The Midnight Project (Wolsak & Wynn)
by Christy Climenhage
In the not-too-distant future, we meddle with ecosystems one time too many, and end up with a catastrophic collapse. We tried to engineer a type of human that could survive the collapse and just ended up with mindless predator–Hoppers, with too much frog DNA.
Raina and Cedric run a small business that helps people conceive, pushed along by a little genetic engineering they kept from their former employer; after all, they invented it. They are now blackballed in that industry for having a conscience, and one needed to eat.
Guilt consumes them as they realize the eco-catastrophe that was bee colony collapse was based on their research. And then a trillionaire wants to help humans have a future and asks them to help him create a race of mostly-human sea dwellers while they live on his several-island haven and compound in the Caribbean. They need a sponsor and the income, so they agree to at least try, and he becomes their patron. But they work from their own building on the Labrador coast, trying to keep their autonomy.
And the eventual underwater species that they meld with humans, the one that is successful, are mostly octopuses, with a smattering of other things to help them grow and thrive in the layer of ocean least likely to be destroyed by humans and yet still survive: The Midnight Zone. Their creation, the Ceph, grow and learn and thrive in the lab while the world falls apart around Cedric and Raina. Meanwhile their Machiavellian wealthy sponsor has been up to no good and betrays them…
Marvelous worldbuilding, good science, great characters, and the Ceph are amazing. You’ll want to read this one.
Wendy S. Delmater
Release date May 20, 2025 click to preorder.