This is Conviser’s second novel, a loose sequel to Echelon, and is very much in the same mold, though you don’t need to read the first one to get the second. This is less science fiction than it is futuristic thriller-it has far more in common with Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne novels than it does anything SF.

In the near distant future, Ryan Laing is a trained assassin and former secret agent-and is full of nanites, (called drones here) that render him nigh-invincible. He has to stop an international bioterrorist named Alfred Krueger, who has unleashed a deadly virus on the world, numbering his girlfriend Sarah, ex-secret agent and hacker extraordinaire among its victims, while foiling a world-wide conspiracy and sorting out his personal life into the bargain.

This is a good(ish) book, it’s a fast read, the plot moves, and the politics are plausible. As SF, it fails - Conviser clearly does not know how the science in his world works, nor is that important to him; which makes it hard to take him seriously. I know not all hard SF writers, or even most, are working scientists, but a little homework would be nice.

However, Conviser is a screenwriter by trade; most recently he worked on HBO’s Rome. But, the whole time I was reading it, I could see the studio pitch underlying it - made for Paul Greengrass, lots of action, good chase scenes, exotic locales, Brad Pitt and Scarlett Johansson’ll love it, etc. This has the potential to be a solid summer film in 2010.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced thriller with a futuristic bent, you could do worse, but I’d recommend Greg Bear’s Quantico, or the weather novels by Kim Stanley Robinson before I’d recommend this. – Nadine Armstrong