Daemon by Daniel Suarez was a book that made me remember that sci-fi was a thing that I enjoyed.
It was a gripping thriller with assured tech credentials. Published in 2006, it was also prescient in it’s depiction of modern-day cyber threats.
Looking for an audiobook on Libby, I stumbled on Change Agent and the bioengineering angle piqued my interest. Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood was a rewarding read in this area for me.
After a bold start I was hoping it might match the heights of Daemon but the book slips into hackneyed “wanted suspect” crime novel territory with trite plot devices and repetitive internal dialogue.
Other sci-fi authors like Gibson and Miéville will occasionally test my patience with their stream of undefined concepts that must be cracked like contextual riddles.
Change Agent goes too far in the other direction.
Every little bit of unfamiliar technology, however slight, is explained at length. This has the effect of wringing out all the joy of exploring futuristic ideas, however dystopic.
I gave up at 56% and have wired up my reviews to accept a D.N.F.[1] rating. There’s no need to feel obliged to complete books I’m not enjoying.
Did Not Finish ↩︎