Scott Mackay, Omnifix

Omnifix

Scott Mackey

Roc, Feb 2004, $6.99, 416 pp.

ISBN 0451459601

It is the twenty fourth century and obviously Earth is nothing like we know it. It is made up of five city-states (Hawaiir is succeeding) and our once great country is a shell of its former self. Ten years ago, aliens from another galaxy launched Alien Weapons Platforms (AWPs) that released nanogens sixteen and seventeen on an unsuspecting populace. Number sixteen affected the children changing their DNA so they died at the age of thirty and number seventeen melted body tissues that to survive, humans were turned into cyborgs, fighting machines that frightened the normals.

Dr. Alex Denyer is a scientist who knows more about alien technology than anyone else does. His son Daryl is a sixteen and he is working frantically to find a cure for him and others that are infected. A new AWP is traveling to Earth, this one bigger and more lethal than its predecessors. Alex and his team are sent up in space to find a way to divert the weapon away from Earth. While he works on solving that problem, nanogen seventeen infects him; he becomes a cyborg, one that the government still has a use for.

OMNIFIX is one of the best science fiction discoveries of the year as the plot is innovative and action packed and stars characters that readers will care about and hope they regain humanity lost. Alex is a true patriot who cares about curing what the aliens did to mankind. Adding to the feel of overwhelming odds is the ominously and sinisterly aliens never seen since they self terminated. Renowned mystery writer Scott Mackey proves he is an excellent science fiction author too.

Harriet Klausner