I have to admit I was a little overwhelmed with this book initially. There is a lot to take in, and the author jumps right into it, so I was scrambling a bit to wrap my head around everything that was going on. Mexico is a new super power, and Mexico City (now called Ascension) is the most populous city on the planet. They are a technological marvel, and all their citizens are connected through brain implantations (called wetware) that functions as a pseudo-mental wifi. There is a political power struggle between to religious faction; The Holy Renaissance who are very similar to Catholics, and a rogue religious group led by Sister Domenica, the Patron Saint of Plagues.

Oh, and then there is the disease outbreak, of course. An American named Stark is tasked with combating an extreme Dengue outbreak that is spreading and killing so quickly that it simply can NOT be a natural outbreak. Unfortunately for him, solving this mystery isn't easy when he's caught between 2 bickering factions in a country where he wouldn't be welcome in the first place.

The characters seemed a little inconsistent, and Stark has this way of speaking that is grating and totally obnoxious. Note to future novelists: Don't make your main character grating and obnoxious. The plot also seemed a bit too far-reaching, which kind of killed the mystery aspect of the novel for me. It just didn't quite hook me, and during the big reveal I was mostly just nodding and thinking "well, alright then..." Which pretty much sums up how I feel about the novel as a whole. ( )

Excellent thriller with very vivid imagery. Loved the play on Mexican history/religiosity that's intertwined with the science fiction. Incredible that it's a debut novel (it's that good). Looking forward to future works by the author. ( )

Honestly, I skipped to the end of this book, something I rarely do. I liked the idea of the story, just not the execution of it. I also admit not being a huge fan of sci-fi. For some reason, I didn't realize this book fell into that genre. Oh well! ( )

An excellent first novel. Some nicely plotted science mixed with enough cyberpunk/future-tech to avoid a lot of potential pit-falls.

There is a mix of this with some politics and religion that gives a plausible and fascinating future in which the USA is no longer a superpower, but Mexico is a superpower of the information age, as well as a fascist and religious police state.

The only reason this isn't getting the whole five stars? The lead character is rather mutable, or perhaps reveals too many layers on the way through to quite work for me, and he has an annoying "futurespeak" pattern where he doesn't bother with any parts of the verb "to be" but only when he's speaking English... ( )

Plague fiction set in the year 2061, mostly in the city of Ascension, Mexico (once Mexico City.) It’s a vastly different world than we know today. Mexico and the US are at war, with Mexico being headed by a religious group, an offshoot of the Catholic church that rules with a fascist furor. And someone has unleashed a deadly plague in the city, a combination of a couple of different plagues and set to attack only those with a certain genetic background and who are connected to the pilone network—basically ‘internet in your head’ so that the government can keep track of everyone. The main character is a scientist known as ‘the Patron Saint of Plagues’ who is summoned by the Mexican government to help them get this plague under control, and yet they won’t give Stark the vital information he needs, so he must accumulate that knowledge by other means. Ironically, a renegade nun named Sister Domenica, who predicted the plague, is also referred to by the same title, and inevitably Stark and Domenica’s paths do eventually cross. An interesting book, with what seemed to be a plausible storyline, with one major annoyance—that the main character spoke in a shorthand type language that drove me mad! ( )