The Calcutta Chromosome

Na het lezen van de (zeer aangename) Sea of Poppies viel D's oog op deze, een sci-fi achtig boek over malaria...

Het boek rammelt wat op een paar plekken, en helemaal duidelijk is het nog steeds niet wat nou precies de plot is op sommige punten (iets met onsterfelijkheid vermoed ik :-), maar het leest verder prima weg.

“For the sake of argument let's call it a chromosome: though the whole point of this is that if it is really a chromosome, it's only so by extension, so to speak – by analogy. Because what we're talking about here is an item that is to the standard Mendelian pantheon of twenty-three chromosomes what Ganesh is to the gods; that is, different, non-standard, unique – which is exactly why it eludes standard techniques of research. And which is why I call it the Calcutta chromosome.”

I'm sorry. What? 

Not sure I completely get what Antar's role is. Is he the new Laachan? Is he the Ronald Ross of his time? How on earth do these people not age? I just am so confused and I don't understand anything at all, but I had a good time being confused as all hell.
But what was up with that imagined moment between Urmila and Murrugan?? I was totally getting vibes between Urmila and Sonali, so it felt so out of place.

Artificial Intelligence, Mosquitoes, India, Syphilis and the quest for immortality. I don't know what the hell I just read but I really liked it. For fans of speculative fiction.

This plot driven book fell pretty flat with me. The writing wasn't bad, and there were some tense moments, but it felt like a bunch of paper dolls (ironic since some are based on real people) running around with the occasional deus ex machina moment to get them out of a fix. So, I wasn't a fan of the book, but It'd probably make a good movie.