• Change Agent

  • By: Daniel Suarez
  • Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
  • Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (4,597 ratings)

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Change Agent  By  cover art

Change Agent

By: Daniel Suarez
Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
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Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author Daniel Suarez delivers an exhilarating sci-fi thriller exploring a potential future where CRISPR genetic editing allows the human species to control evolution itself.

On a crowded train platform, Interpol agent Kenneth Durand feels the sting of a needle - and his transformation begins....

In 2045 Kenneth Durand leads Interpol's most effective team against genetic crime, hunting down black market labs that perform "vanity edits" on human embryos for a price. These illegal procedures augment embryos in ways that are rapidly accelerating human evolution - preying on human-trafficking victims to experiment and advance their technology.

With the worlds of genetic crime and human trafficking converging, Durand and his fellow Interpol agents discover that one figure looms behind it all: Marcus Demang Wyckes, leader of a powerful and sophisticated cartel known as the Huli jing.

But the Huli jing have identified Durand, too. After being forcibly dosed with a radical new change agent, Durand wakes from a coma weeks later to find he's been genetically transformed into someone else - his most wanted suspect: Wyckes.

Now a fugitive, pursued through the genetic underworld by his former colleagues and the police, Durand is determined to restore his original DNA by locating the source of the mysterious - and highly valuable - change agent. But Durand hasn't anticipated just how difficult locating his enemy will be. With the technology to genetically edit the living, Wyckes and his Huli jing could be anyone and everyone - and they have plans to undermine identity itself.

©2017 Daniel Suarez (P)2016 Penguin Audio

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Still wrapping my head around it...

I'm a huge fan of Suarez previous work, and his set of Daemon and Freedom TM is my favorite story. That being said, I must say I never got attached to the main character in this book. He is a bit of a bleeding heart, who I personally would never see eye to eye with... but I'm leaving that out of my criticism here, being that's a personal taste thing.
It's the tactical errors he makes I'm mostly bothered by. I can't divulge without giving up plot points, but I will say he places himself in some precarious positions through sheer stupidity, and blind faith.
I would have enjoyed a little more development from the partner's (Yi) investigative side.
With the bleeding heart male figure, and women who lead by force, and the main characters metamorphosis resembling a very 'active' Hollywood Star currently making movies at a feverish pace (you smell what I'm cookin?) it Feels as if it were written for the big screen, which I'm hoping for Suarez sake that happens. He absolutely deserves it. I just wish someone would make a big budget version of Daemon for the big screen instead.

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37 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A terrifying look into our future

I really enjoyed Daemon by Daniel Suarez so when I saw that Change Agent was coming out, I had to get it. I pre-ordered it from Audible (something I rarely do) and the day that it arrived I was lucky that I was just about to finish the last book I started.

Change Agent is a story about Kenneth Durand an Interpol agent who is mysteriously changed into someone that he is not. Not just a small change either, but a full change. So much so that he quickly realizes that he is a wanted man and that this will forever change the way that the police will be able to solve crimes.

There are two authors that I read that remind me of Michael Crichton. Douglas E Richards and Daniel Suarez. Suarez is able to weave what is going on today with what he thinks will come in the future and it's terrifying. I work in a technology firm and he's not wrong with what he's thinking. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of what was written in Change Agent comes true at one time or another.

Durand as a character allowed the reader to follow along with someone as their own opinions of people and things they fought for so long was changing. Kenneth grew many times throughout Change Agent and really became one of the more dynamic characters I've read in a long time.

The overall story was one of the best I've read this year. It kept me wondering throughout and I honestly couldn't put this book down. I kept saying "one more chapter" late into the night. Each chapter brought me closer to the end, but I promise that this book will have a hold on my mind for a while.

A fast-paced technothriller on par with every Crichton novel I've ever read, maybe even a little more terrifying. Suarez took things that are real today and showed us what could happen in the future if we're not careful.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

The weakest story from famed Daemon author

What did you like best about Change Agent? What did you like least?

Change Agent had the same technical style has the other books from Mr. Suarez. He gives you just enough of world building details without boring you. The problem is unlike his other books, there aren't enough huge battles (practically none at the climax). There are also too many characters in this story and most of them don't play much of a role to the story.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Probably Daemon or Freedom TM just so I can forget about this mediocre work.

What does Jeff Gurner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Mr. Gurner always brings a solid performance to everything I have heard, including Change Agent. He was held back by the lack action sequences in the book and couldn't really make it as interesting as previous novels from Mr. Suarez.

Do you think Change Agent needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. The story ties up pretty well at the end, to the disappointment of most readers, I'm afraid.

Any additional comments?

Deathless meat will be a thing.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Great story with a seemingly rushed ending.

