Armed Memory

In a twenty-first-century New York, where genetic technology enables people to become whoever--or whatever--they desire, Tim Wandel takes a new job and finds himself in a deadly confrontation with a killer species of shark-humans. Reprint.

The future is a dangerous place-just ask any of the half-dozen main characters in this cutting-edge adventure novel about "microded" (genetically altered) gangsters who, modified from humans into sharklike creatures, dwell in the ocean's depths and do the bidding of shadowy mafia figures. Told as a series of flashbacks and oral testimonials before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the novel divides into two parts. The first is a tale of two cousins: Johnny Stevens, who always wanted to be covered in scales and whose company has now perfected the technology that enables anyone to look like any person or creature they desire; and Timothy Wandel, who goes to work for Johnny as a PR man. They battle the microded hammerheads until triumph and tragedy consume Johnny's company. The novel's second part is far less successful, with less action and less clear-cut goals for the characters as Wandel and others continue to deal with the global hammerhead menace. Still, Young's writing creates a strong sense of excitement, his future world is familiar enough to be appealing (and distorted enough to be hip) and the mysteries he explores are intense and compelling.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.