Seoul may be one of the few places to escape an asteroid speeding towards earth, but life there is far from safe. Genetic engineering on an horrific scale, drugs, deceit, perverted sex, this frenetic account is not for the squeamish. Most characters are deeply unpleasant, and deserve all they get, but I did feel for those innocents who though they may escape Lucifer's Hammer, are snared unwittingly in a deadly trap.

Sydney opened the brochure. The first page was bursting with pictures of high-tech Euro-style rides. 'The Kremlin Gremlin, the Eyeful Tower,' she read. 'It looks really fun.' 'It will be a fantastic day out, Sydney, but the main attraction of the park won't be its virtual reality jousting tournaments, but the Peonies: one hundred and twenty cloned children genetically gifted with superior musical and athletic ability and, most important of all, peaceful minds.'
Sydney turned the page to find a picture of an orchestra composed of sixty blond peas-in-a-pod girls and boys. They must all be Photoshopped, the same two kids, but still, it was freaky to look at.