Crache is a followup to Mark Budz' first novel, Clade, set maybe 50-100 years later with different characters, but in the same near(-ish) future world.

If I were one of those cheesy book reviewers whose quotes always seem to end up on book covers I would say "Crache is a heady mix of biotech, genengineering, cyperbunk, and politics spiked with aliens and mysticism." Then I would have to shoot myself.

The book is interesting, though the biotech terminology gets a little overwhelming at times. In Clade, this was less of a problem, since the technology being described was less mature and complex. The author could definitely do a better job of making the book accessible, though after a while it is possible to more or less figure out what all the words mean (I am too lazy to use a dictionary). Unfortunately, this makes it hard to really get involved with the novel.

The book also has some pacing problems, as flashbacks start to overwhelm the present time action towards the end of the book. Nevertheless, the conclusion is quite satisfying, and it has a nice semi-mystical edge to it. A follow-up novel would be quite interesting, since the fictional world he writes about seems to be getting incredibly weird.