Wetware by Craig Nova

I picked up this one for a different reason than usual, the author is going to be one of my professors in the fall. I’m not a huge science fiction person, as far as I usually go is Ender’s Game or maybe some Anne McCaffrey depending on where you draw the line. The descriptions are beautiful. The futuristic world is believable and disturbing. There is a morbid beauty to the entire thing. There was a bit more sexually explicitness than I anticipated but it suited. It was a bit hard to get into until over halfway through when all the strands really started coming together. In the end I was left with a sense of beauty and hope and terror, ironically description that apply very accurately to Kay and Jack and what Briggs was trying to achieve. I always forget to talk about the story. Briggs is an engineer of sorts charged with writing the genetic code for creating human beings with specific purposes. The job he is charged with is carried out, but he makes changes along the way for the sake of beauty you might say. In the end though I think the reader is left with questions similar to those Briggs might be asking himself: Was it worth it? Was it safe? Will it happen again?