Philip K. Dick award for best paperback original novel.Walton applied the Page 69 Test to his latest novel, The Genius Plague, and reported the following:
Page 69 of The Genius Plague is the first page of chapter 7, in which the main character (Neil Johns) finds himself in a bit of trouble at the NSA... again. Neil is a brilliant guy and passionate about his job as a code cracker at the NSA, but he tends to let his enthusiasm get the better of his caution. That and his general cluelessness about how others will react to him provides some of the humor in what could otherwise be a dark book. He is, after all, tracking a fungal infection that subtly influences people's minds, leading them to make choices that benefit the spread of the fungus. Assassinations, suicide bombings, and military coups are turning world politics upside-down... and his own brother is infected. Neil's energy and creative initiative, however, allow him to cut through bureaucracy and get to the truth, though it does also land him in hot water more than once. So yes, I would say that Page 69, though it's only a glimpse into a piece of the story and doesn't touch on the main plot, is representative of the story as a whole, because it gives us a picture of who the main character is, a person uniquely able to fight against this threat to humanity.Learn more about the book and author at David Walton's website.
Writers Read: David Walton.
--Marshal Zeringue
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