Work Title: Blue War
Work Author(s): Jeffrey Thomas
Solaris Books
512 pages, Softcover $7.99
Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781844165322
Reviewer: Marlene Satter
Biotechnology has run amok, and cloned human remains have been found in an otherwise empty city. An uneasy political situation threatens to erupt into violence, perhaps even another war, over a precious source of fuel. Over all this conflict is spread a mantle of government corruption and deceit---disaster on a hair trigger. But the action is taking place in another dimension, on the planet Sinan, and the empty city is growing at an incredible rate, devouring forests, graves, and anything else that gets in its path. Enter Jeremy Stake, former soldier and veteran of the Blue War, now a private investigator. Stake, a mutant, can mimic the appearance of those around him. It's not a skill he wants, but one he's learned to deal with---and it's proven useful during deep penetration deployments in the war. Now a former comrade risen to captain wants him to use that skill and his other talents to investigate the spread of Bluetown, as it's called. A biotech firm has been building villages for the Jin Haa, one of the races on Sinan, but the smart matter that actually grows the villages has somehow become programmed, or infected, to run rampant. What was supposed to be just another village has taken off like wildfire. If it's...