Germline (The Subterrene War) [Mass Market Paperback]

T.C. McCarthy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2011 | Series: The Subterrene War (Book 1)

Germline (n.) the genetic material contained in a cellular lineage which can be passed to the next generation. Also: secret military program to develop genetically engineered super-soldiers (slang).

War is Oscar Wendell's ticket to greatness. A reporter for The Stars and Stripes, he has the only one way pass to the front lines of a brutal war over natural resources buried underneath the icy, mineral rich mountains of Kazakhstan.

But war is nothing like he expected. Heavily armored soldiers battle genetically engineered troops hundreds of meters below the surface. The genetics-the germline soldiers-are the key to winning this war, but some inventions can't be un-done. Some technologies can't be put back in the box.

Kaz will change everything, not least Oscar himself. Hooked on a dangerous cocktail of adrenaline and drugs, Oscar doesn't find the war, the war finds him.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It takes real skill to lead readers into actually seeing, smelling, and hearing (and maybe even tasting) the realities of war." - James F. Kelly, for Wired.com

"McCarthy perfectly catches the attitudes of veterans among themselves and toward civilians--laymen, better--when they get back to the World." -David Drake (author, creator of Hammer's Slammers)


"Gritty and furious debut novel" and "a fantastic story of what war may become" -Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing

"Rapid-fire military sf adventure that explores the relationship between the runaway development of technology and biotech and the long-term consequences that ensue." -Library Journal

"A tour de force about a futuristic war and its aftermath." -SF Revu

"It's not often that a sci-fi military-thriller mass paperback will remind you of a Pulitzer nominee, but that's certainly the case with T.C. McCarthy's absolutely astounding literary debut Germline. Astute readers will also see a lot of Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway in this book" -Chicago Center for Literature and Photography

"Compelling debut," "a portrait of the effects of battlefield stress that is difficult to bear but impossible to put down," and "one of the best SFF novels of Fall 2011." - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Brilliantly written...one of the most compelling science fiction books of the year. Germline is much more than a novel about a futuristic war." -Impact Magazine

It's not just good...it's the mil-sf book I wish I could send back in time to beat out Forever War for a Hugo. I never would have guessed McCarthy was an analyst...I was sure he'd been on the pointy end for a long time. - Ernest Lilley, SFRevu (Reviewer Emeritus), on Germline

From the Author

Germline: winner of the 2012 Compton Crook award!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (August 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031612818X
• ISBN-13: 978-0316128186
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.2 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #756,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

T.C. McCarthy is an award winning and critically acclaimed southern author whose short fiction has appeared in Per Contra: The International Journal of the Arts, Literature and Ideas, in Story Quarterly and in Nature. His debut novel, Germline, and its sequel, Exogene are available worldwide and the final book of the trilogy, Chimera, was released in August 2012. In addition to being an author, T.C. is a PhD scientist, a Fulbright Fellow, a Howard Hughes Biomedical Research Scholar, and a winner of the prestigious University of Virginia's Award for Undergraduate Research. Visit him at http://www.tcmccarthy.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fighting in tunnels (with genetically engineered teenage girls) July 26, 2011

By TChris TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This is the second military science fiction novel I've read in recent months that is told from a journalist's point of view (the other is Dan Abnett's Embedded). Germline is by far the better of the two: the characters have more depth, the battle scenes are more realistic (the emphasis is on survival rather than gunning down hoards of enemy troops), the plot is more complex, and the focus is on the internal damage that war inflicts on soldiers rather than the external bloodshed (although fans of gore and decapitation will be well satisfied).

Marines are fighting Russians in Kazakhstan, in tunnels and on the ground, to gain control of ores and minerals that both sides would like to mine. Reporter Oscar Wendell is embedded with the Marines, getting high and hoping to stay alive long enough to win a Pulitzer. Given a choice, Wendell and the Marines prefer to be in the tunnels (the subterrene) where, surrounded by rock walls, they're less likely to be shot or burned to a cinder -- unless the enemy tunnels into a chamber occupied by soldiers and fills it with plasma.

