When a disease-ravaged body is found in the smoldering ruins of the federally funded DyMar genetic research lab, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully fear that a deadly, man-made plague is on the loose. As the FBI agents investigating the "X-Files" -- cases the bureau has deemed unsolvable -- Mulder and Scully pursue the truth wherever it leads, even into the labyrinthine corridors of the FBI... and beyond.
Racing to contain the lethal virus before it can spread, Mulder and Scully make a chilling discovery. Before his death, Dr. David Kennessy, a hotshot cancer researcher at DyMar, had been experimenting with a promising but highly dangerous technology: microscopic bio-machines that can cure any disease, heal any wound. In theory, this research could be a miracle cure, perhaps even a doorway to immortality. It was also the only way Dr. Kennessy could save his leukemia-stricken son.
But when a second corpse turns up, savagely mutilated from within, it's anything but theoretical. Could machines created to cure have learned to kill? Scrambling for answers, Mulder and Scully are opposed at every step by faceless enemies with all the resources of the government -- even perhaps of their own agency -- at their command. Enemies who will stop at nothing to ensure that the secret of immortality falls in the right hands -- their hands.
As sinister forces close in, Scully fights to save the life of an innocent boy while Mulder comes face to face with a crazed and desperate man. A man whose slightest touch brings agonizing death -- and perhaps a resurrection more horrible still.
The story reminds me very much of something Dean Koontz could've cooked up (I love the way the Koontz writes even when he gets over-the-top silly and meanders off into pages and pages of mind numbing description). This book is fast paced (this author apparently doesn't share Koontz's proclivity for longwindyness) and tells a story of a boy and his dog infected with a cancer, gun-shot wound, burnt to a crisp curing, form of nano-technology. Don't ask. My pea brain can't comprehend it. Anyway, one of the scientists who worked on this technology is also infected with these nano-critters. But he went and infected himself with the bad kind (duh!) and instead of fixing whatever ails him they make him break out with big tumorous lesions and whomever he touches dies of plague-like symptoms. Why? Ya got me. Plague-man is desperately searching for the boy and his dog because he believes their blood will cure him (boy, dog and their mom are hiding). Along the way he touches a few people and grossness occurs. Scully, Mulder and The Smoking Man make a few appearances but this story doesn't bring them to life in any exceptional way and it lacked Mulder's morbid sense of humor (the book would've rated much higher if these characters came alive a bit more). Overall it was interesting, a little icky and very sad at times reminding me of a classic X-Files episode without the Mulderisms.
Antibodies trots out a familiar sci-fi standard, the infected victim. In this case the man is infected with nanorobots that can kill a human in minutes, and completely dismantle the world in hours. That is if they get the chance to mutate. Apparently only an assassinated scientist's pet dog holds the key to a cure. Kevin J. Anderson's third (and looking to be final) X-File novel recycles concepts used in Dean Koontz's novel Midnight as well as Greg Bear's classic Blood Music (of which Anderson injects a sly reference to). End result? An entertaing weekend diversion that won't strain your brain. Recommended.
