Description:

Virgil Copeland, Randall Panwar, and Gabrielle Villanti are all brilliant young biotechnologists, working together on an artificial life-form affectionately known as "LOVs," an acronym for Limit Of Vision, because in size LOVs are just at the boundary of what the human eye can easily see. LOVs contain bioengineered human neurons. They enhance brain function when implanted in test animals. Experimentation on humans is, of course, highly illegal. But it's the nature of brilliant and ambitious young minds to ignore the rules. Believing the LOVs to be perfectly safe, Virgil, Panwar, and Gabrielle experiment on themselves, using implanted LOVs to enhance their own cognitive abilities. But there is a limit of vision, too, when we try to foresee the consequences of technology--especially of a living, thinking technology that can evolve into new forms in a matter of hours. When the experiment goes terribly wrong, the consequences are bizarre and unforeseeable. Virgil finds himself on the run, riding the whirlwind of a runaway biotechnology that could lead to the next phase of human evolution. ** ### From Publishers Weekly With this compelling biotech thriller, Nagata, who was trained as a zoologist, shifts from the far future of her trilogy--The Bohr Maker, Deception Well and Vast--to a scientific revolution even now a-brewing: nanotechnology, the creation of microscopic organisms that can penetrate the inner workings of complex beings like man, curing illnesses, correcting genetic flaws, even, as here, evolving its hosts into utterly different forms of life. Virgil Copeland, sole survivor of three idealistic young biologists who willingly became hosts for "LOVs," an experimental type of intelligent, emotion-enhancing nanoorganism, causes the escape of a colony of other, constantly mutating LOVs into the torrid Mekong Delta of a brutally overpopulated Vietnam. There a strange cult of throwaway Asian children joins Virgil and Eurasian journalist Ela Suvanatat to preserve the LOVs from Daniel Simkin, the nefarious director of the International Biotechnology Commission, who pretends to protect Earth from the LOVs while ruthlessly pursuing them for the wealth and power they could bring him. Nagata enlivens this extended chase through the steamy murk of Mekong swamps and the monsoons of the southeast Pacific with fascinating biotech hardware and gadgetry as well as clever extrapolations into nanotech potential. She constantly reinforces her theme that "the only way out is forward" at the risk of making her characters occasionally preachy and two-dimensional, but that's a small price to pay for an idea-provoking narrative that is genuinely innovative in conception. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. ### From Library Journal The death of a young researcher exposes a conspiracy involving an illegal experimentation in sentient nanotech lifeforms, forcing co-conspirator Virgil Copeland to flee for his life. His encounter with a reporter investigating a youth cult in the Mekong Delta offers him a chance to preserve his discovery while avoiding the ruthless powers that wish to control the next phase in evolution. Nagata (Vast) blends hard science with cutting-edge technology in a fast-paced technothriller that is recommended for most sf collections. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.