Germline

Starred review from April 18, 2011
McCarthy's compelling debut introduces Oscar "Scout" Wendell, a journalist and self-destructive adrenaline junkie who embeds with the Marines when Russia and the United States go to war over rich mineral deposits discovered in Kazakhstan. Plunged into a nightmarish world of subterranean combat and random death, Scout feels his identity slipping away as he and his fellows are reduced to faceless cogs in an infernal war machine. He finds an unexpected emotional anchor in Sophie, a genetically engineered super-soldier. Though Sophie soon begins to deteriorate, their romance never turns either mawkish or faux tragic. McCarthy, a geologist and former CIA analyst, crafts a portrait of the effects of battlefield stress that is difficult to bear but impossible to put down. Recalling the work of Remarque, Willi Heinrich, and especially Michael Herr, McCarthy's delirious narrative avoids cliché and raises intriguing questions about what it means to be human.

May 15, 2011

Assigned to Baker Company, Second Battalion, and stationed in the resource-rich mines of Kazakhstan, Stars and Stripes reporter Wendall Holmes covers the subterranean war being waged over the hidden wealth. Key to winning the war are the "germline" (genetically engineered) soldiers, whose modifications make them the ultimate killing machines. This debut novel by a former patent examiner in biotechnology delivers a rapid-fire military sf adventure that explores the relationship between the runaway development of technology and biotech and the long-term consequences that ensue. VERDICT Fans of military sf and science-based sf will enjoy the unusual setting and vivid battle descriptions.

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