I’ve come to expect certain things from MCM, and The Vector is no exception. It is – like all of MCM’s adult novels – a thriller. A fast-paced, heart in hand, gory, dirty, techno-quick thing, chock-full of characters and plot lines that don’t seem to be related but probably are, set in a dystopian viral future, the world of the ‘home-made virus’.

MCM doesn’t give us much background to the story, though – and this is one minor quibble in itself (but 20 chapters in, this hardly seems to be a problem) . . . so while we do know that there exist possibly innumerable strains of synthetic viruses, and we do know that these viruses are designed the same way one might design a warhead, we don’t know who or what are behind these things, and we don’t know why so many countries are affected. These are questions that MCM probably has answers to, but like any good storyteller, he keeps them from us and reveals them bit by bit.

The story’s centered around a girl called Eva, and her search for her mother in Prague. There are also two parallel plot lines – one of a white-collared worker named Carey – who’s involved in this whole mess through some tangential way I don’t yet understand – and another of a group of doctors versus a virus-hunter called a Healer. Somewhere in the middle of this mess is something/somebody called a Vector, and it’s hinted that there may be a possible outbreak in Prague w/r/t aforementioned Vector.

Fun? Yes. Recommended? Definitely. Go read it, there’s still a long way to go before the story ends.

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