Five Tribes
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Countdown to Doomsday
The year is 2026. The US military has a new weapon in its arsenal: an intelligent life-form so versatile that it can not only create a new generation of weapons but can become a weapon itself—entering a host’s body to manipulate (or kill) them. Admiral James Curtiss is tasked with deploying the new weapons, first in Cuba, then Venezuela, then China. But the news of the military’s breakthrough has gotten out and there are menacing forces trying to steal it.
What’s more, a single man has somehow harnessed the new power and has become something more than human—godlike and seemingly indestructible. He is known only as the Inventor, and he has a warning for humanity: abandon the new technology or the human race will face extinction. It’s a countdown to doomsday. But humanity’s final fate may be decided in the most unlikely of places: among the primitive tribes of the Kalahari Desert where a top secret military mission has just taken an unexpected turn.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 2026, a global democratic wave has radically reshaped the fate of millions, particularly in such developing countries as Cuba and Venezuela, in Nelson's workmanlike sequel to 2018's The Last Sword Maker. The "revolutionary transformation" of the geopolitical landscape is the work of American Vice Adm. James Curtiss, who has harnessed tools that merge "genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology" to produce living tech capable of evolving. The tech's applications include advanced armor and camouflage for American aircraft, which participate in a mission to rescue Xiao-ping, a Chinese human rights lawyer imprisoned in a brutal work camp in Namibia. The team includes one of Curtiss's most valuable assets, Eric Hill, whose mastery of the new science is unparalleled. Unexpected developments place Hill's life in danger, and shift the focus from Curtiss's machinations to a desperate struggle for survival. Stock characters and a standard thriller plot don't do justice to the imagined political future. Readers looking for techno-thrillers whose execution match their ambition will be better served by Mark Alpert.
