At one stage in THE ANTIGEN, a character stymied in uncovering a multi-pronged mystery notes that “The truth could be unraveled by finding other strands to pull.” Author A.I. Fabler has indeed woven many deep and twisted strands ripe for pulling.
THE ANTIGEN is primarily a David-and-Goliath thriller about the economics of pandemics. Readers unfamiliar with Part I will have no trouble with this sequel. Its seasoned author, a veteran journalist, drops exposition as deftly as he reveals complex information about finance, virology, international ladders of corruption, and media manipulations.
The plot centers around an investigative journalist and a wildlife painter who have uncovered just enough of a conspiracy to be thrown together in a fight for their lives. Also at the center are two flawed “journos” engaged in their own herculean, if personal, battles. Both are ex-pats working at the Hanoi desk of an Eastern Asian news agency. At one point, one asks the other, “When I first saw it, I had no trouble at all believing it. What the hell does that tell us about the state of the world—or is it just the work we do that’s made us this way?”
The cat-and-mouse narrative reveals jaw-dropping yet entirely plausible implications about systems including and going well beyond the usual suspects (Big Pharma, hedge fund managers, politicians) to include NGOs, relief organizations, scientific journals, and feel-good foundations. Fabler pulls no punches about modern-day global realities, including humanity’s apathy toward climate change. In a dispiriting description of Asia’s air quality, where “breathing becomes an act of faith,” he adds, “Globalization had shifted industrial production to cheap labor economies so that corporate profits could soar, and those at the top couldn’t give a rat’s ass about pollution.”
But the novel’s deep cynicism is cut with characters of genuine integrity. At one point, a recovering alcoholic uses his perceived weakness to manipulate a potential enemy into revealing vital information. A refreshing form of tension between lovers regards not trivialities but their values, as when one says, “I want justice, and you want peace. Perhaps it’s not possible to have one with the other.”
An anticlimactic ending undermines an otherwise exceptional read from this prolific writer. More, please.
A.I. Fabler’s THE ANTIGEN is a complex, well-told thriller that injects characters of integrity into its otherwise deeply cynical tale of international corruption.
~Anne Welsbacher for IndieReader