Fighting alongside (or ahead of) the Marines are genetically engineered teenage girls who move "like lighting on speed." According to Wendell, the Genetics look like killers but smell like they should be "sitting in school, driving guys crazy with a miniskirt." I have to wonder whether T.C. McCarthy threw them into the mix on the assumption that the majority of sf fans are young (or not so young) men who will enjoy reading about genetically engineered teenage girls who look like "a track team gone bad." Why not fight the war with genetically engineered teenage boys? Because boys don't smell like they would look good in miniskirts? We eventually learn that genetically engineered males do exist but, like so many things, they aren't American made. We also learn that American defense contractors don't make genetically engineered boys for reasons that (when they are finally revealed) didn't strike me as convincing.

Silly as all this sounds, McCarthy at least builds some interest into the factory-made girls; they're programmed to fight and die but they retain most human instincts (including, of course, the desire to kiss Wendell). Although the Genetics are trained to believe in "death and faith" and are designed to rot away after they turn eighteen (a less appealing fate than the glorious death in combat they are conditioned to crave), Wendell finds that he prefers them to human women, apparently because they are less complicated (a characteristic Wendell identifies as "innocence"). Perhaps too predictably, Wendall develops feelings for a couple of Genetics (unlike the Marines, who seem to be creeped out by them). There are echoes of Blade Runner here, with its replicants who want to continue living past their expiration dates, but fortunately Germline follows a somewhat different path.

There's more to this novel than fighting, but war pervades the story. The combat imagery is vivid and intense, making Germline rich in atmosphere. Germline is nevertheless at its best when the spotlight moves from war to Wendell.

Wendell's self-destructive tendencies make him an intriguing character. He's often fighting his own demons: his fear, his occasional death wish, his desire to tune out the war in a haze of drugs, his need for attachment to a female even if she isn't a real person. Wendell experiences personal growth (or at least change, for better or worse) during the course of the novel. He has a better understanding of his nature and -- as he comes to understand a Genetic -- begins to question what it is to be human when thoughts and personality are shaped by war's dehumanizing experiences. The last chapter contains some surprisingly strong writing about the aftermath of war as Wendell, like every combat veteran, realizes that he can never be the person he was before the war, that he must adapt to a new way of living. This aspect of the novel is very well done.

Germline is the first book in a series called The Subterrene War. I hope the others are as strong as this one. If I could, I would give Germline 4 1/2 stars.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Book Review - The Subterrene War 01 - Germline by T. C. McCarthy July 28, 2011

By The Alternative VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

The Subterrene War 01 - Germline
T. C. McCarthy
Orbit Books
373 pages
Publication date: August 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-12818-6

Germline, the first installment of The Subterrene War, by T. C. McCarthy is a cautionary urban-warfare epic of enormous scope. Take the HBO series Generation Kill, the blockbuster movie The Terminator, all of World War I & II, and the novel Embedded and blend them together with bio-cyberpunk-genetics, trench/tunnel warfare, and enhanced, futuristic weaponry and you have Science Fiction written for a new generation. In the very near future rare and precious metals are so expensive, so integral to technology, and so isolated by location that they are worth going to war over. In a world running low on natural resources and torn by conflict an embedded journalist from the Stars and Stripes, with heady dreams of winning the Pulitzer Prize, learns first-hand the brutality of war when he's picked to accompany a military unit to the front lines. Once there he discovers that the war is being fought not only by normal soldiers but by genetically enhanced teen-age girls wearing smart armor and carrying weapons of beautiful design and incredible stopping power. Forced by circumstance to pick up a flechette rifle he transforms from an impartial observer to an unwilling combatant in a matter of seconds. And he knows instantly that no one will come out of this war unaffected by the death and devastation they're about to experience.

