In Ginn’s SF novel, citizens of 2045 Amsterdam begin to succumb to a frightening syndrome that turns them into flesh-hungry zombie-like maniacs.

Europe in year 2045 abides under the “Authority,” a cabal of corporate service-providers that seized power after widespread disasters and social breakdowns stemming from climate change–generated fires and superstorms in 2028. The “Habitable Band” of the ravaged continent contains fortress-like cities and biodomes. By Authority decree, inhabitants are divided into the privileged and valued “Us” class, the middle-ground “Servs,” and the merely tolerated “Unders.” Amsterdam is a technologically advanced showcase city in which the Us are rewarded with life-extension serums from AgeFree, one of the mighty corporate brands. In the shadows, AgeFree’s mysterious founder, Zeno Alkehest, obtains and upgrades serums by abducting citizens (preferably Unders, but all levels are fair game), extracting certain body proteins, and then releasing the unwilling donors, who are chemically rendered amnesiac. The eighth iteration of the elixir has the side effect of physically and mentally degrading users, turning them into bleeding, psychotic maniacs hungering for human flesh. Alkehest pressures politicians, the police, the media, and the dreaded Security & Intelligence Service to contain and cover up the spreading horrors. Apprentice street gangster Arief Teheri, who is of Moroccan descent, gleans the awful truth and teams up with an Us rebel schoolboy/hacker named Jay and an Ethiopian named Yaba, to expose AgeFree’s crimes. Ginn’s background includes TV production and interactive media, and he brings cinematic worldbuilding touches to a rich narrative that combines the elements of dystopian SF, political intrigue, splatterpunk, and street-level crime thrillers. The narrative name-checks real-life author Naomi Klein and her Bush/Cheney-inspired The Shock Doctrine (2007) to inform the novel’s incisive portrayal of predatory capitalism (“People were there to be used up, then discarded”) as CEOs take full advantage of a crisis to maximize influence and profit. A late-stage revelation takes the material into borderline occult territory—and even this works.

A meaty, violent SF/horror thriller that has a lot to say about mad science, inequity, and social decay.