Adventures in Sci-fi: A Review of The Immune

My Book Review of The Immune by Doc Lucky Meisenheimer:

The Immune by Doc Lucky Meisenheimer is a vastly entertaining book, a cross between a political sci-fi thriller and a pulp fiction adventure novel. It’s a stylish, clever novel that delivers a fast-paced, rousing story, and deftly rides the fine line between camp and satire without falling flat on its face.

The book tells the tale of a world in crisis, where genetically-altered creatures, the airwars, have spread across the earth, attacking and killing humans. This crisis changes the political landscape, creating a central government that controls all. The only hope may rest with the “immunes” -who are not affected by the stings of the airwars- and their leader, John Long.

The Immune was a nice surprise, a book that takes a unique premise and some traditional science fiction ideas and melds them together with the trappings of a political thriller into a wonderful novel. It presents a reliable, intricate plot with appealing characters, and dispenses a nice exciting page-turner. There are a few touches where the plot details veer towards the overblown, but it always stops short of outlandish.

The book starts out on a rapid step, reels the reader in, and it keeps that speedy pace going for the most part. It did lag a touch in the middle, getting a bit bogged down in the explanatory where I think it could have used a touch of action, but it picks up again quickly to a brisk pace towards the finish. The plot took a turn here, where I thought the book was headed for inevitable cliché, but the story zagged, then zigged and then zagged again, until it swirled to a suspenseful, satisfying conclusion.

The Immune is a fun, exciting, and cheeky sci-fi thriller that maintains an old-fashioned action sensibility.