I loved the progression of the story, but the end felt rushed to the degree that when the antagonist finally gets his due, its anticlimactic. Bummer.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

I loved all his other works

I loved everything else Suarez has written. And the elements are here but it just does not come together. A lot of long dialogs describing an scene or item. Also he uses the concierge/pageant/show room floor method of story telling way too many times.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

a frustrating pop-sci thriller

Change Agent, by Daniel Suarez, is a frustrating pop-sci thriller, more focused on whiz-bang tech than telling an original story. At its core, this Crichton-esque soft-serve is a generic lone hero on the run chase book, set in the near-future where the threats of illicit genetic modification are rearing its ugly head and Interpol is working on cracking down on underground biohackers. After shutting down an illegal gene shop, analyst Kevin Durand becomes the target of Eurasian gang boss, Marcus Wyckes. Durand is injected with a “change agent” and wakes up in the hospital five weeks later, his entire genetic structure altered so that he is now the spitting image of Wyckes, the Most Wanted Man In The World! Durand, on a mission to reclaim his identity, has to elude police, escape from his own team of Interpol agents, and go deep, deep, deep, deep undercover to secure the help of some of those underground biohackers he’s been tracking for arrest.

If you’ve seen the movies Face/Off and Minority Report, you’ve basically read this book already, and Saurez fails to inject many change agents into the formulas established by so many other body-swap and hero on the run thrillers. While it’s clear Saurez has certainly done his homework and there’s plenty of next-gen sci-fi tech to go gaga over, the story itself is too derivative for me to muster up much enthusiasm. There were also too many moments that ripped me right out of the narrative with how clumsily they were handled. In one instance, we’re introduced to a strange villain who is so evil a guard pees himself at the mere sight of the man, a scene that reads far more goofy than threatening. On another occasion, Durand has to flee a building swarming with cops by rooftop and surrounded by drones. He leaps off the roof and onto one of the drones, whose far-away pilot registers the error, but it never occurs to anybody to turn one of the other nearby drones to examine the “glitch” their sensors are reading. Later, Saurez details an underground slavers club where people have been modified to look like celebrities. It found it rather odd that people nearly 50 years in the future would still be modifying themselves to look like young Brad Pitts and Scarlett Johanssons rather than their current contemporaries, but maybe that’s just me. At other times, Saurez stops to linger for far too long, bearing the story down with a lot of exposition and infodumps on current affairs, the tech of the day, and detours into the Malaysian jungle that serve to slow the narrative to a crawl when it should be racing full speed ahead.

While Saurez’s writing failed to sell me on Change Agent, Jeff Gurner’s narration was at least well done. Gurner has a rich timbre and is able to provide a wide range of voices and accents to keep the large cast distinct. At times the reading felt a little too much like the voice-over work of a documentary, but it’s a solid enough listen overall. Given the flaws in pacing and Saurez’s been there, done that narrative choices, though, this was hard a audiobook to really sink into and enjoy, which made keeping my attention focused on the material all the more difficult. On the production end of things, the audio comes through clear and consistently, as one should expect of a major publisher like Penguin Audio.

Audiobook was purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Simply awful

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Absolutely nothing. The pseudo sci-fi/dystopian premise that a person's entire genome can be switched with someone else's is ridiculous on it's face. And the absurd situations our hero-turned super villain encounters are just boring comic book Pow! Wham! Absurdities.

What was most disappointing about Daniel Suarez’s story?

The entire premise

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No

Any additional comments?

I actually saw this book on a New Yorker website, and since I trust the New Yorker I bought it without much pre-knowledge. I enjoy sci-fi, but this is not sci-fi, has no "sci" just "fi."

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Great premise, setup...disappointing finish

I was very excited about the concepts being portrayed in this book and have been a fan of the author for awhile. However, after some great setup the plot simply meanders from place to place and secondary characters have little to no development enough to care about anyone's fate. The climax of the book felt like a rush to the finish with the protagonist, being presented with an enormous moral and utilitarian dilemma, still acting on his own superficial self interests. A disappointing and predictable end to a book with a very cutting edge concept.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Biological Techno Thriller

This book is a bit of a departure for Daniel Suarez but it is in keeping with his other techno-thriller novels. All of his novels are significant excursions into an extrapolation of a current cutting edge technology. His other novels rely heavily upon Information Technology and computers to tell their story. This novel deals with an even more threatening technology, that of genetics. Some listeners may be alienated by this leap from bits and bytes to DNA and RNA but in the end the same tense action and taught plot are on display. I heartily recommend this novel as do I all of the books by Suarez.

Jeff Gurner gives a stand out performance. He is one of the best narrators in the business.

P.S. for those Genetics geeks out there you may be interested in the technology that is behind this novel. My list of recommended books for aspiring geneticists and ethicists:

INHERITANCE by Sharon Moalem
THE EDGE OF EVOLUTION by Michael Behe
UNDERSTANDING GENETICS by David Sadava
THE SPORTS GENE by David Epstein
THE VIRAL STORM by Nathan Wolfe
THE GENE: AN INTIMATE HISTORY by Siddhartha Mukherjee
THE DOUBLE HELIX by James D. Watson

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • JF
  • 06-06-17

Really disappointed

I loved Daemon, Freedom and Kill Decision but this one just didn't work for me. I did not find the Durand character likable or believable and really didn't care what happened to him. I found myself switching to music on the drive home after chapters ended.

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4 people found this helpful