Alternative

The Edited Genome #2

by Marcos Antonio Hernandez

A woman longing for life in the country. A friend targeted for termination. Will she sacrifice it all to save another?

Chloe Rose yearns for freedom from the city’s rat race. Desperate to earn enough money to escape, she allows DNA-edited elites to upload their consciousness into her brain. But when one of them uses her body to endanger the life of her friend, she resolves to destroy the person responsible at any cost.

To put her plan into action, Chloe goes undercover as an assistant to the ruthless wife of WestCorp’s CEO. But when she’s unmasked, she has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. And if she doesn’t end the company’s sinister scheme, millions of people will be weaponized to serve a corrupt woman’s whims.

Can Chloe prevent innocent minds from being turned to violence?

Alternative is the second book in the thought-provoking Edited Genome technothriller trilogy. If you like brain-bending science, twists you won’t see coming, and challenging moral dilemmas, you’ll love Marcos Antonio Hernandez’s frightening story of genetic engineering.

212 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 18, 2020

About the author

Marcos writes from the suburbs of Washington D.C. He didn’t always know about his passion for writing but has always known about his passion for reading. He began by carving out time every day to develop the habit of writing until the foundations of his first novel had been built. He reads everything he can get his hands on but particularly enjoys science fiction/fantasy. When reading is not possible, he has his headphones in, listening to audiobooks.

After graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in chemical engineering and a minor in physics, Marcos has been lucky enough to have not one but two dream jobs. He began flexing his creativity muscles during his time as a food scientist at a dessert think tank, specializing in helping clients find solutions to their frozen dessert problems (read: professional ice cream maker). After leaving this career, he began a new career as a strength and conditioning coach (what he calls his “retirement”). He has been a coach for over five years and enjoys interacting with a diverse range of people.

Marcos believes in training his creativity muscles through storytelling. Like exercise, he believes in showing up every day to get the work done. His hope is to learn from every experience and let it shine through the stories he tells.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and skillfully plotted

Here’s the 2nd book in the Edited Genome trilogy. It is effective in setting up the final book, Absolution, but Alternative is itself a good read. At first I was somewhat unhappy with the switch of lead character from Shada to Chloe, but the story all came together in the novel’s exciting final pages.

[Tom Erickson]

Fascinating read about the potential downfalls of scientific progress - much along the lines of Big Brother...