cover image NANO

NANO

John Robert Marlow, . . Forge, $24.95 (381pp) ISBN 978-0-7653-0129-1

Screenwriter Marlow's derivative, fast-paced debut, a near-future thriller, features the latest thing in tech menaces—nanotechnology. The assassination of billionaire Mitchell Swain, just as he's about to unveil microscopic robots that will solve all of humanity's problems, puts the inventor of Swain's revolution, the geeky John Marrek, in deadly peril. Agents of an evil U.S. government with their own nanobots try to stop Marrek from following through with Swain's program, but he finds supporters in a stereotypically beautiful female journalist, Jennifer Rayne, a virtuous president and an honest air force colonel. In chapter after cinematic chapter of dueling nanos, Marrek's disassembling nanobots wipe out whole teams of government hit men while the assembler bots cause redwoods to sprout in seconds to block pursuers. Along the way, Marrek delivers ethical and informational lectures to Jen, justifying high body counts and painting a nano-ified future in the brightest of colors as long as good guys like him are in control. Marrek and the government's nanos finally square off in the Bay Area, with the fate of the world at stake. If the politics or science were anything to take seriously, readers might have cause for alarm. As it is, the action is all that counts in this slick formula effort, which reads like a novelized screenplay. (Feb. 11)

Forecast: Backed by blurbs from Vernor Vinge and Steve Alten, this should attract some of the same audience that went for Michael Crichton's similarly themed 2002 thriller, Prey. Bookstore success could help speed the screenplay, already in the Hollywood option process, into production.