BOOKS
Genesis Code: A Thriller of the New Future
Blue Magic, the latest designer drug linked to a rash of overdoses, might explain the needle mark on the arm of a young woman found dead in her Kansas City apartment. But when Star reporter Rich Azadian digs deeper, the clues point to a far more explosive story: MaryLee Stock was a special protégée of evangelical mega-pastor and power broker Cobalt Becker, who is poised to deliver his followers and the presidency to a firebrand right-wing senator in the next election. When Azadian sets out to prove that MaryLee’s death was no accident and she may have been carrying Becker’s genetically enhanced baby, the stakes become life itself.
In 2023 America—bankrupt, violently divided by the culture wars, and beholden to archrival China—the rules of the game are complicated. With the danger mounting, the dead bodies of young women piling up, Chinese agents circling, and the U.S. Department of National Competitiveness moving in to squash his investigation, Azadian’s only option is to go rogue, assemble a team of brilliant misfits like himself, and begin the fight of his life to find out who is killing these women and why, and if any others like them may still be alive.
Publication date: November 4, 2014
Interviews and Reviews
The Pendulum, December 9, 2015
Mongolian Television, June 23, 2015
The Jewish Standard, June 12, 2015
Armenian Mirror-Spectator, January 17, 2015
WNYC with Leonard Lopate, December 18, 2014
Serious Wonder, December 18, 2014
Specific Gravity with Jeff Schechtman, December 3, 2014
Huffington Post, December 1, 2014
KQED Forum with Michael Krasny, November 12, 2014
Fox News Kansas City, November 10, 2014
Die Welt (Germany), November 9, 2014
Praise for Genesis Code
“A thrill ride through the dangerous intersection where the human genetics revolution and aggressive big power rivalries meet. I couldn’t put it down.”
— Richard Clarke, former White House terrorism czar and New York Times bestselling author of Against All Enemies
“A high-octane thriller touching the core of what it means to be a human being. Read this book and let the national conversation about the future of our species begin.”
— Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent and New York Times bestselling author
“An old-fashioned hard-boiled thriller addresses up-to-the-minute political currents as seen from a short time in the future…Metzl knows his science, and the detail is elegantly done while the novel moves at a nonstop pace over 41 days. Metzl provides a believable look at a not-too-distant future where science, politics, religion, economics and the ability to report the ‘truth’ are all inseparably bound together.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Metzl (The Depths of the Sea), a former member of the U.S. National Security Council, offers up a tense vision of the near future with this science fiction thriller…Metzl enhances it with a philosophical protagonist, scientific plausibility, and a keen sense of mood.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Metzl…has a strong command of the financial, political and bioethical questions at the heart of his fast-paced dystopian novel.”
— Washington Post
“The plot is stellar and well paced… The science on the DNA enhancement research is fascinating… Fans of sci-fi and mystery will definitely enjoy Genesis Code.”
— Portland Book Review
“Riveting…a real page-turner…a vivid, exciting and well-paced thriller…with a message:…that we must all learn to use wisely the scientific advances that our greatest geniuses uncover.”
— World Policy Journal