Natasha Dragunov. Character design.

Agent Doppelganger. Natasha Dragunov. Character design.

You can acquire the novel here:

https://www.amazon.com/Agent-Doppelg%C3%A4nger-Gene-Hetzel/dp/1521753466

Synopsis:

Agent 42 is the ultimate operative, created to be able to change his human appearance on demand. The eponymous first book in the Agent Doppelgänger Trilogy tells the story of Agent 42’s rookie deployment to a near-future Phoenix, AZ, where his superiors task him with pulling off a series of inside jobs against some of the city’s most powerful criminal organizations. Over the course of these missions, Agent 42 discovers evidence of a conspiracy that threatens to plunge the city into utter chaos. Racing against time, Agent 42 must find a way to stop this mysterious menace as his world crumbles around him.

Review:

Agent Doppelganger is a great read, its greatest strength being that it is extremely entertaining and intelligent. It has a thrilling pace from start to finish. It is a science fiction and mystery story, at times a detective story reminiscent of Noir, with a constant feeling of paranoia from the protagonist that immerses us fully in the roller coaster of events that unfold at a dizzying pace.

Like all great works of science fiction, it contains implicit social criticism and philosophical reflections in just the right measure to avoid becoming heavy, while at the same time giving its world depth and meaning. Set in the very near and twistedly dystopian future, the technology is very similar to that of today, except in a few key areas, creating fascinating conflicts about the human condition.

Getting to the heart of the matter, and avoiding spoilers. The story follows a special government agent based in an alternate United States through a series of exciting, action-packed missions that explore in depth the implications of a biological being artificially created to be the perfect spy, using, with ingenuity and brutality, all his superhuman qualities and the consequences they have for himself, his enemies, and his environment. At first glance, the missions seem independent of each other, but there is an underlying and subtle conspiracy, a greater danger that ties everything together and becomes more evident as the story progresses, and which, near the end of the novel, reaches its climax to give us one of the best plot twists I have ever read and a deeply satisfying and extraordinary revelation, which I can tell you about without fear of spoiling it because I know you will feel it coming, it makes perfect sense and was there all along, but you will not guess it. That's how good it is.

The characters are endearing, especially the protagonist, who is sometimes tender, sometimes cruel, detached from humanity and yet deeply human when it counts. The antagonists are of extraordinary quality; they are complex, ambiguous, and have depth. Some of them, such as Rodgers, the protagonist's trainer, dance on the edge between allies and foes.

All of the above makes this a good story, entertaining, intelligent and innovative. But I have yet to mention a quality that elevates it above mere entertainment: the way it is crafted. It is damn well written, with agile and accessible language, yes, but also rich, varied, elegant, profound, even philosophical on a couple of occasions when the story and the moment demand it.

As I said at the beginning, this is a great novel, a self-contained story whose ending demands a sequel, which I eagerly await.