Listening to this book was one of the strangest (and most fun) experience I’ve had in a while. There is so much happening, with so many characters, at so many different periods in time that it took me a really long time to have any idea of what was going on. For the same reasons, it’s a terribly difficult book to narrate and the narrator was very good for some parts and a bit less on others.
Blanka is one of the first human/AI hybrid, and a spy, like her mother Kitty before her (I think). She’s in charge of OhZone, which seems to be an international division, with headquaters at MI6 in London. She helps Grigori Grinin, a Russian Nobel Prize scientist (who saved her mother’s life) to defect, along with his much younger wife and their soon-to-be-born twins. Grinin has created Metapox, a terrifying virus that could kill millions of people with just a few breaths. Blanka convinces her superiors that getting him to create a vaccine is a better plan than trying to acquire the virus. But the ennemy lies within as well as in Russia, where Blanka’s cousin Lara wants to bring Grinin back to the fold.
Beyond Blanka and Grinin, there are so many characters, some part of the good guys (like the unassuming Nearby), some psycho villains (Felicity!), with cameos by Obama and Boris Johnson, among others, and even Helen of Troy, the original sad girl behind blue eyes.
Funnily enough, being so confused for most of the book didn’t take away from the thrill and I’m really looking forward to knowing what happens next. And if you want the full experience, take a look at the official website, including the soundtracks for each book.
Jude in the Stars 