The Coming Storm

October 15, 2018
In the year 2023, post-apocalyptic New York has become a war zone as genetically altered federal agents advance a cruel and oppressive right-wing agenda.Unfortunately for the subjects of this mad secret experiment, which transforms selected officers from the Federal Service Unit into invincible hulks, the treatment results in shocking physical and psychological effects. One scrambled soul has his "brain burst open and all the memories inside it scattered across the room." The grievous side effects have the FSU in hot pursuit of Jenna Khan, a young scientist who may be the only one who can save the agents from a nasty fate. She was one of the key researchers on the gene-altering program, Palindrome, staying on after opposing it on moral grounds so she could devise a fix for her quadriplegic brother's rare genetic disease. Together with a Brooklyn gang leader and an imposing fighter who has made the White House his enemy since being injected with the DNA modifier in Afghanistan without being told what was at risk, she mobilizes citizens and overmatched police in an effort to forestall evil plans to take control of everyone via the release of airborne viruses. Alpert, who specializes in looking into the dark potential of technological advancement, doesn't spare details in rolling out his vision. But that vision is ill-served by one-dimensional characters, an underfed story, and an overly familiar doomsday setting.The latest techno-thriller from the author of The Omega Theory (2011) and Extinction (2013) boasts a strong whiff of Trump (the corrupt president here suffers from frontotemporal dementia), but any timeliness can't make up for the absence of thrills.

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October 22, 2018
It’s 2023, and the U.S. is in chaos in this disappointing thriller from Alpert (The Orion Plan). A new, militarylike police force, the Federal Service Unit, launches an operation in Brooklyn aimed at apprehending Jenna Khan, a specialist in the genetics of brain function. Jenna’s research, as part of a federal initiative called the Palindrome Project, involves manipulating “the genes of lab rats to make them smarter and faster.” Soon after FSU agents capture her, she’s rescued by a huge man who just calls himself Derek. From the superhuman physical abilities Derek displays, Jenna concludes that someone has used her experiments as a basis for testing gene manipulation on humans. Meanwhile, the Trump-like president, who’s suffering from dementia, is increasingly incapacitated, leaving the country in the hands of his Machiavellian son-in-law, White House senior adviser Vance Keller, who’s unrelentingly ruthless in his quest for even more power. Over-the-top developments undermine this as plausible prophetic speculative fiction. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House.

December 1, 2018
The climate-change crisis explodes out of control in Alpert?s latest thriller. In 2023, the seas have risen, energy is at a premium, and chaos reigns in the streets. Laws are put into place, and these are managed by soldiers who have been given enhancements making them strong and cruel. A scientist learns that a plot is in place to modify the DNA of all Americans, and she teams up with a supersoldier to stop the plan before it can be put into action.? Alpert's vision of the end of the world is terrifying on multiple levels and comes across as all too believable. Using his background in science,? ?Alpert has crafted a tale that begins with the U.S. government ignoring the effects of climate change and then abandoning human rights in a misguided attempt to control the resulting chaos. A frightening apocalypse thriller that is more The Walking Dead than Michael Crichton.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)