This Mortal Coil (Emily Suvada)

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 This Mortal Coil, by Emily Suvada


        This Mortal Coil is the first installment of the namesake trilogy. [No spoilers]

        Set in the far future, the world has been overrun by an extremely fast acting, fast mutating virus called Hydra-6. It spreads in a unique way: by efficiently and quickly infiltrating every cell in the body, and then destroying each cell explosively, blowing up in a plume of highly infectious mist. Additionally, in the early stages of infection, it causes primal and violent behavior to those around the infected person, resulting in the bystanders to attempt to consume the infected person. In this world, so-called "genehacking" technology has allowed for extremely efficient genetic changes and alterations to the body, allowing programming to effectively control many aspects of the body. The main character, Caterina, is the daughter of a famous genehacking expert, who is needed by a shady worldwide organization called Cartaxus. Cartaxus is trying to develop a vaccine for Hydra, which is spreading so fast every government in the world is considering preemptive and total obliteration of all the cities in the area to stop its progress. The story centers around Caterina, who is also one of the most skilled hackers in the world, trying to find out where her father is, and more importantly, whether he managed to create a vaccine.


        This Mortal Coil is does a decent job at writing about the overused global pandemic apocalypse cliché. The whole genetic engineering idea is surprisingly plausible for its unbelievability: the book provides enough explanation and foundation on current or hypothesized technology that there is in fact very little suspension of disbelief for such a sci-fi novel. Less believable is its programming technobabble, which is frustratingly similar to low-quality movie "hacker" scenes. The plot is very well done, especially for a very unknown novel. The writing itself is not exceptional quality but still quite well done. 4/5 stars, a good series if you like sci-fi and biological/virulent dystopian novels mixed with some programming.


Jonathan

Comments

  1. RichiApril 24, 2022 at 2:59 PM

    Your blog showed the book in a very interesting way, and I am surprised to know that even though the book is sci-fi, some of the ideas present could work. I like how its almost connected to what's been going on for the past 2 years, although gene hacking wouldn't fall into that at all.

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