Murder in the Solid State
By Wil McCarthy
Tor Books, $22.95
ISBN 0312859384
Review by Larry Woods
Nanotech is a fascinating and seriously proposed scientific idea that computers and robots can be built on a molecular level and then replicate themselves almost endlessly. In a near future world where nanotech research is already out of date due to molecular fabrication, David Sanger is an aggressive young physicist attending the Association for Molecular Fabrication Research International Conference in Baltimore. Sanger believes that his presentation on nanotechnology using molecular caulk and lubricant at the conference will have a serious impact on the "molecular sniffer" security shield developed by Otto Vandegroot. Unfortunately, before the conference even opens Sanger finds himself in a dispute with Vandegroot, the grand old man of nanotechnology, and the two of them engage in a high tech collapsible sword duel using a spring-loaded drop foil which is the current weapon of choice among the well to do. Sanger successfully relies upon the advice of his Street Defense instructor and suddenly uses Wrist Twist Number Three to embarrass Vandegroot.
As in any good suspense novel, when Vandegroot's dead body is found the next morning not quite cold yet, Sanger is the automatic suspect and must flee into the underground to save himself. The relationship between his nanotech discoveries and their socio-political impact is an obvious theme as Sanger struggles for redemption and success in this science fiction/mystery story. Author McCarthy is adept at pacing, and the characters are sufficient for this kind of formula (although Sanger's ability to remember his years of research strains our credibility).
Larry D. Woods, an attorney, is an avid collector of science fiction.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.
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