Series: Macmillan New Writing | Publication Date: June 7, 2007
"You want to know who gave you your immortal soul? You want a personal relationship with God? Well, we found God. We're all up in God. We've got God's private number. And so do you: imprinted a hundred trillion times - once in every living cell in your big dripping corpus."
So says a woman with a pole-axe pressed to her neck, and the solution to the entire mystery of human existence clutched between her palms.
Two weeks earlier, she was just your average British expat with a PhD, working in Silicon Valley as an artificial intelligence designer for ultra-violent video games, spending the evenings hanging out with her pet chimp - and wondering how something as weird as human consciousness could have evolved through mere Darwinian selection.
But when a mysterious and disconcertingly attractive behavioral geneticist, and a hotshot cryptologist with strange religious affiliations, stroll into her life, she begins looking for answers in the backwaters of the human genome - the 97% written off by scientists as "junk DNA".
And soon after, when men in very strange hats come looking for her hard drive, shooting first and never really asking any questions, she finds herself on the run - pursued by multiple squads of heavily-armed religious zealots, the Feds, and worse. All seek to obtain, or to suppress forever, the key to the revelatory stretch of DNA known as The Pandora Sequence. The outcome of their race to control this explosive secret will forever alter how humanity regards itself - that is, if anyone lives long enough to tell the tale.
"Once the guns come out, it switches gear into a dream-like actioner where characters discuss favourite automatic rifles, perform startling feats of derring-do, and bust caps in various asses. Definitely worth a look." - This Writing Life
"The story, which revolves around a message encoded in our junk DNA, is told by Kate, a Ducati-riding programmer of ultra-violent video games. If that's not enough of a turn-on for you, she fires guns with both hands." - New Scientist
From the Back Cover
‘You want to know who gave you your immortal soul? You want a personal relationship with God? Well, we’re all up on God. We’ve got God’s private number. And so do you: imprinted a hundred trillion times – once in every living cell in your big dripping corpus.’
Michael Stephen Fuchs is the author of the novels THE MANUSCRIPT and PANDORA'S SISTERS, both published worldwide by Macmillan; the short story collection DON'T SHOOT ME IN THE A**, AND OTHER STORIES; and the forthcoming high-concept special forces military techno-actioner D-BOYS. Fuchs lives in London and at www.michaelfuchs.org. He is represented by Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media in New York.
This review is from: Pandora's Sisters (Macmillan New Writing) (Hardcover)
As exciting and engaging as the author's debut techno-thriller, and again chock-full of high-concept philosophical ideas -- this time, speculations about evolutionary psychology and the functions of silent DNA.
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Another thought-provoking novel by Fuchs hits the streets, and once again I am well pleased with the work and writing style of this author. This second book sees a somewhat different writing style, showing that this author has the talent to do more than just churn out the same old thing, like some others do.
Pandoras Sisters engages the mind, often forcing you to stop and evaluate life the universe and everything (as they say). Rich in philosophic thoughts, set in a funny and fast paced technical new age, this book begs to be read in one sitting. Authors like Fuchs are the answer to the 30ish's questions about life and the meaning we constantly search for. He knows how to address his audience.
The author's websites link to rumors that there are future books in the works, and he is rapidly becoming one of my favourites. Another great find in the reading world, one that I highly recommend.
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