Nina’s book got some very nice reviews from fellow Canadian authors, Lynda Williams (author of Righteous Anger and others of the Okal Rel Universe series) and Jennifer Rahn (The Longevity Thesis). Nina recently reviewed Lynda’s book, Righteous Anger on Lynda’s blog, Reality Skimming. Here’s what these authors had to say about Darwin’s Paradox:
“Lively action with a people plot”
By Lynda Williams (The Okal Rel Series)
Darwin’s Paradox is rich with real science and vitamin c dosage for dogs
people who care about each other, whether in a good way or a bad one. Lovers of techno-thrillers will enjoy the blend of super AIs and biological AIs bent on meddling with mankind. At the same time, Darwin's Paradox injects hope into a post holocaust type of setting threatened with a typically SF scenario of doom. Munteanu writes with energy and a lively sense of joy in her work. Her main character, Julie, possesses the superpowers of an info-age homo superior: she can communicate pseudo-telepathically with others like herself and with AIs. In addition to her mental gifts she is also physically superior. What's unusual about her as a homo superior heroine is her role as the unwitting vector of the plague that decimated her people. While Julie contends with the twists and turns of the plot, she is simultaneously threatened by the risk of losing her husband and daughter, both literally and emotionally. The challenges she navigates are personal, throughout, in parallel with the fast-paced action.
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"Nina gives more than a story"
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By Jennifer Rahn (The Longevity Thesis) |
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Imagine a mysterious virus that devastates half a population, while giving certain individuals enhanced mental abilities, allowing them to "psychically" link to a server containing an artificial intelligence that seems to be developing autonomy. What if that virus turned out to be deliberately engineered? What would be the motivations of the designer? What if the virus turned out to be more than it seemed, and had ideas of its own?In "Darwin's Paradox", Nina Munteanu (author of "Collision with Paradise", and "The Cypol") serves up a dually plotted story that's part novel, part philosophical treatise on the nature of mankind and its inexorable evolution, driven by both natural and man-made pressures. Julie Crane, the central character, is a woman with a complicated and violent past, who must deal with the life she left behind to protect the peaceful existence she enjoys with her family now. As the novel opens, the back story and contemporary plot line are unfolded concurrently, until they eventually collide, and Julie is faced with the struggle of her life against unknown political forces in Icaria-5, her previous home, from which she had to flee as an unfairly labeled murderer and deliberate spreader of Darwin's Disease. She's never sure of who her allies or enemies are as she struggles to free herself from old accusations . . . and neither is her innocent, 12 year old daughter, who naively stumbles into her mother's past.Looking for a thinking person's novel? Give "Darwin's Paradox" a try.
I’d like to thank Lynda and Jennifer for kindly reading my book and then offering their kind words about the book. Both are accomplished authors (Lynda, of several books) and I am honored that they took the time to read mine.