Darksides Lightsides

by Malcolm Davies

The action takes place in our times and the immediate future in England. A brilliant microbiologist creates and releases a genetically engineered virus into the environment. She has no malicious intent. In fact, quite the reverse, she sincerely believes that her actions will benefit humankind by making a permanent change to the human genome, the DNA structure that makes us what we are. A change for the better. The unforeseen consequences are catastrophic. Within a relatively short period of time, civil society and time-honoured institutions crumble. What everyone believed was the normal life to which they were entitled has gone and can never return. There are survivors. They are different from anything the world has seen before and it is up to them to create a new “normal”, an acceptable way of living together. (This story was originally published as “Small Issues” in 2016. It has been substantially edited, partially rewritten and revised to bring it up to date.)

387 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 30, 2020