Invasive Procedures

This near-future thriller is based on Johnston's screenplay adaptation of Card's 1977 story "Malpractice," an early example of biotech sf. The plot is a duel between virologists. One scientist is promulgating a virus that has already altered many human beings into, for instance, Healers (mutated young men, primarily), who are reminiscent of a death squad made up of movie Terminators. The other virologist, at the behest of a secret government agency, is trying to stop the first. The novel wins the reader over on the basis of execution rather than conceptual originality, with pace, characterization, and chilling suspense all polished to a high gloss. Green, Roland --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.