The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future

Now that they are in power, there are no more checks and balances. The Conglomerates, and their mysterious party chairman, have taken over everything and everyone. There is no one left to stop them. Forty years in the future, in a world where Big Brother runs amok, a powerful political party known as the Conglomerates has emerged, vowing to enforce economic martial law at any cost. Dr. Christine Salter, director of genetic development at a New York medical center, is in charge of "genetic contouring," the much-in-demand science of producing the ideal child. But Christine is increasingly troubled by odd events, including the strange disappearance of Gabriel Cruz, a co-worker for whom she has a developing affection, and the fact that her latest assignmentmaking the Conglomerate chairman more youthful through genetic engineeringis an especially dangerous task. As mandated by the Family Relief Act, Christine's grandparents are relocated to a government-designed community in the American Southwest, along with other Coots (the official term given to the elderly), who are considered an economic and social burden to family and society. But even in this cold, cruel age, the Conglomerates can only control so much. In his enthralling debut, Thomas Nevins thrillingly chronicles a brave new world where one family struggles to survive by keeping alive feelings of mercy, loyalty, and love. Praise forThe Age of the Conglomerates: "Smart and exhilarating . . . a highly original debut novel, told in an exciting voice, that casts shades of Asimov." Steve Berry,New York Timesbestselling author ofThe Charlemagne Pursuit From the Trade Paperback edition.

Christine's World It was New Year's Eve and, for once, Christine Salter had the dress and the plans. True, you would expect the director of genetic development at the New York Medical Center, a position of professional power in the age of the Conglomerates, to be a popular woman and a woman with a full schedule. The director had the year end to wrap up; she had to reel in the budget; she had a lot of product to process, rank, categorize, and deliver to their expecting mothers. And Christine had a number of adults to process besides. Under Dr. Christine Salter's direction, Genetic Development had changed from being a cost sieve to become the division that led all others in the medical center in productivity, fame, and profit. People wanted to go there to create, or re-create, the infant they wanted, or to enroll in a newly developing program that would enable a person to re-create him- or herself through genetic manipulation. Which traits of theirs would they like to develop, which eliminate? Soon it would be possible to act on this personal improvement initiative. There was a waiting list of patients for the medical center's programs, and these lists represented future growth and revenues. Dr. Salter was determined to retain the premier position for her division, even though lately she had begun to feel uncomfortable about some of the decisions she was being forced to make. As soon as Christine thought about that, she thought about Gabriel, and that led to thoughts of her dress and what might happen between them during the evening ahead. She looked down at the year-end report she was compiling on the "the Pool." The division of genetic development was nicknamed the Pool by those who worked at the center, a term that referred to the department's work in improving the gene pool of their clients. Through the procedure of genetic contouring, a process at which Christine and her team excelled, those who could afford the expense, and who came from the correct demographic groups, could now design, or redesign, their basic genetic structure and adjust their offspring's appearance and behavior before birth. It was possible to select the characteristics of one's children. The Pool worked to provide the child you had always dreamed of and one who could contribute to the state, but Christine's own special initiative had been the division's new process whereby genetic manipulation would be extended to adults. In the interest of self-improvement, less desirable existing genes could be replaced with more desirable ones. "Why not be skinny and bright?" was the line they were working on to market the campaign. These were trickier, more complicated operations, with so far untested results, but that hadn't stopped the Conglomerates from enrolling. At the moment, the procedure was available to only an elite few, but Christine believed it would soon roll out to a large segment of the party. This new initiative would increase profits, the Conglomerate way. Babies were still the Pool's core business, however, and the source of the revenue stream at year's end. Not only were babies from the Pool marketed to be smarter, healthier, and more productive members of the economy. They were designed to be individuals who would add to the nation's resources through their efficient, productive use of the resources lefta generation that would develop innovative alternatives and not further deplete those resources, as their fathers and their fathers' fathers had done before them. Contouring babies was just the beginning, the higher end of this cleansing policy. The Coots and the Dyscards were at the other end of the scale, people who only sucked the system dry. But they were an entirely different matter and one that was