Slatewiper (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "TYPHOONS CLOUDS CHURNED ACROSS TOKYO'S SEPTEMBER SKIES..." (more)
Key Phrases: medical atrocities, nav station, Tagcat Too, Daiwa Ichiban, Lara Blackwood (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Humanity's very existence is at stake in this latest hair-raiser by Perdue (Daughter of God), a no-holds-barred biogenetic thriller. Lara Blackwood, founder of GenIntron, a company devoted to gene manipulation as a method of fighting genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs and sickle-cell anemia, is a tough hybrid of brilliant scientist, beauty and fighter. As the novel begins, GenIntron has been forced into economic difficulty and bought by the internationally powerful Japanese Daiwa Ichiban Corporation and its racist head, Tokutaro Kurata. In his first move, Kurata perverts Blackwood's work by creating a new genetic weapon, graphically named Slatewiper, with which he intends to rid Tokyo of its hated Korean immigrants. Thousands of dead Koreans fill the streets, and puzzled doctors postulate a new and unknown disease. Kurata dreams of reviving Japanese militarism, refusing to acknowledge defeat in WWII and denying the horrifying Japanese atrocities of that war and earlier Asian wars. He plans to sell the deadly gene to nations wishing to eliminate their own minorities, or for use against enemies, while plotting to promote Japanese superiority and racial purity. Aiding Kurata is Blackwood's nemesis, Sheila Gaillard, as beautiful and brilliant as Blackwood and altogether deadly, and Kurata's nephew and heir, American-taught Akira Sugawara, loyal but finally driven to rebellion by the horrors he witnesses. Perdue never strays far from form-garish violence, one-dimensional characters, mechanical climax-but in the light of current medical epidemics, this is a timely offering.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In Tokyo, a particularly violent and deadly plague has broken out. Inexplicably, it seems as if the virus only uses Koreans as its carrier. Enter Lara Blackwood, a genetic engineer recruited to fight this virus that somehow piggybacks itself on people with specific genetic characteristics. Ejected from her own company, Lara sees in this investigation her chance to get herself back in the research game, but she doesn't count on uncovering a genetic weapon of unimaginable power, a weapon that appears to have its origins in her own work. Like the high-tech medical thrillers of Michael Crichton, this novel deftly combines hard science and narrative panache. Perdue has crafted a story that grips the reader's imagination: Can this be real? Is it possible for such a weapon to exist? Remarkably, Perdue unflinchingly treads on Crichton's turf but emerges with a novel that feels fresh and original. A must for medical-thriller devotees. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765301113
• ISBN-13: 978-0765301116
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,440,802 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wipe the slate clean on this one, November 17, 2004

By	abt1950 "abt1950" (usa) - See all my reviews

Usually I'm a sucker for novels that combine cutting edge science with doomsday scenarios and conspiracy theories. They make perfect reads for the beach or for long winter days spent sick in bed with a cold. With a plot that sounds like something out of tomorrow's headlines, Slatewiper looked like it would fit that bill perfectly. It's got genetic engineering, conspiracy theory, racial and ethnic hatreds, and a doomsday scenario realistic enough to give one nightmares. With all this going for it, "Slatewiper" should be a dynamite read. Unfortunately, it falls far short.

So what went wrong with the book? First of all, the charaacters are weak. The main character, Dr. Lara Blackwood, is just too good to be true. Beautiful (of course) and a brilliant scientist-entrepreneur, she's also an Olympic sailor. When I read the book, I kept picturing Laura Croft, although she doesn't fit Blackwood's physical description. The villain, a fanatic Japanese neonational businessman, is equally stereotyped in his racism, ethnocentrism, and general evilness. His heir, a brilliant computer security specialist, is conflicted over his loyalty to his family (including his uncle's extreme view of Japanese racial superiority) and his horror at his uncle's plans. And then there are the sleazy scientist and his business partner, both willing to sell anyone or anything down the river to further their own ambitions. Other characters are brought at the drop of a hat and equally quickly removed. Toward the end of the story, each new character starts looking increasingly like a proverbial deus ex machina, appearing conveniently just when needed. None of these problems would be fatal, however, if the plot didn't suffer too many holes to carry the weight of the wooden characters.

