The Malignancy Protocol

Set on a futuristic artificial intelligence run space station above Earth, The Malignancy Protocol is a breathless rush through futuristic technologies, seen through the eyes of young genius David, and his researcher friends. There is lots of description of the new technology, and some good ideas. The plot is a fast moving one of betrayal and loyalty, and has genuine moments of horror and emption. Unfortunately much of the plot is buried beneath long passages of exposition (particularly in the first third of the book), which fail to drive the plot forward. As the main character, David’s reported genius is not always apparent in how he act and reacts to the situation, and much of his interactions with his younger sister, father and love interest feel rushed and insufficiently relevant to the story being told.

There are also strange elements that feel ‘off’. The casual use of a homophobic slur (‘poofy’) early on is perhaps intended to show the immaturity of the character who uses it, but it leaves a slightly sour taste for the reader, particularly as no-one challenges or remarks upon it.

The book was previously published in German, and this is a translation, which might explain some of the clunky dialogue and strange formatting. Much of the text appears to suffer from this – for example paragraphs that don’t quite scan in English:

"The drinks came directly from a dispenser built into the middle of the table, hardly a surprise anymore. Acclaim, at best. Lana was first to pry into Jamal’s day. »And Jay? Did you manage to be efficiently lazy?«
And (when talking about a character brushing his teeth, and not being able to speak):
The onset of oral hygiene prevented further verbal ejection.
Both emerging by 8:12 was a miracle in itself. Their hair told the rest of the story.
»Combing is luxury, or how do I see that?« Astrid said dryly.
»Just as silly chatter,« Jamal shot back, harder than intended."

Note the use of German quote marks »« in the above quotes. Together with the occasionally poor grammar and formatting of speech, this can be an irritant to a reader used to the English writing style.

There is also a constant ‘head hopping’ between characters that can be hard to follow at times, and detracts from the story. Thoughts of one character are dropped into the internal monologue of another, with no rhyme or reason. Again this may be a stylistic choice or a result of translation from differing languages and literature styles, but it is jarring, resulting in the need to re-read some sections to make sense.

Ultimately I would find it hard to recommend this book, although there are some good ideas and interesting sci-fi ideas here. The poor formatting, grammar and stilted descriptions and dialogue are sadly too difficult to look past, no matter how good the central idea and plot are.