I have a personal goal to read one book a week this year. So far I’m staying on track. I’ve been reading a bunch of classic novels and books that are more literary, so when I heard my friend J.D. Lasica had a new techno-thriller coming out, I decided it was a good opportunity to switch things up.
While J.D. is an experienced journalist and non-fiction author, Biohack is his first foray into fiction, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was delighted to find out that J.D. had written a high-engaging thriller that I genuinely couldn’t put down.
The story follows many of the classic thriller tropes with deadlines to meet before something bad happens and scenarios that ratchet up the stakes, but Biohack has an interesting twist. J.D. uses the thriller genre to explore questions around what happens in a world where people can control the DNA of their unborn children. CRISPR and recent gene sequencing opens up a world of possibilities that really aren’t that far away from being possible.
J.D. explores everything from the slightly vain – what parent doesn’t want their child to be “perfect” – to some scenarios that are downright frightening. Like any good book should, Biohack made me think about the ramifications of being able to edit our genes, from being able to eliminate a predisposition for cancer to effectively breeding people without parents (yikes!). I’m fairly certain it will get you thinking about them too.
If you like medical thrillers, techno-thrillers or science fiction, I think you will find this book to be an entertaining read. Biohack is currently only available from Amazon, but the upside is that if you pay for Kindle Unlimited, you can read Biohack for free.
If you are curious about some of the background behind the book, be sure to watch my interview with J.D. Lasica at his recent book launch.
Delighted Robot 
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