Oscar Wendall, an embedded journalist with hopes that this assignment will propel him to prominence, becomes a combatant when a shortage of soldiers in the moments before an eminent attack leaves him no choice but to pick up a weapon and fight. But Oscar is having trouble writing about the war and his dream seems to be falling further and further from his grasp. The death, destruction, and overabundance of drugs he's ingested won't allow him the peace to write his masterpiece, either. In the process, Oscar is transformed from a journalist into a full-fledged civilian soldier with all the stigma that entails. At one point in the book I observed to myself that Oscar was just too damn lucky. Nobody goes through as many battles without suffering a wound as he does. (In reality many soldiers do make it through war without injury but at the time Oscar's luck appeared almost too uncanny to be real.) He's the only survivor of at least two battles and suffers no wounds during many fire-fights. But he does carry a lot of mental and emotional (even drug-related) baggage. Hell, he should have been admitted to the hospital a dozen times over. And then about three-fourths through the story Oscar is hit by plasma gas and suffers deep-tissue wounds to both legs. Fortunately, his friends are able to drag him from the front lines to a hospital. Fortunately, modern medicine has progressed enough that Oscar is able to recover from his wounds rather quickly. Unfortunately, the U.S. forces are almost surrounded by the enemy and Oscar still needs to track down the doppelganger of the genetically-engineered soldier he fell in love with on the front.

Germline is a war story, for certain, but not just any simple war story. It is a story of conflict over resources. It is a story of combat in the future and specifically of warfare between genetically enhanced super-warriors and normal soldiers. The war eventually lays waste to vast areas of the earth turning entire cities to scorched and burned ash. Overhead, droids drop shells filled with liquid plasma and below ground, tunnels (the subterrene) are injected with poisoned gas. Germline presents a solitary glimpse into an alternate future that is frighteningly realistic in scale. But, there is a universal theme here that pre-dates the earliest days of man and the first stone thrown in anger. This is a story of war and fear and mental illness and psychological stress and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and of drug abuse and addiction and the human condition. It is a cautionary tale of the frailty of life and it is nothing short of brilliant. McCarthy captures the emotions, complexities, and cold, hard realities of combat down in the trenches and gives the reader, though they may have never experienced war itself, an in-depth look at the harsh realities of taking life. Germline is an engaging, compelling, and quick read and I wholly recommend it to all fans of military Science Fiction, urban warfare, genetic manipulation, future combat, embedded journalism, and to those who simply wish to be entertained by an exceptional story.

4 ˝ stars out of 5

The Alternative
Southeast Wisconsin

The Subterrene War Series by T. C. McCarthy
The Subterrene War 01 - Germline (2011)
The Subterrene War 02 - Exogene (TBA)

Note: I've heard that the Subterrene War series will follow the lives of a different character in each book and the cover of the second installment seems to indicate that Exogene will include the story of one of the genetically enhanced female soldiers we first met in Germline. I look forward to keeping up with this intriguing and exciting series.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing! August 9, 2011

By J. A. Huss

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

First of all, it is not really fair to call the main character, Oscar, a reporter because even though the story begins that way, Oscar slips into the skin of a soldier with relative ease and remains that way indefinitely. This is not your typical military science fiction, not like Scalzi's Old Man's War, or David Gunn's Deaths Head (which I loved, but for reasons vastly different than this book) - this book is deep, and although it contains elements of the future, the carapace suits and plasma everything for instance, the fancy gadgets which many authors stick in gratuitously is withheld to a need to know basis. There is nothing worse than having an author ram their technology down your throat just to prove to you that they understand the science.

The best aspect of this story was Oscar's journey from drugged-out deadbeat to dead man walking. He is so unlikable and screwed up in the beginning he really has only two choices - live or die. He chooses life. I related to his indecision about leaving the war several times, but most of all when he was faced with either walking towards safety alone, or remaining in the fight with the Kid. You couldn't pay me a million bucks to make the freedom walk alone at that point either. I was with him 100%. Sometimes you know the enemy, and the enemy is you.

This is a fantastic character study of how thin the thread of sanity really is and an excellent read for all military SF lovers.