octor Alex Denyer is one of the elite, a leading scientist in a city-state known as the Defederacy. He is famous for his work in dismantling and studying weapons platforms left behind by aliens in a war with Earth 10 years earlier. The war all but destroyed human society when the aliens unleashed a deadly nanogen on the civilian population: Virtually everyone over the age of 30 died, while the youthful survivors were doomed to a fatally rapid aging process that begins in their mid-20s.
As a Defederacy citizen, Alex has not been infected with the nanogen, but even so it has cost him dearly. His father was killed in the initial bombardment, and his 18-year-old son is infected, facing a countdown of seven years before his health begins to fail. Father and son both dream of finding a cure; in the meantime, Alex's position allows him to take care of his son and ex-wife. In addition to his own considerable reputation, he has a powerful ally—his cousin Graham Croft is the CEO of the Defederacy.
All that changes, though, when a new alien weapons platform is sighted on a heading for the solar system. This AWP is presumed to be loaded with new nanogens, and Alex's expertise has never been needed more. Mysteriously, though, that is when Graham turns on him. Alex finds he has been fired from his job and blacklisted within the private sector. The only work he can find is manual labor aboard a friend's cargo ship, and when that ship carries him out of the Defederacy, it begins to look like intelligence operatives may be planning to arrest him. Is Graham perhaps intending to commit Alex to the Defederacy's dreaded political prison ... or does he have a more permanent punishment in mind?
Hard SF with little human dimension
Scott Mackay's Omnifix follows Alex Denyer on an epic voyage from his ivory tower of a laboratory to the anarchic frontier of a Washington D.C. run entirely by nanogen-infected teenagers. Later Alex explores the peculiar alien microcosm that is the advanced weapons platform before embarking on a dangerous mission to the Mars colony. Like most journeys, this one offers some remarkable scenery and unforgettable moments: Alex's first meeting with one of the dying youths who run the world outside Defederacy walls, for example, or his own exposure to a cruel nanogen the aliens used specifically for disabling Earth's soldiers.
These glimmers of genuine human feeling are lost, though, in a book that suffers from weak development of all of its characters. Alex's naiveté and trust in his government's integrity—and his later slide into disillusionment—are never fully convincing. The other characters are mere outlines: plucky, doomed son, histrionic ex-wife, megalomaniac villain. What's more, Omnifix has a predictable plot and an unforgivably tidy ending. The outcome for Alex is a best-case scenario: All his problems are neatly solved, and the victory is earned not through his merit or actions but essentially by luck and the off-stage heroics of other characters.
Omnifix may appeal to readers who like biotech-themed novels—the damage done by the alien nanogens is brought into sharp focus, with every medical detail fully explored and described. Others, though, may find this tale of an alien invasion and its consequences is too distant and undercooked to be fully satisfying.
