The Second Angel - Hardcover

Kerr, Philip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805059628 ISBN 13: 9780805059625

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 1999

Synopsis

A dark, dystopian high-velocity thriller in the cult-classic tradition of Kerr's A Philosophical Investigation.

July 2069: centennial of the Apollo 11 moon walk. What would Buzz Aldrin see if he were here? On Earth, plagues have destroyed the major food supplies, climatic changes have brought constant winter to the once-industrialized West, and a new and virulent virus--P2--has infected Earth's population, bringing radical change in economic, political, and social structures. P2 is curable--but only with an infusion of uninfected blood. Indeed, blood has become the currency of choice: It is banked, speculated in, traded, hoarded, but only by those wealthy enough (or healthy enough) to have a clean, uninfected supply. And the moon? It is now home to sex hotels and penal colonies. Home, too, to the "federal reserve" of blood banks--the most impregnable high-security installation in the world. It is the brainchild of one man--and he has every reason to destroy it. Acting on the most human of motives--revenge--he will take on the impossible. Unbeknownst to him, he will have help from a very strange source. Call it 2001 updated. Call it a chillingly convincing mix of prophecy and science. Call it Philip Kerr's best book yet. The Second Angel: 1999's prologue to 2069, a terrifying forecast of the future.

About this title

Review:

Philip Kerr applies his smart, suspenseful thriller style to science fiction in The Second Angel. In 2069, Earth is devastated by climate change, killer plagues, and scarce resources. P2 is a deadly (but curable) virus that infects 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. On the moon, sex hotels and high-security prisons share turf with the First National Blood Bank, where uncontaminated blood is kept. Enter Dana Dallas, a crack security systems designer and member of the wealthy, healthy elite. When he finds out his infant daughter needs clean blood to survive, he starts a chain of events that will make him the sworn enemy of some very dangerous people. Dallas teams up with several shady characters to try and break the bank, and Kerr sprinkles the text with "historical" footnotes to help the reader understand the social context of the action. A mostly annoying narrator--part of a badly connected subplot-- explains the immunological and social importance of blood. While Kerr's ideas and plotting are terrific, his execution is rather stilted. A thug who says things like, "I believe that meaning can be established. Yes, I think it was Sir Karl Popper who said that," might have been a funny character--if everyone else in the book didn't talk that way. --Therese Littleton

From the Publisher:

8 1.5-hour cassettes

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0805059628
• ISBN 13: 9780805059625
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 340