Germline
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4.2 • 36 Ratings
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
Germline (n.) the genetic material contained in a cellular lineage which can be passed to the next generation. Also: secret military program to develop genetically engineered super-soldiers (slang).
War is Oscar Wendell's ticket to greatness. A reporter for The Stars and Stripes, he has the only one way pass to the front lines of a brutal war over natural resources buried underneath the icy, mineral rich mountains of Kazakhstan.
But war is nothing like he expected. Heavily armored soldiers battle genetically engineered troops hundreds of meters below the surface. The genetics-the germline soldiers-are the key to winning this war, but some inventions can't be un-done. Some technologies can't be put back in the box.
Kaz will change everything, not least Oscar himself. Hooked on a dangerous cocktail of adrenaline and drugs, Oscar doesn't find the war, the war finds him.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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 clich and raises intriguing questions about what it means to be human.
Customer Reviews
Amazing.
Better than Starship Troopers. Better than Old Man's War. Better than Armor. Better than The Forever War.
This is the single most outstanding military SF that currently exists. The author captures the horror and the thrill of war without the unnecessary romance given to it by pop culture. This book is as dirty and as real as it gets.
A rare find!
It's rare for me to come across a very good sci-fi book these days and this one is very original and does a great job of delivering the goods. The protagonist is a flawed man and so is everyone else around him. Each has their good/bad sides. But I think that is what makes this book so believable. The book also paints a real unglorified picture of warfare; bloody, messy, depressing, and exhausting. The ending is a happy one.
Great read.
Enjoyed the Sci-Fi theme very much as well as the character development.