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The New Reality by Stephen Martino

The New Reality is a standalone novel by the author Stephen Martino. It is a book that got my attention at Netgalley due to the main theme: a high-tech medical thriller. I love medical mysteries (ever since reading books by Robin Cook) and I can never say no to a really good book in this genre.

Little did I know when I started reading the book that it’s also a suspenseful sci-fi novel with a bit of political intrigue and pre-apocalyptic elements mixed in as well.

The main story follows Alex Pella in a not so distant future, some 70 years from now. Humans are dying all over the world due to the ‘Disease’. What the disease is, nobody really know, except that once a person gets it, they will die from it guaranteed. The military is involved insomuch as they literally burn villages alive to avoid spreading the Disease to other places, regardless that there are kids of all ages in there as well. Nobody survives.

Alex Pella is a rich doctor who owns a hitech company called Neurono-Tek, the only privately run hospital and research center left standing after the Disease took over the world. Alex is set on finding a cure, especially after he’s contacted by someone called Jonathan, who seems to know a thing or two about the Disease and how to cure it.

Thus he and his team embark on a journey across countries and Greek islands following the clues from the Bible that Jonathan keeps with him at all times. Only Samantha, his partner, stays behind at the headquarters of Neurono-Tek to work on finding a cure from her end using clues that Alex will send her through online communication while away.

Alex, accompanied by his friends William, Marissa and Jonathan travels to Patmos, a Greek island between Greece and Turkey, following a clue given by Jonathan from his Bible. With each next step they are taking, they are getting guided by the clues Jonathan finds in the book, until the final clue: the cure lies with Alex himself.

I won’t give out more of the plot, as to why Alex is so important in finding a cure, I’ll leave it up to you to read it to find out. I was literally at the edge of my seat all the time and the revelation of how the cure could be found was a surprise that brought us on a small journey back in time to the pre-historical era with clues left for the modern man to find.

If I had to classify this book into one genre, it would be quite difficult. A medical thriller, an adventure thriller, a pre-apocalyptic novel, a sci-fi novel? A bit of each, really. Everything interconnects and merges seamlessly and you don’t even realize that you’ve gone through so many genres in this book alone. What remains constant, at all times however, is the suspense and thrill that every page gives us. That never diminishes until the satisfying end.

One thing I found scary was the thought that this dystopian society could actually become our own if we leave everything (cures, decisions and progress) to the hands of the politicians, to the government. Scary thought indeed.

Overall this is a book I can highly recommend anyone who loves a suspenseful thriller for a couple of rewarding action packed hours.

To learn more about The New Reality and to check out the book, head over to Amazon.

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