Ken MacLeod ’s novel Intrusion , which has been a striking in the UK since it was released earlier this year , tackle a familiar issue in a completely unexpected way . Hope is a female parent - to - be in a approximate - future London , where significant women are under fantastic pressure level to take “ Fix , ” a pill that correct most known genetical defects in their fetuses . Though not mandated by law , it ’s likely that it will be soon — the UK has become an authoritarian medical surveillance land , where everybody ’s parentage chemistry is monitored via bracelets whose data is transmitted to health section .
Light spoilers ahead .
For reasons we at first do n’t realize , Hope has decided not to take the Fix . She could apply for an exemption if were uncoerced to declare herself a spiritual or painstaking objector . But she ’s not . She only does n’t want to take the Fix , and she does n’t feel like she should have to justify her decision . When Hope becomes something of a culture medium renown for refusing , she registers on the radar of a alumnus student named Geena , who studies the refinement of biotech workers . Geena becomes fascinated by Hope ’s case and attempt to figure out whether Hope could lend oneself for an freedom if she could prove that her foetus might have a good mutation that would be destroy by the Fix .
That ’s when affair get vile — and eldritch . Once she starts meddling , Geena is picked up and torture by the cop . Hope and her husband Hugh get more and more threatening visit from their designated health proctor . And meanwhile , Hugh is having vision of a earth full of dirigible and neo - pagans with blue aspect tattoo . Plus , Geena has actually discovered a unique chromosomal mutation in Hugh ’s DNA — a chromosomal mutation he shares with his and Hope ’s first child .
MacLeod ’s virtuoso in this novel is in bringing to life a absolutely plausible medico - state regime , complete with internecine local political relation . And then , just when you think you ’re reading a futurist , dystopian thriller , the novel involve an sharp turn into Scottish traditional knowledge about the “ bright domain ” that only a few can see . It turns out that Hugh ’s sight of those airships are shared by several people on the Scottish island where he was born . Some of them can even walk into that other world via a hidden vena portae . And it ’s start to look like this is all link to that genetic mutation Geena find . Somehow , MacLeod manages to produce what I can only call a kind of hard - burn political wizardly realism .
What if , he seems to ask , you discovered that transmissible change was going to demolish legerdemain ? Or you discover that enter the “ bright land ” of myth was a quirk of genetics ? These kinds of query will keep you guessing right up until the end of the novel , which comes to a satisfying emotional and honorable conclusion that will completely change the way you think about GMOs . And Scottish magic .
you could pluck up Intrusionvia UK Amazon .
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