involved with his characters on a personal level. This is a smart, suspenseful thriller couched as sci-fi but does not follow the typical styles of sci-fi books. This results in Second Angel being a more intelligently written and believable novel.
Worth the read - just skip the footnotes.
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