Darwin's Paradox.

Set along the eastern Ontario shores of the St. Lawrence River and in a Toronto of the future that is a combination of spectacular high-rise buildings and a good deal of subterranean space largely taken up by shopping malls, this science fiction novel speculates on the future interrelationship between humanity, artificial intelligence (AI), and the virus that has caused the Darwin plague. It follows a highly conventional science fiction plot motif that begins with only three people in isolation and gradually expands to show us the whole of society’s struggles as two of those people, mother and daughter, turn out to have special and unusual abilities that place them at the centre of the action.

The virus of the Darwin plague has killed a large number of people but has also enhanced the minds of a few who are thus enabled to speak directly with highly sophisticated AI’s who, in turn, control the mechanical world. The struggle of the novel centres around the use of these powers and eventually around the roles in society to be played by the intelligent machines and the virus as entities in their own right.

Although there are interesting ideas at play in this novel, it is badly marred by a choppy multiple narration, an unimaginative cast of villains, and sudden surprise helpers who rush in and out of the story. In places the book suffers from poor writing of the kind that jumps out at the reader and spoils involvement with the story. While it draws on a wide variety of science, including Chaos theory, a knowledge of viruses, some aspects of ecology, and the vague possibility of human-machine-virus synthesis/evolution, the science on the whole is not handled convincingly. As with all science fiction, there is a necessity for the author to make us believe that some concept could happen—such as a virus talking to a machine—for that is the central fiction in science fiction. This book does not do that.