Martha Wells 2017. David Walton - The Genius Plague. New York: Pyr. 384 pp.

It’s a friller. The premise is that a fungus from the Amazon (which is ancient, but for some reason is only now just a problem) is mysteriously perfectly pre-adapted to infect humans and send the mycelium through the brain. Wonderful to report that this doesn’t kill people, or paralyse them, but it makes them more intelligent. A wonderful book for anyone who finds this scenario, and the tooth fairy, convincing. David Walton is an engineer for Lockheed Martin, and is careful to be numerate and plausible on his own turf but should stay clear of biology.