SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: Intrusion - Ken MacLeod

Release Date: 01/03/12

SYNOPSIS:

Imagine a near-future city, say London, where medical science has advanced beyond our own and a single-dose pill has been developed that, taken when pregnant, eradicates many common genetic defects from an unborn child. Hope Morrison, mother of a hyperactive four-year-old, is expecting her second child. She refuses to take The Fix, as the pill is known. This divides her family and friends and puts her and her husband in danger of imprisonment or worse. Is her decision a private matter of individual choice, or is it tantamount to willful neglect of her unborn child? A plausible and original novel with sinister echoes of 1984 and Brave New World.


REVIEW:

Ken MacLeod is one of those authors that really hits the reader where it hurts within his writing, taking a futuristic world and asking questions that many readers would find not only uncomfortable but are fascinated to hear the answers. His writing is wonderful descriptive, takes the reader on a journey and by the novels completion always gives them something unique to look back upon from the pages that they’ve read. It’s one of the reason’s that he is one of my favourite Science Fiction Authors and of course this book is no different.

Within the pages, the quandary posed is one of whether its right to trust wholeheartedly without questioning what’s going on around you as well as remembering that if something sounds too good to be true, the chances are it is. Bring into this political machinations, religious debate and of course Ken’s own slant of the future which overall generates a lively book for debate. Its thought provoking, it has some wonderful turns of phrase and when you add the authors own identifiable writing style alongside solid pace and prose, you know it’s a book that really will satisfy that Science need within you.

All in a great sense of exploration as well as a journey travelled and definitely a book I’ll be recommending to others. Thanks Ken.