Review by Booklist Review
In the near future, billionaires call the shots and the Splinter divides people into two distinct allegiances, either to humanity first or to all species. Lion Zorn is a former journalist whose article about a drug called Sietch Tabr started the Splinter, with the slogan "Empathy for All." As a teenager, he underwent an emotionally charged incident that incited a mutation in his body to give him an expanded sense of empathy. Sietch Tabr took his empathic capacity to another, cross-species level. Zorn has been in hiding, but fellow em-trackers have asked him about a new drug called Evo, saying it is the Next Step. His search turns out to be a trap that places him in the middle of a war between two billionaires with different ideas of human progress. From webbed tent colonies strung from the Space Needle to vast underground habitats below the ski resorts of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, this joyride never loses steam, ending beneath the subways of Manhattan with flying snakes and peace-loving hyenas. Taking a break from writing best-selling books on the neuroscience of flow (The Art of Impossible, 2021), Kotler puts together a top-notch cyberpunk novel with authority and flair.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Kotler's earnest hero Lion Zorn gets back to work (after 2019's Last Tango in Cyberspace) in this action-packed but moralizing techno thriller in which billionaires fight to control the fate of the global ecosystem. Lion, an "empathy tracker" whose sensitivity to individual and social emotions makes him a valuable marketeering tool, is on the trail of two colleagues who vanished after telling him of a new empathy drug, Evo. The case leads Lion into the feud between Sir Richard (his former boss) and a charismatic self-help guru, Chang Zee. Both wealthy men have visions of remaking the world: Sir Richard with a series of restored wilderness "mega-linkages," Zee by reengineering humanity from the genes up. As more people go missing, Lion has to penetrate Sir Richard's project and piece together his past connections to Zee to solve the case. Kotler tends to lecture but never quite forgets to keep the plot boiling, whether Lion is dangling over the streets of Seattle or slaloming off cliffs in search of killer flying snakes. Readers with a fondness for nature will appreciate Lion and the sincerity of his quest. Agent: Paul Bresnick, Bresnick Weil Literary. (Nov.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
This fast-moving SF thriller--a follow-up to Last Tango in Cyberspace (2019)--pops with weirdness and imagination. In the near future, society sees a clash between two camps: Humans First and Empathy for All. A human named Lion is an em-tracker, meaning he can empathize with the entire animal kingdom and emit pheromones that permit all species of animals to do the same. Because of a project called the Devil's Dictionary, "em-trackers feel for all people, of course, but they also feel for plants, animals, and ecosystems." The em-trackers compare those believing in human dominance to the White supremacists who spout "Redneck cracker Nazi bullshit." Those benighted folk are influenced by an evil project called Pandora II. Not surprisingly, drugs play a big role in em-tracking. For example, there is Evo, which makes you trip evolution, allowing you to groove with every species that has ever existed. The Devil's Dictionary is "an AI-version of the DNA typewriter," meaning humans can change animals' nature. Thus lions and tigers and bears snarf up their veggies and cuddle with bunnies. Tigers eat grass. Snakes fly, and so do Ubers. A woman is fluent in seven bird languages. Humans can satisfy their carnivorous cravings by eating cultured beef grown from stem cells. There are robo-catfish and psychotic polar bear robots that wouldn't hurt a fly. But not everything goes as expected; for example, imperfectly engineered snakes grow old, die, and rot after they've barely hatched. The descriptions rival what you'll find in Coleridge's Xanadu or Herbert's Dune. A dude nicknamed Five Spikes has spiked hair dyed Chernobyl yellow. And try to picture hair that looks like nuclear waste. Special bacteria grow snowflakes the size of quarters. Aside from being funny, the book raises interesting questions. How far should we take genetic engineering? What will we humans be able to do someday, and should we do it? Should we tinker with life itself just because we can? It's an engrossing story that will make you both laugh and think. A richly lunatic tale of the future. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
