by Matt Ruff
First published 2004
Joan Fine works for the Zoological Bureau, tracking down mutant creatures that infest New York's underground tunnels. She has seen plenty of strange beasts in the sewers, but never a great white shark prowling beneath the city streets. Her ex-husband Harry Gant builds the tallest skyscrapers ever constructed, despite his fear of heights. From his Atlanta towers, the billionaire surveys his empire and plans his next conquests. Now he prepares to complete a new Tower of Babel in New York. Joan's discovery of the shark leads her into a conspiracy that involves Disney, John Hoover, a feminist filmmaker who practices group love, and deadly robots. She encounters eco-terrorist Philo Dufresne, an Inuit foundling named Twenty-Nine Words for Snow, a talking ladybug called Betsy Ross, and a dead person reborn as artificial intelligence. These unlikely allies complicate Joan's investigation rather than help her solve it.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: conspiracy, investigation, unlikely-allies
Setting: New York, Atlanta
Period: 21st-century
720 pages · Mass Market Paperback · FOLIO
Content warnings: violence