Antibodies (Hardcover)

The story reminds me very much of something Dean Koontz could've cooked up (I love the way the Koontz writes even when he gets over-the-top silly and meanders off into pages and pages of mind numbing description). This book is fast paced (this author apparently doesn't share Koontz's proclivity for longwindyness) and tells a story of a boy and his dog infected with a cancer, gun-shot wound, burnt to a crisp curing, form of nano-technology. Don't ask. My pea brain can't comprehend it. Anyway, one of the scientists who worked on this technology is also infected with these nano-critters. But he went and infected himself with the bad kind (duh!) and instead of fixing whatever ails him they make him break out with big tumorous lesions and whomever he touches dies of plague-like symptoms. Why? Ya got me. Plague-man is desperately searching for the boy and his dog because he believes their blood will cure him (boy, dog and their mom are hiding). Along the way he touches a few people and grossness occurs. Scully, Mulder and The Smoking Man make a few appearances but this story doesn't bring them to life in any exceptional way and it lacked Mulder's morbid sense of humor (the book would've rated much higher if these characters came alive a bit more). Overall it was interesting, a little icky and very sad at times reminding me of a classic X-Files episode without the Mulderisms.

Antibodies trots out a familiar sci-fi standard, the infected victim. In this case the man is infected with nanorobots that can kill a human in minutes, and completely dismantle the world in hours. That is if they get the chance to mutate. Apparently only an assassinated scientist's pet dog holds the key to a cure. Kevin J. Anderson's third (and looking to be final) X-File novel recycles concepts used in Dean Koontz's novel Midnight as well as Greg Bear's classic Blood Music (of which Anderson injects a sly reference to). End result? An entertaing weekend diversion that won't strain your brain. Recommended.