n the future, being connected is a total-immersion experience. The Internet has expanded its capabilities to the point where a user's every thought can be translated into action—whether it is to activate an automated coffeepot, pay for a bus ticket or simply communicate with another person. War and poverty are things of the past, and an interlinked humanity goes about its business, universally healthy, devoid of anger and very, very productive.
Within this world, Jasmine Reese represents an elite: a data miner, she tracks down thoughts that Net users did not intend to record or transmit. Her services are used much as a private investigator's would be—the secrets she ferrets out are used in lawsuits and business investigations. Jaz is known as a "natural," and her ability to merge her mind with online resources is formidable ... at least until her hardware breaks down.
Jaz is forcibly thrust into life on the other side of the gene pool as she waits for her rig to be repaired. There, people unable to use the Net eke out a marginal living. It is a brief but telling visit to an old-fashioned world. While she is disconnected, Jaz sees ominous patterns in the behavior of other Net users. They are too calm, she realizes, eerily unable to maintain even brief bursts of self-destructive behavior. Suspecting that something in the Net is controlling its users' behavior, Jaz
embarks on what she does best, a quest for facts among the mounds of data online. But almost immediately she starts to face resistance: critical documents vanish when she tries to access them, and the linked users of the Net suddenly seem to be watching her.
Who—or what—is pulling their strings? And how far will they go to keep her quiet?
Hard SF with romantic spice
Technogenesis is Syne Mitchell's second book, and it takes readers to a vastly different place than her debut novel, Murphy's Gambit. In this near-future Seattle, privacy is dead, brain-hacking is child's play, and being disconnected is a serious disability. The fullness of the online world described by Mitchell is a particular achievement: satisfyingly rich, with details on everything from Net users' sexual habits to the ways they store and access their dreams.
Jaz's interactions with this enticing setting are minimized, though, by her discoveries about the Net. Soon she is plunged into government cover-ups and forced—on pain of death—to spy on a scientist whose research and concerns about the Net touch directly on her newfound fears. What's more, two very attractive men are players in the game, and her loyalties are quickly divided. She is drawn both to the target of her mission, the man she must ultimately betray, and to the brash brain-hacked
parolee assigned to support her spying.
In a book that is largely about privacy issues, it is both logical and intriguing to include a storyline involving sex and jealousy. The solid reality of Mitchell's Net is that nobody online can hide any secret forever. This is brought home by Jaz's inability to make romantic decisions without everyone—including the two men vying for her affections—knowing it. This heightens the tension, too. In such a pressure-cooker, how long can she hope to maintain her cover before a stray thought reveals the truth?
Technogenesis is a fast read, with lots of build-up and a somewhat compressed resolution. This may dismay readers who want to see the consequences of Jaz's discovery played out to their full potential. That aside, it is a taut and suspenseful read, with some realistically messy outcomes and a setting which leaves plenty of scope for future exploration.
