missingvolume | #123 The Genome by Sergei Lukyanenko

Set in a future where parents pay to have their kids genetically modified to make them better at certain jobs our hero is an out of work ship captain. Just released from a hospital after spending months recovering from a horrible accident he gets a dream job offer. Along the way he helps out a young girl about to metamorph into her adult form, something every spesh [ modified human] does before they are considered an adult. It turns out she is on the run and isn’t a typical fighter spesh as first thought. Alex picks an entirely fresh crew per his job contract and finds himself ferrying aliens on a pleasure cruise among several planets. The story quickly moves from a SF story to more of a locked room murder mystery with the possibility of war happening if things don’t get solved quickly.

Good world building and I would read more books set in this universe. The identity of the killer is a bit of a cop out but the overall fun read of the book more than makes up for that.

Digital copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley