dalex
1/4/2018
In The Genius Plague, a fungus in the Amazon jungle spreads pores that infect people and takes control of their minds. The people then do anything necessary to insure the survival of the fungus, including harming anyone who tries to impede them, overthrowing governments, and attempting to launch a nuclear attack.
Strong research, swift plotting, and quality writing save this book from being utterly ridiculous. In fact, I actually rather enjoyed it even though it is really not my usual type of book (and not at all what I was expecting it to be).
The abundance of facts in the novel verged on info dumping but the author handled the knowledge versus action rather brilliantly and always managed to hold my interest. I don't know if any of the factual information about mycology, cryptography, and politics was accurate, but the author certainly made me believe it was. The characters were decently well developed though not necessarily believable. Also, there were more than a few events and coincidences that bordered on impossible.
All in all, The Genius Plague is a good book though it is certainly not one I am going to rave about to anyone. It did make me want to explore more of the work of David Walton.
3 Stars