Synopses & Reviews
Blue Magic, the latest designer drug linked to a rash of overdoses, might explain the needle mark on the arm of a young woman found dead in her apartment in Kansas City. But when
Star reporter Rich Azadian digs deeper, the clues tie her to a much bigger story: MaryLee Stock was a special protégée of evangelical megastar and powerbroker Cobalt Becker, who is poised to deliver his followers and the presidency to a firebrand rightwing senator in the next election. What makes the story hot is she may have been pregnant by Becker. More disturbing, the embryo may have been—illegally—genetically enhanced to produce a superbaby. But in America in 2023—bankrupt, violently divided by the culture wars, and beholden to archrival China—the rules of the game are complicated, and when the Department of National Competitiveness shuts down Azadian's investigation and he learns that Chinese agents were also interested in the dead woman, he can only do what he does best: go rogue, assemble a team of brilliant misfits like himself, and investigate.
Set in a future that may yet come to pass, Genesis Code is a thriller of the next generation, when genetic engineering, personal ambition, religious fundamentalism, and the potential explosiveness of big power politics meet.
Review
"A thrill ride through the dangerous intersection where the human genetics revolution and aggressive big power rivalries meet." Richard Clarke, former White House terrorism czar and
New York Times bestselling author of
Against All Enemies"Genesis Code is both a high-octane thriller exploring what could happen if international politics drive the human genetic revolution and a compelling love story touching the core of what it means to be a good old-fashioned human being. Read this book and let the conversation about the future of our species begin." Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent and New York Timesbestselling author
Genesis Code is a highly original and thoroughly gripping account of a nightmare that may yet prove all too real. I read it in one sittingI could not put it down. A thrilling tale written with heart-pounding authority.”
Kati Marton, author of the New York Times bestseller, ParisA Love Story
"A spellbinding odyssey into our genetic future. Jamie Metzl is a supreme storyteller who entrances his readers with deep and surprising insights into science, politics, and the human condition."Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles
An old-fashioned hard-boiled thriller . . . Metzl knows his science, and the detail is elegantly done while the novel moves at a nonstop pace over 41 days. Metzl provides a believable look at a not-too-distant future where science, politics, religion, economics and the ability to report the "truth" are all inseparably bound together.”Kirkus Reviews
Metzl offers up a tense vision of the near future with this science fiction thriller.” Publishers Weekly
"Metzl... has a strong command of the financial, political and bioethical questions at the heart of his fast-paced dystopian novel."Washington Post
"The plot is stellar and well paced. . . . The science on the DNA enhancement research is fascinating. . . . Fans of sci-fi and mystery will definitely enjoy Genesis Code."Portland Book Review
About the Author
Jamie Metzl is a principal in a global investment company and a Senior Fellow of the Asia Society. He has served in the US National Security Council, State Department, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with the United Nations in Cambodia, and as Executive Vice President of the Asia Society. Jamie appears regularly on national and international media discussing Asian economic and political issues, and his syndicated columns and writing on Asian affairs, genetics, virtual reality, and other topics is featured in publications around the world. In addition to
Genesis Code, he has written a history of the Cambodian genocide and the novel
The Depths of the Sea. A graduate of Brown, Oxford, and Harvard universities and an avid ironman triathlete and ultramarathoner, he lives in New York City. Twitter: @jamiemetzl.