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When reading the cover of David Frango's novel, The Quantum Enzyme Code: The Woman Who Discovered the Cure for AIDS, one cannot help pausing to gaze at the title. It stirs up a reader's curiosity to open the book and start reading. I am glad to have had the opportunity. The novel is a futuristic science fiction story spanning the years 2020 to 2035. In an obscure rural town in Arizona, a young girl by the name of Dianna Utterson emerges as a child prodigy in mathematics and science. Raised in a plain, hardworking blue-collar family, Dianna magically embraces her faith, imagination, and passion for the hidden secrets of the Human Genome. Her Uncle, a positive role model in her life, nourishes her creativity and imagination in science. His death inspires her quest to find a cure for AIDS. Dianna, a phenomenon in Science, Molecular Biology, and Math, maintains an uplifting spiritual belief in God. It is an innocent blind faith in humanity that causes her entanglement with obsessive human greed. Dianna unknowingly faces a clever and devious student fixated on her and stealing her work. She is also confronted with underhanded pharmaceutical companies trying to acquire her work for their profit. Amid the obsession to steal and profit from Dianna's work, Vatican ideologies clash. There is a group in the Vatican intent on suppressing and controlling the cure, and a group wanting to distribute it. The central plot of the story focuses on Dianna's research, introducing the reader to such areas as quantum physics, molecular biology, the pathogenesis of the AIDS Virus, and DNA sequencing. Although some parts of the book may be complicated to someone with little or no scientific background, the progression of Dianna's research is well plotted and her results, though fiction, are believable. It would have been an easier read if there were more illustrations associated with the various scientific principles. For example, illustrating Pascal's Triangle was helpful. The scientific plot is visual; illustrations would help readers with little or no scientific background. Although the scientific plot can be difficult at times for the average reader, the story is well worth the read. Many modern day issues arise pertaining to human morality and immorality, corporate and pharmaceutical greed, as well as Faith, both in the spiritual and political sense. The book is a compelling look at scientific research and the costs, both good and bad, associated with it. I would have like to have seen the Government's role in one of the subplots. These days, there is a powerful fundamentalist influence within Government to legislate morality as they see it. It would have been interesting to see the Governments' response to a cure for AIDS. I highly recommend this book to those with a scientific background as well as those who enjoy reading a good science fiction thriller. I also recommend the book to readers who enjoy reading thrillers embroiled in plots associated with the human condition. Tracy Roberts, Write Field Services Reviewer Paperback: 620 pages Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (June 28, 2006) ISBN: 0595393810 Available: Amazon.com and BN.com
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