GeNeRation Blog Tour/ Review: GeNeRation by William Knight
The facts behind the fiction.
In 2001 scientists isolated the gene for regenerating damaged organs from the DNA of a South American flatworm. Within five years it had been spliced into the chromosomes of a rhesus monkey, transported through the cell walls by a retro-virus denuded of its own genetic material.
Attempting to regrow impaired or elderly tissues, a scientist will one day modify the DNA of human beings by injecting the gene-carrying virus. It is just a matter of time.
Before consenting to treatment, you may want to ask a simple question: could there be a situation in which you would want to die but were unable to do so?
Journalist Hendrix 'Aitch' Harrison links bodies stolen from a renowned forensic-research lab to an influential drug company.
Aided by Sarah Wallace, a determined and beguiling entomologist, he delves into a grisly world of clinical trials and a viral treatment beyond imagining.
But Aitch must battle more than his fear of technology to expose the macabre fate of the drugged victims donated to scientific research
(synopsis from GoodReads)
Before I get into my normal gushing, only because I've yet to read a book lately that disappoints me, let me say that the critic who claimed that Generation was X-Files mixed with Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was spot on!
Generation follows Hendrix Harrison a journalist for a magazine by the name of "Strange Phenomena", which is kind of like those weird tabloids about seeing alien babies and wolf people (my favorite waiting in grocery line reads).
After a few awful assignments (i.e. THE ASHBURN WOLF! = big dog) Hendrix is assigned to go to Northern England to report on a ghost sighting. When he gets there he stumbles upon something even bigger than just a stupid ghost story.
It turns out this place, Mendel Pharmesudicals, is keeping an eye on the disappearing of corpses at the local forensics university. So much better than a ghost hunt, huh?!
I loved this book. Crime thrillers are a genre that I'm now finding a strong love for and I put Knight's wonderful book right up there with my favorites.
Speaking of favorites, the way Knight interjects case files of the people into the story was awesome! I love it when authors do this. Gives it a whole other level to the story.
Novel Publicity Blog Tour Notes:
Get Generation on Amazon or Barnes & Noble – you know you want to! And please vote for my blog in the traffic-breaker poll for this tour. The blogger with the most votes wins a $50 Amazon gift card. I want that to be me! You can vote in the poll by visiting the official Generation blog tour page and scrolling all the way to the bottom.
Be sure to enter for your chance to win an autographed copy of Generation : ENTER HERE.
William Knight is a British born journalist and technologist currently living and working in Wellington, New Zealand. He's chased a varying career starting in acting, progressing to music, enjoyed a brief flirtation with handbag manufacturing and was eventually wired into technology where he's been since 1989. In 2003 he published his first feature in Computing magazine and has since written about the many successes and failings of high-tech for the Guardian, Financial Times and the BBC among many others publications. He continues to maintain a lively IT consultancy. Connect with William on his website, blog, Facebook, Twitter or GoodReads.
About the Author
2 comments
Awesome review, Lydia. I'm so glad you enjoyed Generation. Man, your reading tastes are eclectic! I'm also a sucker for case notes when done well--too many authors use them unnecessarily, but they worked in Generation! When you have a moment, would you kindly cross-post your review to Amazon and GoodReads?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for being a part of this tour,
Emlyn :-D
I really liked the idea of the case files too! They added so much character to the story. Ritesh Kala from http://riteshkala.wordpress.com/ here! I too have reviewed the book recently, and I totally agree with some of the points you make.
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