EARTH
YA-- Brin uses the escape of a manmade black hole that is eating away at the Earth's core and a plausible future of sophisticated, instant universal and global computer data linkage and retrieval to reexamine, explore, and expand upon the themes regarding genetic creation and advancement begun in Star tide Rising (1983) and The Uplift War (1987, both Bantam). There is an element of suspense and intrigue as the characters scramble to define, find, and solve the black hole damage before each other and before it's too late.