"Kenneth Johnson has written another engaging novel"

The Washington Post & Associated Press - Jeff Ayers

Amazon bestselling author Kenneth Johnson plunges readers into a day-after-tomorrow thriller about an imminent global catastrophe and explores how ordinary people respond to extraordinary circumstances.

When the icy shards of a rogue comet fall to Earth, they bring an unknown virus that accelerates evolution to extremes. Suddenly, infected plants grow stronger, choking out those uninfected. Animals turn aggressive and deadly. The eyes of loved ones go cold, and infected neighbors begin exhibiting signs of brutal domination.

In a small Georgia town, fourteen-year-old Katie McLane sees her neighbors changing, one by one.

Dr. Susan Perry, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, uncovers the frightening scope of the menace. The infected aren’t just evolving. They’re conspiring to alter the very nature of what it means to be human.

Katie and Susan become fugitives because of what they know, encountering bitter betrayals and lethal dangers, but also loves ignited and inspiring camaraderie, as they fight to prevent a viral conspiracy from creating a terrifying brave new world.

“When scientists calculate that a comet will impact Earth, chaos reigns, but the worst is yet to come in Kenneth Johnson’s sci-fi thriller, The Darwin Variant. -- The vast cast of characters ranges from scientists to high-school students, and all of them have a stake in the world-changing possibilities if the celestial body strikes Earth. -- Each character tells his or her individual story, providing depth in all of the players.

"Johnson takes the scenario of fear of collision with a rogue object from space and turns it on its head by making things worse after everything seems resolved. -- This approach turns the narrative into a contemporary version of the paranoid classic film 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' ...alluding to the seeds of a new master race. Fans of Johnson will also see echoes of “V,” his television miniseries from the 1980s. -- Johnson has written another engaging novel."

--- Jeff Ayers, Associated Press & The Washington Post

"Johnson channels Stephen King with this thriller about the aftermath of a near-collision of the Comet Avery and Earth told in a first-person, documentary style. A small sampling of people is infected by debris from the comet that makes them super-intelligent at the cost of their humanity. ...The Darwin Variant divides families, lovers, and colleagues working toward the same goals in a nerve-wracking race to an unexpected conclusion."

--- Booklist

"It’s a timely and terrifying concept. Johnson weaves it into a tight science fiction thriller offering hope among the horror, and a fascinating duel between the ethos of the Survival of the Fittest and the evolution of humanity toward a better humanity, not merely a smarter one...with Johnson’s characteristic warmth and humanism emerging in even the darkest circumstances.

"The Darwin Variant is a good deal of adventurous fun as well. A story of resistance fighters on the run, chases and escapes, aerial pursuits through swamps, and — well, you remember how much fun V: The Original Miniseries was, don’t you? Kenneth Johnson knows how to tell a damn exciting story.

"As with V, Johnson executes a superb drawing together of the threads of his narrators toward a fascinating resolution to the thorny questions of The Darwin Variant."

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