White Devils (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Paul McAuley (Author) "Nicholas Hyde is working late and alone when Tremaine Thompson comes up the hill to ask his question..." (more)
Key Phrases: Cody Corbin, Nicholas Hyde, Tony Todd (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arthur C. Clarke Award-winner McAuley (Whole Wide World) delivers a grim and gruesome near-future thriller, in which a series of devastating plagues, some natural, some manmade, have spread across the earth. In Africa, where civil wars rage out of control and an enormous Dead Zone stretches across the continent, transnational corporations have taken over several nations, using them to conduct experiments in genetic engineering that are illegal elsewhere. Nicholas Hyde, part of a team sent to investigate a massacre, discovers that the dead have been horribly mauled, their skulls smashed and their brains removed. When gun-wielding primates the size of 10-year-old children with enormous claws and teeth-the white devils-attack the team, Hyde is one of the few survivors. On returning to what passes for civilization, he's appalled to learn that the powers-that-be refuse to believe his story, insisting that the hideous creatures were merely enemy soldiers in disguise. Obsessed with a need to speak for the dead, Nicholas, who has his own dark secret to hide, sets out to uncover the truth about the white devils. Though more complex than necessary, this novel serves as a powerful warning about the sinister possibilities inherent in genetic engineering. FYI: McAuley has also won the Philip K. Dick and John W. Campbell awards.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

With its mantra against genetic engineering, White Devils raises natural comparisons to the works of Michael Crichton and, with its leap into Africa's modern heart of darkness, Joseph Conrad. Critics agree that McAuley, a British biologist-turned-award-winning SF writer, has written a minor thriller masterpiece. It's smart, appropriately sinister, and has a plot that "roars along like a bushfire, crackling with fast and brutal action" (Guardian). McAuley's message is clear--runaway genetic engineering leads to no good, not to mention plastic vegetation. His examination of biotechnology's implications complements other provoking themes, including lost childhood innocence and the ethics of military conflict. But McAuley's no alarmist. After reading this thriller, you'll see him as a realist.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction (April 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765346796
• ISBN-13: 978-0765346797
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,496,436 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good start; needed an editor., September 25, 2004

By	KatPanama "katpanama" (Readerville) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Devils (Hardcover)

Terrific proposition but flabbily executed. Genetically engineered proto apes and maybe more in Africa, the kind and the terrible. Good, solid characters but too much lard. Needed to be cut by a third; in otherwords, sorely needed a good editor. Although, you know, I'm not that fussy and kinda liked it. The writer's view of Africa 30 years or so down the pike is both plausible and convincing. Looking forward to McAuley's next.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad in a very Insulting way., November 26, 2006

By	Burrowing Owl "Speotyto cunicularia" (American Southwest Desert) - See all my reviews

From the first page this novel is utterly incomprehensible and unreadable... struggling through it was a chore, and the reader should not be required to do in her head that which the writer and editor should have done.

Even when the author is too ignorant and illiterate as to know better than to write in the present tense, the editor should have been smart enough to know better.

I suggest readers look for something else.

2.0 out of 5 stars Just not that readable, February 14, 2009

By	Glenn Martin "Never Read a Book Just Once" (ACT Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nicholas Hyde works and lives in a world where offshore cloning and hybrid technology are restricted to very few countries in the world. Working as humanitarian volunteer in the Congo Nicholas stumbles across a terrifying secret, a horror beyond imagination.

Well if the book was as interesting as the basic premise it might have read a little better, but I have to say I struggled with this one. Cliché personal sacrifice, all too convenient coincidental characters and a back-story which I had trouble swallowing.

I couldn't connect with our good mate Nicholas, couldn't of cared whether he lived or died. I found I started to guess what would be on the next page and often found no surprise when the guess was right.

If you're a mad, mad fan of future-genetic-technology-gone-wrong kind of stories then you might, just might get some legs out of it. For me I'm sorry to put the boot in with such a harsh review, but this is one book I won't read twice.