"mi-crode ('mi-krod) n 1. A virus that rebuilds your genetic code, reshaping you into anything you want to be: Madonna. Elvis. A hairy, howling werewolf. A scaly, coiling anaconda.

"Or a Hammerhead. Half man, half shark. A new life form that wants to derail evolution and sees the rest of the world as lunch.

"A startling and electrifying vision of a future transformed by biotechnology gone wild, Jim Young's Armed Memory is an edgy and powerful new novel from one of science fiction's most daring new writers.

"In the strange days of the next century, America is caught on a cusp between social breakthrough and total breakdown. Sanity cops try to stem the chaos as a revolution in genetic engineering offers anyone the chance to change shape at will.

"Tim Wandel arrives in New York City at the dawn of this weird millennium, hoping to make it as a journalist, and ends up at the center of the storm as a flack for his cousin Johnny Stevens, a biotech wizard who specializes in designer genes and who dreams of reshaping society to the beat of the long-dead rock music of Jim Morrison and the Doors.

"But Johnny has made some powerful enemies. The Hammerheads are the most dangerous creatures who have ever lived, with the brilliant cunning of human criminals and the brutal savagery and insatiable hunger of killer sharks. They know that Johnny's Microde City workshop is the only force that can stop the new ecology of terror they plan to spread across the planet. As a violent wave of disorder spreads across the globe, Tim finds he holds in his hands the key to humanity's salvation or the seeds of its destruction." [jacket blurb, US hbk, 1995]

"Fast, savage, and muscular, in constant motion, a sleek and relentless prose machine with killer instincts and the sharpest teeth around. Jim Young charts out its dangerous territory with style and great aplomb. Scary and beautiful and a joy to read." --Michael Swanwick.

"Breakneck... at once a witty entertainment and an exploration of the far edge of humanity." --James Patrick Kelly.

"An unusually fast, moving, and gritty story, dealing in some excellent sparse prose with a powerful theme." --Gordon R.Dickson.