I like reading dystopian sci-fi stories. The story is great and has a strong female character. I like the world building. I enjoyed a lot.

The Titan Strain is the first book in Virginia Soenksen's Genetics Chronicles. It takes place in London in the future -- the world has been devastated by World War III, and the politics of London has changed. It is now ruled by the fascist Libertas party. The world is laxly policed, and people have started to illegally genetically manipulate themselves to gain superhuman powers to run faster, jump higher, or be stronger. The people that genetically manipulate themselves are known as "mods". Modding often comes with negative side effects; the genetic material that they use comes from animals, and as they manipulate themselves this way, they become more like the animals themselves.

Liane, our heroine, is far stronger and far faster than any of these mods. Her sole purpose in life is to carry out the wishes of the Agency through her handler, Damian. She's not allowed to speak to anybody outside of the Agency, and she has to obey all orders that Damian gives her. It's a little creepy, because if, as an example, Damian wants to go to the theater with her, he even tells her what she has to wear.

Over the course of the book, Liane meets Seth, a normal person who is a police officer working on a serial killer case, and she ends up rebelling against Damian. All of the murder victims are mods, and as she (and Seth) try to figure out what is going on, they end up discovering a new modification that has been developed, known as the Titan Strain. Over the course of the book, her entire outlook on life changes, and her world will never be the same.

It's an interesting concept, and the plot is pretty good. Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I will probably end up reading the next installment of The Genetic Chronicles when it comes out, as I am interested in finding out what happens next. It's definitely a book worth checking out.

However --

This is a good book, but it is not a GREAT book. It's not a book where I will fall asleep dreaming about the characters, or write hundreds of pages of fanfiction about because I'm in love with these people. I'm not going to ruminate about this book while I'm at work. Some of my favorite books do that to me.

There are things that could have made this book better. Amazon.com describes the world as one where "People frequently go missing in this world, and those who want to survive must close their eyes to the crimes committed on their streets." Ooh, dangerous. For some reason, I really don't feel the danger of this world, however. The same holds true for the characters. They don't have the life that some of my favorite characters have. As I thought about this, I thought that maybe it was because it wasn't written in first person point of view, like some of my favorite authors, like Veronica Roth and Marie Lu, tend to write in; but then I realized that Flame in the Mist, a book that I recently finished and loved, doesn't have that problem and is written from a third person point of view.