The Odyssey Gene
Kfir Luzzatto
Echelon, 2006, $12.99
ISBN: 1590804732

New Nations Organization programmer John Hektor is selected for a promotion that is his once he passes the mandatory DNA test. To his shock, John fails when he tests D-positive. This costs him more than just the promotion as his girlfriend Maya reacts by dumping him as soon as he tells her; his family disowns him; his friends drop him; and at work he has become overnight an undesirable.

Stunned by becoming an outcast, John knows the D-gene only means you have immunity to a nasty plague. He begins socializing with his new peers at seedy “positive” bars before deciding to escape hell on Earth for New Australia where the Andania colony is rumored to be a heaven for Positives. On the space ship he meets and falls in love with Entertainment Officer Dana. Upon arrival, John is drafted into the Andanian army where he finds brutality and atrocities everywhere as the New Australian “Newists” want to keep their superior position of being first using abuse to keep the newcomers Andanians down; while Andanians leadership remains preoccupied with rank has its privileges.

This exciting science fiction tale is a beleaguered man’s journey for self actualization once he becomes a social pariah. John experiences first hand the impact of discrimination and the atrocities of war in which the heroes are leaders who never get bloody let alone feel discomfit while the losers are the countless pawns sacrificed for political expediency. Though the Newist perspective is lacking as readers only learn that John believes they are animals, mindful of Candide, Kfir Luzzatto uses outer space to paint allegories to contemporary situations on earth like sanctified marriage amendments, justified Iraqi preemption and righteous Israeli-Palestine indignation.

Harriet Klausner