Book Review: Technogenesis

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Technogenesis     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Syne Mitchell
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction   High-Tech
Roc, Jan 2002, $6.99, 336 pp.

In the not too distant future, most of humanity is hooked up to the net, if not through a computer than through neural jewelry or special glasses. Most people stay on the net twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, conducting business and pleasurable pursuits and even virtually eat and sleep in cyberspace.

Jasmine Reese is one of the rare people that can find data anywhere on the net and is able to immerse herself in it so thoroughly that she becomes part of it. When her hook-up to the net is broken she sees things that make her wonder if the neural computers transmitted by the net are controlling her and everyone else linked to it. When a secret government agency kidnaps her and forces her to do what the net wants, she vows to regain her individuality by avoiding cyberspace and do whatever it takes to fight her new enemy's intelligence network.

Syne Mitchell has written an absorbing and creative science fiction tale that is fine entertainment for those fans that like a futuristic drama. TECHNOGENESIS addresses some interesting social issues, which are cleverly intertwined inside the story line but it is the characters that raise the quality level of this novel from a poor man's Matrix into a strong story. The protagonist is flawed and weak at times yet so heroic that she represents the finest qualities inherent in our species. On a scale from one to ten, this novel is an eleven.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner