Oaths and Miracles

Robert Cavanaugh #1

by Nancy Kress

The widow of a murdered scientist and an unstable FBI agent join forces on a trail of science and death that leads them from a biotech company to a paramilitary splinter group to a religious commune. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Science Fiction Fantasy

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 1996

About the author

Nancy Kress is an American science fiction writer. She began writing in 1976 but has achieved her greatest notice since the publication of her Hugo and Nebula-winning 1991 novella Beggars in Spain which was later expanded into a novel with the same title. In addition to her novels, Kress has written numerous short stories and is a regular columnist for Writer's Digest. She is a regular at Clarion writing workshops and at The Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland. During the Winter of 2008/09, Nancy Kress is the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not anywhere close to Kress' best work and much more of a technothriller feel than her outstanding "classic" science fiction writing but still a diverting read.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't find this one as deeply intriguing as the sleep-related series, but it was still an interesting topic, mostly good characters.

[Mike Finn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading Nancy Kress since her 1991 novella 'Beggars In Spain' won the Nebula. Her Science Fiction has always been leading edge in terms of her ideas and human in terms of its scale. Recently, I've become interested in her Climate Fiction, starting with her short story “A Hundred Hundred Daisies” John Joseph Adams' powerful anthology, 'Loosed Upon The World' and then her innovative novella 'After The Fall Before The Fall During The Fall’

'Oaths and Miracles' was a re-read for me, although the last time I read it was 1998 and in the following twenty-two years, most of the details, including the reveal of what the bad guys were up to, faded from my memory. I recently released my physical copy of the book into the wild but I wasn't quite ready to let it go, so I picked up an ebook copy and did a re-read.

'Oaths and Miracles' is a Techno-Thriller, of the kind that Michael Crichton popularised. In 1991 that was still a young genre and this book stood out because it focused on possible threats coming from the rapid development of the science of human genetics on the back of the Human Genome Project.

Reading it today, much of the science sounds familiar. Oddly, this increased the sense of threat in the book as it made what the bad guys were trying to do seem quite plausible.

It's not my favourite Nancy Kress novel but it is still an entertaining thriller with a strong idea at its centre and a series of people in peril. It's a strange mix as it's about the Mafia involving themselves in genetic engineering research and being willing to kill large numbers of people to achieve their goal and protect their secret.

The plot follows separate storylines that are initially hard to see the links between but which eventually twist around one another into a knot. We had the Las Vegas showgirl who knows something she shouldn't, the ex-cult member trying to get access to his wife and kids, a science journalist married to a leading scientist researching the mechanics of gene therapy and an FBI agent trying to build his first RICO case.

I enjoyed the puzzle the book pivoted around and the way the plot sustained tension and a sense of urgency. I thought the ex-cult member was well-drawn. I particularly liked the scenes where he's dealing with the radio and TV show hosts who are trying to turning his frustration and fear into viewing figures. The two main characters, the journalist and the FBI man didn't quite work for me. The journalist was essential to the plot to explain the science, make the links to religion and to put a human face on the story. All of that worked but I thought her interior monologues were a little flat. The FBI man was an interesting invention, with his compulsion to think by drawing cartoons and writing poetry mashups (although that phrase hadn't been coined at the time. My main problem wasn't that I didn't believe in him but that I didn't like him.

There is a second book featuring this FBI agent but I'll pass. I'd rather spend the time reading Kress' 'Probability Moon' which is in my TBR pile.

[Tomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow and confusing at the beginning, but it got better.

[Kieran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. Once I got into it I finished it in around 24 hours, so it's a page turner.
The first 2 or 3 chapters are the weakest, and I found the writing in those chapters a bit cliche, but I read on and enjoyed pretty much all the other chapters very well.
The story structure is like William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, where there are multiple point of view characters, and each chapter focuses on one of those characters, and over the course of the book you get more and more crossover between them until they all converge towards the end and the central mystery is revealed, which for me works well. I like how it creates this sense of rising action and stakes.
I don't know how I feel about the ending where Cavanaugh gets all the evidence he needs for his case on a disc from one of the lab assistants who doesn't appear in the story, after the biotech lab is blown up and his best witness is killed. I get that the Relatives would have those kinds of contingencies in place and it added to their feeling of being this invisible force worthy of paranoia, but it also didn't feel "earned" or connected to the events of the rest of the story.
The Relatives are done very well. You never encounter them really, but they feel ever-present and capable, which I think is important in a story, for antagonists to be capable and a meaningful adversary.
I liked the realistic scifi/technology elements and the gene-specific biotech weapon was a compelling goal that was interesting to read about. Around the time this story was published bio-genetic weapons were topical.
On to the other two books in the series.

[Race Bannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an OK read. It was more murder/thriller than
Science Fiction even though my library put it on the
SF Shelf. The author's writing is smooth and enjoyable,
although this book is somewhat dated. A few of the
characters have some depth to them, but not much for
the supposed protagonist (Cavanaugh). He seems kind of
accidentally involved in the story, but some of the
side characters were fun to read about.
Mildly Recommended.

[Stretch23 · Rating 1 out of 5]

A grave mistake by a gifted writer. The science is intriguing, albeit out-of-date, but the premise is ridiculous: the Mafia is interested in developing undetectable ways to cause the death of particular persons utilizing tailored gene editing. The plot development is ham-handed thriller cliche, the characterizations are bizarrely amateurish, and the protagonists' motivations are alien to human psychology. Kress is really out of her depth here.

[Xerxessia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dieser Roman ist nicht - wie vermutet - ein Science Fiction, sondern ein Thriller. Es geht zwar tatsächlich um einen gentechnischen Sachverhalt, der - zum Glück noch - Zukunftsmusik ist, aber der Plot ist richtig Krimi-mäßig. Super geschrieben, spannend und gut durchdacht.

[emilia · Rating 1 out of 5]

dnf

might try again in 2023

[Gordie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il thriller che non ti aspetti.
Da una collana di fantascienza, tutto mi sarei aspettato, meno che un poliziesco estremamente convincente quale questo Miracoli e Giuramenti di Nancy Kress, autrice americana prevalentemente di sf (vedi il ciclo dei Mendicanti di Spagna).

Credendo di imbattermi in un romanzo veramente ai limiti della scienza, ho invece scoperto ed apprezzato l’abilita` della scrittrice di poter regalare ad un pubblico alternativo questo bel giallo/thriller per cosi` dire, tecnologico.
Consigliato quindi anche a chi non voglia assolutamente contaminarsi col genere fantascientifico (forse l’unico vero elemento di sf e` la presunta cura per il cancro?), ma amante dei thriller (non direi medical) con un minimo di curiosita` per le nuove frontiere biotecnologiche (cosi` alla ribalta oggi, dopo la posa dell’ultimo mattone del genoma umano), Miracoli e Giuramenti e` una storia ricca di personaggi seppur scarsamente caratterizzati (ed e` uno dei difetti da me riscontrati), in cui la Kress riesce magistralmente a mescolare scienza, mafia e fanatismo religioso.
Perche` prima un mafioso e poi la sua ragazza vengono ammazzati?
Con che cosa hanno a che vedere le parole Cadoc e Verico (cadaverico)?
E` da questi primi interrogativi che l’agente dell’FBI Robert Cavanaugh deve iniziare una lunga indagine per scoprire quali legami possono esserci tra gli "amici" (la mafia) e alcuni studi avanzati di biotecnologia genetica atti ad utilizzare i retrovirus quali vettori per bloccare malattie genetiche importanti dal diabete al cancro.
Ma che interessi potra` mai avere la Mafia in questo campo della scienza assolutamente all’avanguardia?
Cavanaugh arrivera` a scoprire la sconvolgente verita` nonostante ogni indizio o testimone gli sfuggano di mano all’ultimo minuto, una figura di poliziotto fuori dagli stereotipi con una vita privata ed una carriera costantemente in gioco.

Scrive Nancy Kress nella postfazione al romanzo:
"Cavanaugh e` un investigatore, ma non e` un sopravvissuto del noir anni Trenta o delle serie televisive d’azione degli anni Cinquanta. E neppure di quella FBI di Edgar Hoover che ha inventato l’immagine classica del duro. Cavanaugh agisce in un mondo diverso, dal punto di vista sociale e tecnologico. E Cavanaugh, come tutti noi, lotta per essere al passo con i tempi."

Per concludere, un buon thriller, un’ottima storia ricca d’azione, ma anche di momenti di riflessione.
Tra le note negative, se vogliamo, azzarderei la sensazione che la sensibilita` femminile della Kress freni un po’ quella durezza quasi d’obbligo in una storia di mafia in cui gente senza scrupoli gioca con la vita del prossimo.
La trama a tratti si fa un po’ troppo sentimentale, sembra quasi patinata, poco incisiva e poco cattiva, ma forse, anche per questo, adatta ad un pubblico piu` vasto e meno estremo.
Da segnalare tra i personaggi di spicco del romanzo, oltre a Cavanaugh, Judy Kozinski, giornalista scientifica e moglie del noto scienziato di biogenetica Ben Kozinski (nonche` ambito rappresentante del sesso forte) e Wendell Botts, ex marine, ex alcolizzato(?) ed ex "soldato" della Divina Alleanza, una sorta di setta religiosa che gli ha strappato dagli affetti moglie e figli ai quali cerchera` in ogni modo di riavvicinarsi.

[Mike Briggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are four points of view leading the narrative in this book. I found that distracting an annoying, especially as none of the characters are very interesting.

Judy is too whiny, the ex-Vegas show-girl's part is too small and thin to get a handle on, the FBI Agent is too full of himself and anti-lawyer, while Botts swears too much.

Three of the main POV characters are fully formed, with just the ex-Vegas show-girl ending up having a rather thin cipher-like character.

The story structure is annoying, and the plot is somewhat absurd.

Overall, I am very disappointed that I ever started to read this book and would highly recommend readers to skip this book.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I realize this book was written some time ago but it seems very implausible for hard sci-fi. The detail and expense to do that specific scientific work would be astronomical. Besides that I found the characters to be unsympathetic and incapable of the heroics at the end. An ending that relied on deux ex machine.

[Natasha Hurley-Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pacy bio-tech thriller. Good characters, exciting plot. Only deducting stars because I didn't find the Big Reveal as awesome and scary as character reactions implied, and I like my tech thrillers to have just a bit more scope. It was fun, though.

[Mary Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good airplane read. Good dialogue. She also writes interesting science fiction.

[Avani · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are many fewer deep ideas and social commentaries than in most of her other work, and the plot didn't do enough for me to make up for it.