Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston Invasive Procedures

Invasive Procedures

Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston

Tor, Sep 2007, $ 25.95

ISBN: 9780765314246

George Galen is the leading geneticist in the world. However, the brilliant research scientist has no ethics except his own. Thus disgraced for crossing lines, his work healing diseases through fixing DNA via a virus V-16 has proven successful when customized to the individual; when not properly adapted tragedy occurs. Galen also has tinkered with his patients' DNA to improve their healing capacity and to turn them into stronger and faster humans. Finally he also has insured this revised super model Healer obeys his command.

To make his work pragmatic Galen needs the cooperation of a super thoracic surgeon. He targets highly regarded Dr. Monica Owens because she is easily vulnerable. He abducts her weakness, her six-year-old son, Wyatt. If she wants Wyatt kept alive, Monica will do Galen's bidding. She accompanies the insane Galen to an abandoned nursing home where he has a living lab of involuntary human guinea pigs for Monica to alter their DNA. Federal Biohazard Agency virologist Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hartman has found the antidote to Galen's DNA altering virus. The mad scientist plans to neutralize the threat by capturing and changing Hartman's DNA to make him less brilliant and more willing to cooperate.

INVASIVE PROCEDURES is an interesting action-packed medical thriller that grips the audience from the moment readers meet egomaniacal Galen who blames government interference for his failures and his intelligence for his successes (classic conservative). The story line is fast-paced and fun to read although there are no twists as fans will know from the onset the end game. Still the cast is strong and the ethical questions raised on where to draw the ethical boundary on research and what is the government's role seems relevant with current debates over ideology twisting/ignoring the pertinent facts.

Harriet Klausner