Neil Johns has just started his dream job as a code breaker in the NSA when his brother, Paul, a mycologist, goes missing on a trip to collect samples in the Amazon jungle. Paul returns with a gap in his memory and a fungal infection that almost kills him. But once he recuperates, he has enhanced communication, memory, and pattern recognition. Meanwhile, something is happening in South America; others, like Paul, have also fallen ill and recovered with abilities they didn't have before.
But that's not the only pattern--the survivors, from entire remote Brazilian tribes to American tourists, all seem to be working toward a common, and deadly, goal. Neil soon uncovers a secret and unexplained alliance between governments that have traditionally been enemies. Meanwhile Paul becomes increasingly secretive and erratic.
Paul sees the fungus as the next stage of human evolution, while Neil is convinced that it is driving its human hosts to destruction. Brother must oppose brother on an increasingly fraught international stage, with the stakes: the free will of every human on earth. Can humanity use this force for good, or are we becoming the pawns of an utterly alien intelligence?
386 pages
Published October 3, 2017
Published October 3, 2017
I've often said to friends that the best books are ones that make you pause and really think. That isn't to say there's no room for fluff reads or that people who enjoy such reads aren't "thinkers" (whatever that means), because after all, I also enjoy a good fluff read now and then, but books like The Genius Plague are definitely more of the former than the latter. It asks questions about the nature of symbiotic evolution, communication, and acceptable sacrifice.
A new fungus has been discovered in the Amazon, one that infects humans with varying degrees of success. Those who survive the infection gain increased intelligence and pattern recognition, their neurons boosted by the fungus's own ability to send and receive information through its hyphae. But more than that, the infected quickly seem bent on expanding the fungus's influence to all humans, heedless of the fact that many won't survive the infection. There's an interconnectivity between the infected, one that prioritises the wellbeing of the fungus over the wellbeing of their hosts, though in absolute fairness, the fungus does boost a lot of physical strength and resilience in people. Those who survive that infection are going to become what we would think of today as almost superhuman.
Aside from the spy thriller aspect of The Genius Plague (which was very interesting enough, as it involves a lot of cryptography, and that's a hobby of mine), the setup really begs the question as to whether humans have a right to determine their own evolutionary future when it comes to something like a symbiotic fungus, as one of the reasons we are who we are today is due to something quite similar. Humans house within themselves a teeming microbiome of bacteria and fungi, ancient viruses helped shape our very DNA, and what's one more added to the mix when it can yield such obvious benefits? Some people won't survive, but that's just how the process of evolution works. If the situation changes, we have to change with it, we have to adapt, or else we risk losing everything.
I don't mean societally when I say that, but purely biologically, evolutionarily. Right now we're at a social stage where "survival of the fittest" holds less meaning for humanity than it once did, but we're still evolving, we're still adapting. Evolution is a tricky beast, with murky boundaries, and what helped us thrive once might not always help us thrive in the future. The Genius Plague poses that sort of "what if" scenario that makes us question what it means to be human, what it means to adapt, and what it could be like to play a more active role in humanity's genetic future.
As I wrote that, I realised that it could sound like The Genius Plague was condoning eugenics, and I don't think it was. For one thing, the fungus didn't "win," per se; humanity was changed by the experience, came away older and wiser for it, but it didn't enter some new "phase" of evolution. But there were echoes of eugenics in there, absolutely. Survival of the fittest, the so-called "acceptable losses" of those who couldn't survive the fungal infection being inconsequential against the potential future of a symbiotic relationship between humans and fungi... It takes the question of eugenics and frames it in such a way that it seems natural to fight against it.
But the framing, especially against the whole history of symbiotic life across the planet, did make me stop and think. It wasn't as cut-and-dry as you might expect, when seen from that angle.
On a less... distressing aspect of The Genius Plague, I want to talk a bit about the protagonist, Neil. He's the sort of character who has a good heart but not always the best head, and while he's an interesting person to read about, after a while I had to roll my eyes a little at how often he stumbles into situations because he's sure he's right and no one else could possibly understand or help, gets in way over his head, has to be bailed out while others clean up his messes, and the worst part is that the situations he bumbles into turn out to actually need something that he can provide. He was intelligent and had a lot of knowledge and passion under his belt, but some of the situations he found himself in (or I should say that he deliberately walked right into) stretched credulity after a while.
Still, he was a great character to follow along with. His interest in code-breaking and his treasure-trove of seemingly random obscure knowledge made him fascinating, and more than a bit relatable (ironic, then, that I said I rolled my eyes at some of the situations he got into where his obscure knowledge saved the day; though my own treasure-trove of random knowledge isn't going to save humanity!), and while he got berated more than once for not thinking before acting and ending up in situations he needed rescuing from, he never lost his conviction that he needed to do something. That sort of mentality can get burned out of us so easily when faced with adversity and a constant barrage of problems, but Neil kept his, and that part of him was easy to love.
Plus he's into cryptography, and I can appreciate that.
Overall, The Genius Plague was a fantastic and thought-provoking read that I might like to revisit in the future. It's fast-paced but feels like it lingers, weaving tendrils into your mind that force confrontation and reflection. For all that it asks some big questions, I never felt like I was in over my head, and I think Walton's writing was a big part of why. It can be easy to understand complex issues when someone explains it all in a clear and concise way. I'd like to experience some more of his writing now, after having enjoyed my experience with The Genius Plague so much. Loved it, would easily recommend it to speculative fiction fans who are looking for a story that skirts so close to believability that you start to wonder what might actually be possible in the world.
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