Reviews

In a future close enough to read about in tomorrow's papers, British science-fiction author Harrison (Climbers; Viriconium) splices together toxic romances, recombinant DNA and biohazard in a fable of genetic and emotional manipulation. Post-Thatcherite entrepreneurs Mick "China" Rose and his slightly sociopathic chum Choe Ashton have profitably channeled their antisocial tendencies into founding a fly-by-night courier service for transporting dubious medical supplies and "low-level biological waste." Although this shipping business‘with canisters labeled "Burn Without Opening" and patented viruses packaged in live hosts‘is lucrative and satisfies their sense of adventure, China would prefer to keep it separate from his romance with Isobel Avens, a dreamy free spirit with a strange wish to fly. Isobel, however, is obsessively drawn into the underworld of genetic engineering, which Harrison populates with such characters as Ed Cesniak, a shady Budapest-based American venture capitalist, Christiana Spede, whose faulty heart has to be replaced with a pig's every eight years, and Brian Alexander, a doctor running a clinic offering "transgenic service." Although Signs of Life sometimes resembles the futurist satires of Will Self or Jack Womack, Harrison's concentration on the emotional core of his characters and his lyrical flair makes one feel he's ultimately closer in style to a writer like D.H. Lawrence, albeit Lawrence in an especially trippy mode. (Sept.)