Jon Grady is ecstatic. Tonight he has ushered in a new era in human civilization. He’s created antigravity. A thousand years from now, schoolchildren will recite his name alongside Newton and Einstein. Or….they would, if a strike team from a secret government organization weren’t standing by to disappear him. The Bureau of Technology Control monitors scientists and technical innovators with the potential to realize ideas or create tech that might be catastrophically disruptive, and then…sequesters them. Oh, the ideas aren’t squished — just controlled. Limited to the BTC itself, which uses its clones, holograms, and fusion generators to maintain its ability to seek out and contain innovation. Scientists who agree to work for the BTC can still see their technology realized, even developed further, but not allowed to escape into society at large. Grady is horrified to learn of an unelected group trying to manage humanity, even as they show him models that predict catastrophes for this-or-that tech being released. Refusing to work for them, he is instead shoved into a nightmarish prison, turned into a test subject to create the next generation AI — but even here, in a cell without doors, there is resistance. Influx is a SF thriller with horror aspects and an ending worthy of a Marvel movie — as captivating as all of Suarez’ work, though diminished by an antagonist who’s rather overtly villainous.

I wasn’t reading this immediately before Halloween on purpose, but that certainly proved appropriate. We open in excitement turned to terror, then lulled into wonder and ease as we learn of the insular world of the BTC. When they realize that Grady isn’t someone who will go along with them, even though he tries to fake agreement (only to be exposed by their tech), it quickly turns to truly disturbing horror on both body and psychological levels. If Top Ten Tuesday ever does a “Top Ten Characters Who Will Require Deep Psychological Care Post-Plot”, Grady will be at the top of mine. Although the horror section begins innocently enough, when Grady resists further…yikes. Imagine being alone, with nothing but an inquisitive AI for company, one that won’t hesitate to stimulate your nervous system into thinking it’s on fire, and which will delete the memories that you might otherwise focus on for comfort and sanity — and imagine further that this AI periodically arrests you with tentacles and forces a tube down your throat to provide sustenance and extraction. Yeah. Fortunately, there is a resistance, and before too long we’re in action-thriller territory again.

Influx succeeds at creating an emotionally powerful novel with a fascinating premise, one that explains why cold fusion always seems to be just around the corner. It’s very cinematic, especially in its ending and the extreme polarity of its characters — with Grady as utterly heroic, and the BTC honcho as absolute evil. There’s some level of more greyness, especially because BTC is very compartmentalized so that most of the organization doesn’t know what most of the organization is doing, allowing for the head to get up to seriously evil misdeeds — as do the AIs that BTC uses. What makes this novel really interesting, though, is the sheer level of scientific topics discussed. Physics, genomics, machine learning, and especially cognition come into play. These more than made up for my occasional grouses, like the comically evil antagonist.

Highlights:

“I told you. Would you please stop pointing that gun at me?”
She didn’t lower it. “You just told me you’re dead. I’m not in the mood
for crazy today.”

She collapsed in a leather chair. “We need to inform the president.”
“No. We don’t.”
“He’s going to notice that parts of Detroit are missing.”

“I’ve always been your friend, Alexa. Now go. I will try to kill you as
unsuccessfully as I can.”