Critical Response
Reviewer Patrick L. McGuire praises many aspects of Genome in an essay in The New York Review of Science Fiction:
- It "illustrates some of the features of Russian sf in the early post-Soviet period, in particular its renewed acquaintance with Anglophone sf and with other features of Western culture."
- In the closing section, Lukyanenko hides a sort of acrostic message for his readers: "This novel is a parody of space opera and cyberpunk. The author values your sense of humor..."
- In other examples of humor, "Lukyanenko invokes American brand names. Alex eats at a McRobbins fast-food place (McDonald's has evidently merged with Baskin-Robbins) and stays at a Hilton. The hotel chain, as the author explains, has moved downmarket over time to a niche of minimal but decent lodging. Compare Heinlein's use of small-h "hilton" to mean "hotel" in Double Star (1956)."
- Various homages to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Peter Falk, Rudyard Kipling, Lois McMaster Bujold, and possibly the number 42.
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