Book Review: Killer T by Robert Muchamore

A clever sci-fi exploring society's reaction to evolving techonology, Killer T by Robert Muchamore is addictive and full of action, an just a little bit scary.

Harry and Charlie are teenagers whose lives are shaped by a society that's shifting around them. He is a lonely Brit in his first term at a Las Vegas high school. She is an unlikely friend, who gets accused of mixing a batch of explosives that blew up a football player.

The two of them are drawn together at a time when gene editing technology is starting to explode. With a lab in the garage anyone can beat cancer, enhance their brain to pass exams, or tweak a few genes for that year-round tan and perfect beach body. But in the wrong hands, cheap gene editing is the most deadly weapon in history. Killer T is a synthetic virus with a ninety per-cent mortality rate, and the terrorists who created it want a billion dollars before they'll release a vaccine.

Terrifying. Romantic. Huge in scope. A story for our times.

Amazon UK | Amazon US

Waterstones

Source: Giveaway

5 Words: Technology, friendship, adversity, survival, society.

Going in to this I didn't know much. I knew it was sci-fi and involved a killer virus, but I didn't know much more and didn't really have any expectations except "this will be good" because I loved the Cherub books growing up.

Right from the start I was impressed. I loved Harry's tenacity and drive, how he knew what he wanted to do and was prepared to go far to get there, even if I didn't actually like him. If that even makes sense. And Charlie, oh Charlie. I love Charlie.

I didn't expect the timeline of the story to be quite as vast as it was, but I felt that it really worked with the pacing of the story, keeping the action front and centre.

Killer T quite cleverly explored gene modification, how it would impact society, and even how companies would spin it to make money. The story itself acts almost as a commentary of a consumer driven world, a world where people have short attention spans and are driven by the media they consume.

This book kind of made me want to start stock-piling coffee and tea just in case. There's just such a sense of urgency, as though this could actually be right around the corner.