SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this in 2008 and most recently on the 20th February 2017

Humanity has expanded into space and on those new worlds we've changed. There are "post-human" cultures that differ dramatically from what has been left behind on old Earth. Back on the home world the tecnology has developed but politically it is frozen in time, with the same old hatreds and unceasing conflict.

Now here comes a new opportunity for its extinction.

Catherine Li and Cohen meet Arkady, a member of the Syndicates, a post-human culture based on cloning. Arkady, surprisingly for a clone, is unique: he could destroy the human race.

A major disappointment in comparison to the excellent "Spin State". The writing was good. Catherine Li and Cohen are still great characters. Arkady, the Syndicate clone, is a convincing creation.

But somehow they seem to have been bolted on to a spy thriller about the current-day Israeli conflict, albeit a convincing and gripping thriller. I actually checked whether I'd mistakenly picked up a different book (I hadn't). Not my sort of thing at all and I was just bewildered as to how it had happened. "How did it happen?" I asked myself, bewilderedly.

I'm still going to read "Ghost Spin" though. Embarrassed that I haven't already done so but then, I've been busy.