Paul J McAuley puts his scientific background to good use in this disturbing journey across a wasted Europe.
In a futuristic world ‘dolls’ (small soulless lifeforms) are used as workers, servants, pets and even (when genetically modified) for entertainment. In a world where no human now has to work and is entitled to the Universal Unearned Wage there are more demands for retroactive viruses used for recreational drug use which ex con and gene hacker Alex Sharkey is at the forefront of creating and supplying.
Alex is contacted by a mysterious young girl and is unwittingly involved in the kidnap and modification of a doll. When both the doll and Milena disappear, Alex realizes that he has just been a pawn in a much bigger game planned by Milena that will affect the human race.
Jump a few years into the future and Alex has been looking for Milena since her disappearance. Female children are murdered and their ovaries taken, and male children disappear into The Magic Kingdom, a derelict Parisian Theme Park. A psychological plague has infected humans, and ‘fairies’ (modified dolls) are becoming the master race. The result is a psychoactive war and a race against time to save the human species from annihilation.
Written in three parts, this is a truly original and fantastical vision of the future. Part One screamed William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer”, but the introduction of a new characters in Part Two and Three made the story flow disjointed, but apparently this is McAuley’s style.
Born in 1955, a British botanist, McAuley won the Aurthur C. Clarke award for Fairyland.
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