Summary:
New York City, 2023: Rising seas and superstorms have ravaged the land. Food and electricity are scarce. A dangerous Washington regime has terrorized the city, forcing the most vulnerable and defenseless people into the flood-ravaged neighborhoods. The new laws are enforced by an army of genetically enhanced soldiers, designed to be the fiercest and cruelest of killers. Genetic scientist Dr. Jenna Khan knows too much about how these super-soldiers were engineered: by altering the DNA sequence in ways that could change the fabric of humanity.
Escaping arrest and on the run, Jenna joins forces with a genetically enhanced soldier gone rogue and a Brooklyn gang kingpin to resist the government’s plan to manipulate the DNA of all Americans. The race is on to stop the evil experiment before it spreads the genetic changes…and transforms the human species forever.
Publication Date: 2019
Category: science thriller novel; political thriller; dystopian
ScienceThrillers technical content rating: 
ScienceThrillers.com book review of The Coming Storm :
I’ve been a Mark Alpert fan for years because of the cutting-edge science and technology he puts at the heart of his page-turning thriller novels. While there has often been a tinge of social and political commentary in his books, in THE COMING STORM Alpert goes all-in with a political backdrop, fusing a disturbing near-future US government and a nefarious science-based plot by that government to wield its power.
THE COMING STORM begins with a frighteningly realistic, and emotionally intense, opening scene of an overreaching and brutal new federal domestic police/military force invading the home of our protagonist, Pakistani-American scientist Jenna Khan. The action never lets up after that, with Jenna moving around a New York that is partitioned into zones, under assault from the weather and eventually from the government itself.
I imagine when Alpert was plotting the science for this book, he didn’t forsee how quickly that science would become real. Gene editing technology using CRISPR is central to this story–and just weeks ago in real life, a rogue Chinese scientist apparently performed CRISPR editing on human subjects. I’m sure he’s praying that his extrapolation of certain current trends in politics do not come true quite so readily.
Despicable villains and admirable heroes populate this story. You’ll be rooting for a brave reporter and pretty much the entire NYPD, and anticipating a sticky end for a few other folks. Alpert delivers a couple of major surprises in the plot which are, well, surprising and definitely keep you reading and guessing how it will all turn out. Fans of Alpert’s work will notice some spillover from themes in his young adult series that begins with THE SIX. Maybe there’s even some Easter eggs in there–I didn’t notice.
A gripping novel with a frightening vision of the misuse of power, prejudice, and biotechnology, THE COMING STORM is the first must-read science thriller of 2019.
ScienceThrillers.com received an advance reader copy from the publisher.
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