Green Eyes in the Amazon Book

I found this book a bit confusing at times- it's a sequel to Fischer's "Julia and the Dream Maker". But while I never quite figured out *how* the situation that the book opens with came about, the author fills the reader in enough that one never feels completely lost.

Set in the not too distant future, most religions have banded together against technology. Dr. Steven Sumpter has used technology to do something that they consider abominable: created a fetus that is partly human.. and partly something beyond human. This baby, called Julia, is growing in the womb of Sumpter's longtime girlfriend, Eli. She is on the run. He is in prison. They have only Sumpter's father and his best friend as allies. Somehow, they must get together and get to safety so Julia can be born. But that isn't the only problem: someone is attacking the US military's quantum computers, and will soon disable all the defense systems in the US if Steven can't stop them... and the armies of religion are on the move.

A pall of danger and hopelessness hangs over the novel. Peril comes from every direction; there is never a time to catch one's breath. The author gets the reader caught up in this pace, sweeping them along straight through to the end. The characters don't fair quite as well as the pacing; Sumpter and Eli are a little too good to be true, but I found myself caring about them. Sumpter's father, Dennis, is ever resourceful and strong, providing lasers, portable labs that can synthesize DNA, and enough firearms and explosives to destroy a small country. He's sort of like the hero on a weekly action TV series, always finding a way out of the situation. Only the best friend, Bennie, seems truly human in scale. Bennie has physical weaknesses, Bennie gets scared. Bennie can get regular people to like and open up to him. The plotting is a little scattered at times, although it holds together most of the time. I never did figure out what the hell was up with the ancient Egyptian memories, but that might have been explained in the first book. I'd give this one a 3-1/2 out of 5 stars- I enjoyed it and was absorbed in it, but Fischer needs some work on character.