It's unfortunate, because Perdue does have a point to make in "Slatewiper"-actually several points, all of them worth making. The first is the abysmal history of atrocities committed by the Japanese during World War II, for which, he and others have contended they were given what amounts to a "get out of jail free" card. Unrepenent ultranationalist and ultraright wing movements do exist in Japan today, but Perdue takes their existence and exaggerates them to horrendous proportions. He's using them to make a specific point about racial hatred and its futility in light of modern genetics. However, he depicts them as being so deeply and insidiously entrenched in positions of power, that it feels like overkill. At times I wondered if Perdue might be working out personal grudges here as well as making fiction. Nonetheless, many of the most effective scenes in the book were descriptions of traditional Japanese culture.

Perdue's second point, namely the stupidity of racial and ethnic hatreds and the essential genetic unity of the human species, is even more important. Unfortunately, he doesn't handle it as well. Much of the plot turns on the ability of modern genetics to discern genes that separate one ethnic group from another and to target genetic bombs to attack specific groups. Here, his science (or at least his presentation of it) is muddled. Yes, there are genetic differences between groups and some genes are more common in one group than another, but it's extremely unlikely that geneticists will ever find a way of identifying genetic boundaries between groups. We're just too much alike as a species and there's been too much interbreeding throughout history (and prehistory) to be able to make hard and fast distinctions. Race remains important, but largely for cultural rather than biological reasons. I think Perdue knows this (at least judging from his treatment of Arabs and Jews), but he leaves it unstated so as not to undermine the device upon which his plot rests. Overall, his explanation of the underlying genetic theory underlying the plot is brief. It's adequate, but barely. I wish that he had expanded it to something more than a two page summary near the beginning of the book. Better presentation of the science would have made for a more credible plot.

"Slatewiper" is an attempt to warn readers about the dangers of genetically-engineered bioterrorism. To some extent it's successful. Unfortunately, the failures of the novel undermine the points Perdue wants to make. "Slatewiper" is an ok book, but it's not the wake-up call Perdue would like it to be.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting, plausible perhaps even today, July 2, 2003

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Perhaps the only female superstar in the molecular genetics world, CEO Lara Blackwood runs GenIntron, a bioengineering lab, a firm developing cures or treatments for diseases using synthetic genes made from DNA. Lara feels good about her work and even serves as an advisor to the president. However, her perfect world crumbles when GenIntron's new parent company board fires her and Tokyo is devastated by a deadly disease that uses a person's DNA to kill he or she.

SLATEWIPER contains a synthetic gene similar to Lara's work that destroys people from within by converting them into slime. The Korean population residing in Tokyo is being eradicated as a genocide conspiracy of biblical proportion is happening. Lara is the only hope to stop Tokutaru Kurata from ethnic cleansing that will leave Japan for the Japanese. The quest becomes even more personal when Laura finds out that a hitwoman is killing off Lara's scientific associates.

Exciting, plausible perhaps even today, SLATEWIPER is a superb thriller starring a strong woman who, except for the macho male muffins, readers will appreciate. The story line is action packed yet the author makes sure the scientific basis for the theme is presented, easily understood in spite of the complexity of the topic, yet interwoven into the plot so nothing slows it down. Fans of scientific based thrillers will quickly realize that this book is worth setting aside several because once you start, you are hooked at a microbiological brain level to finish it in one sitting.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chilling, really moves fast., January 29, 2005

By	Cornelia Casey (Reston, VA) - See all my reviews

Slatewiper is a chilling tale, especially the parts that seem to have come true since Perdue's writing of it. The Red Cross, Brotish Medical Association and others are now warning about the sort of race weapon in Slatewiper. I particularly liked the Heroine and how she struggled with her body image even after success in athletics and being an entrepreneur. She is not beautiful in a typical sense, but has a womanly beauty that appeals to me.

I think a strong woman like Kate Blackwood frightens men. I like that too,

The writing in this book is superb and the tension and action make it a top action thriller.