White Devils

An ex-soldier and researcher decides to go to Africa to help out with the identification of bodies in a massacre. This is is a near future world where a billion people have died in a plague - and more in the unrest that followed. While there, his group is attacked by what seem to be some sort of ape-people. Genetic engineering technology is common, and he decides to track down who is responsible for this. This means a lot of running around Africa and not very pleasant encounters with rogue scientists, mercenaries, military scuzzbuckets and more. Definitely on the technothriller side of things which I like now and again, and if they come with a fair chunk of SF, even better. 3.5 out of 5

This was my first Paul McAuley novel, but certainly won't be my last. I just flat-out loved this book! I made the mistake of starting it over Thanksgiving, and ticked my family off because I kept abandoning them every chance I got to go read more of this great story. I was initially intrigued by the science, but really got hooked on the characters and was anxious to see how the tale played out for each of them. McAuley does an excellent job of letting the reader inside their heads, and made me *care* about how their intertwining issues were resolved. The action and suspense are taut from the very beginning and never let up - I did not find any part of the more than 500-page tale to be boring or unnecessary, and would have gladly read more had the author written it. I'll have to satisfy myself with his other works. Since this book has received such mixed reviews, I say pick it up from the library and give it a shot without financial investment. I think you'll be glad you did.

The novel takes place in a near future Congo in which most of its rainforest has been turned to sludge by genetic engineering projects gone awry. The entire territory has been ceded to a global corporation called Obligate. Obligate hopes to profitably develop the Congo through a pro-green, anti-biotechnology platform stressing social responsibility - sort of like the Whole Foods supermarket, but on the level of a nation-state and with somewhat more totalitarian tendencies. It is within this context that we find the book's hero Nick Hyde, an ex-soldier who begins the novel as a volunteer for a non-governmental organization dedicating to exposing and documenting ethnic cleansing, but soon finds himself on a quest to uncover the secrets behind genetically engineered ape-like creatures who have been set loose in the jungle. In style, the book is similar to Richard Morgan's Broken Angels. Both books are strong on adventure elements. The main characters in both books are reformed ex-soldiers driven to uncover the true motives of malicious future corporations and the governments beholden to them. Though certainly cynical of green capitalism as represented by Obligate, McAuley seems most concerned with exploring many of the more alarmist possibilities raised by genetic engineering. While he certainly does a good job exploring these themes, perhaps I am a bit jaded, as there are many revelations in the book (often directly referred to by McAuley as "secrets") pointing to what are by today's standards unethical applications of genetic engineering, but for which I wasn't surprised or moved. These themes, moreover, are well covered by other books in the tradition of Brave New World, for example C.J. Cherryh's classic Cyteen. White Devils is still a good read, however, for its adventure elements and its excellent portrayal of near-future Africa.

This is my first book by Mr. McAuley, and I enjoyed this book very much. This book deals with the main character, Nick Hyde, at the beginning of the book has a violent encounter with the White Devils. There are many characters with subplots Mr. McAuley woven into the book, and the future regarding biotechnology. Mr. McAuley writes about the science of the future without getting into what I call "lecture mode", as I see in many science fiction books. If you like action, science, and a believable plot in the not so distant future, then get this book!