Small Miracles

by Edward M. Lerner

Book Overview

Garner Nanotechnology is developing nanotech-enhanced protective suits and autonomous first-aid nanobots. It's cutting-edge stuff, and when it saves Brent Cleary from a pipeline explosion that killed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765360705
• ISBN13: 9780765360700
• Release Date: August 2010
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 369 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.3" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Run-away technology...

Garner Nanotechnology has developed a suit that is light, easy to use and can make someone close to invulnerable. Brent Cleary is a company representative demonstrating the suit while on a police ride-along when he finds himself in the middle of a pipeline explosion that kills hundreds. He survives, barely. The suit more than worked, but the human body still has difficulty with being slammed deep into a brick wall accompanied by a huge fireball and debris. Bones are broken and there's internal bleeding in his body and head, but the suit also injects special first-aid nanobots that keep him alive until rescuers can aid him. Despite injuries, as the only survivor of the blast, he's an advertising and PR asset for his company, which now has the attention of the military. But something is odd with Brent and only his friend, Kim O'Donnell, a co-worker, is concerned. She suspects that the nanobots that are designed to die off and be flushed from the body have somehow survived. The story and characters are built up carefully and with nice complexity. The latter part becomes more of a suspense thriller of good-guys against bad guys that loses a bit of the "techno-," SF aspects, however. Still, it was an interesting concept and very readable.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

It's a miracle that sales-support engineer Brent Cleary survived the fiery pipeline explosion that killed over six-hundred people. Fortunately, the nanosuit he wore prevented him from being crushed and incinerated. It also injected him with computerized first-aid nanobots (smaller than blood corpuscles) that rushed to provide coagulant to hemorrhages. These nanobots were programmed to self destruct within twenty-four hours and be expelled through his urinary tract. At least one of the nanobots has survived in Brent's cerebrospinal fluid. The nanobot becomes aware of itself and names itself "One." It learns, growing more intelligent. Soon, "One" possesses Brent, virtually enslaving him. "One" doesn't want to be alone. When Brent returns to his job at Garner Nanotech, "One" forces him to inject nanobots into his coworkers, turning them into possessed, zombie-like humans. With the aid of their human hosts, the nanobots conspire to spread like a plague across the earth, dominating all of mankind. Edward M. Lerner's "Small Miracles" is a science fiction horror novel that is frighteningly plausible in today's rapidly growing field of nanotechnology. (Imagine nanobots being injected into the bloodstream to repair a damaged heart valve. It would be the end of open heart surgery.) "Small Miracles" is the most terrifying novel of Artificial Intelligence I have read since Dean Koontz's "Demon Seed." It is also very reminiscent of Ira Levin's horror classic "The Stepford Wives." My favorite character in "Small Miracles" is Kim O'Donnell, a computer programming engineer at Garner Nanotech and friend of Brent Cleary. She realizes his personality has been greatly altered since the explosion. She is the first to suspect that some of the first-aid nanobots may have survived. Later, her fears escalate as she suspects her boss and some of the guards have also changed. They are constantly wearing Virtual Reality glasses that connect them to the Internet, allowing them to communicate with each other and to read and learn at an incredible rate. Who can Kim trust? Who can help her combat the conspiracy? Will she become one of the possessed? From its explosive beginning to its explosive finale, "Small Miracles" is fast paced and very high tech and reads like a Michael Crichton novel. It is extremely intriguing and provocative; I couldn't put it down, especially during the last fifty pages when so many lives were in danger. The epilogue is wonderfully downbeat and open, letting the reader know that the real nightmare has just begun. Edward M. Lerner has degrees in physics and computer science. He has co-written numerous novels with best-selling science fiction author Larry Niven. He is the author of the highly acclaimed "Fools' Experiments," which also deals with the horror of Artificial Intelligence taking possession of mankind. Joseph B. Hoyos

Nanotech Emergent

In Small Miracles, Brent Cleary works for a nanotech company that makes nano body armor. His job is to accompany cops on their beat to demonstrate how effectively the suit protects the wearer from knife thrusts, bullets, even infection. A single successful demonstration can mean a huge order for the company. It's 2015; the US is involved in a 3-front war, and gasoline costs eight dollars a gallon, so we still haven't converted to metric. Talk about a bleak future! When the ride-along goes FUBAR, Brent only survives because of the suit. A year later, Garner Nanaotech is poised to make huge profits, all because Brent survived the unsurvivable in their product. Brent wonders how the nanites preserved him, and what mechanisms were in place to eliminate the nanites from his system once they did their job. As he begins to ask questions and conduct his own research, his best friend Kim is encountering design flaws that put the sales schedule at risk - which must not happen. Parallel stories of Darwinian survival evolve: that of the company, that of the nanites, and those of the individuals who are the unintending makers of a changed future. Lerner has co-authored three Ringworld prequels with Larry Niven, and several s-f techno-thrillers of his own, including Fools' Experiments, which has a similar theme of technology gone AIwry. He has an impressive array of short story publications, and his collection Creative Destruction is probably well worth reading. His official degrees are in physics and computer science, but his unofficial PhD is clearly in suffering bureaucracy ungladly. Almost all his villains are the self-serving weasels that infest corporations to subvert all work to their own nest-feathering. His descriptions of what goes wrong, how, and why are terrifyingly realistic. In an eerie way, his books are like sequels to The Screwtape Letters and the "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" by C.S. Lewis. Small Miracles is a techno-thriller in good order with all the requisite elements of characterization, surprise twists, and dire consequences of hubris and greed - the classic and constant besetting sins. And yet, as I read it, I kept wishing it had been written by Isaac Asimov instead, for two reasons. Well, three. Third, it would mean Asimov were still alive, prompting readers to thought and laughter. But first, because he would have included more actual scientific information and source material in the narrative. If an author has advanced degrees or uncommon knowledge and sharp imagination, then good story-telling leaves the reader well informed and mentally alert. Second, because Asimov was essentially optimistic, and so he would have taken the story down very different paths to a qualitatively different conclusion. For example, just with the beginning, I can't imagine an Asimov protagonist being so stupid as to move towards a gas pipeline that has just been breached by guys about to win a group Darwin Award. Yes, the protagonist's unlikely sur

refreshing cautionary science fiction thriller

At Garner Nanotechnology, Brent Cleary demonstrates a new nanosuit that will save the lives of cops or soldiers. Upon impact from a bullet, the suit tightens and stiffens to keep the projectile out; if it should penetrate and injure the wearer, nanites are secreted that clot the wound. The demos are successful as Brent rides along with the police. That is until a gasoline pipeline explodes killing hundreds and imbedding Brent into a brick wall. Brent survives, but his friends and workers believe he has changed though he, CEO Daniel Garner, and the medical research team in charge of the experiment insist he is back to normal with nanites removed from his system. However, Kim at Garner notices his ability to absorb information at a level geometrically greater than before the accident and his rate of absorption is growing even more rapidly daily. She begs him to undergo more intensive tests, but Brent refuses even as he begins to lose control of his mental faculties while the firm keeps on testing others while hiding the results from federal and state inspectors. This is an exciting modern day Frankenstein as Edward M. Lerner makes a case for better scientific ethics with stronger government oversight instead of rotating back and forth doors, which means no true review. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the explosion occurs and never slows down, but the tale is totally driven by Brent, Daniel, and Kim; each is obsessive in different ways. Although in some ways similar to Robocop (in terms of the critical conversion incident) mixed with Phenomenon, SMALL MIRACLES is a refreshing cautionary science fiction thriller. Harriet Klausner