Světy podle Třipíků – Scalzi John (2016)

This Czech-language science-fiction novel is set in the not-too-distant future, when a new, highly contagious virus sweeps across the world. Some of those infected die, while others suffer only a cold, fever and headache. One percent of the unfortunate victims, however—almost five million people in the United States alone—are left fully conscious but unable to move or respond to any stimulus. The disease affects people regardless of age, wealth, race or faith, and the world changes in order to confront the epidemic. A quarter of a century later, so-called Haden’s syndrome has become an ordinary part of life. While investigating a murder at the Watergate Hotel, FBI agent Leslie Vann is assigned a new partner, rookie Chris Shane. The suspect is an integrator, someone who lends their own body to people with the disease, raising the question of whether the dead person is connected to the community of the infected. Finding the suspect may prove difficult if the integrator was working at the time. As Shane and Vann continue their investigation, the mystery and the crime reach much further than expected. The background to the murder leads them to power-hungry corporations, the virtual worlds of the sick and the heart of a surprising new human culture undergoing profound change, where someone is determined to seize an opportunity at any cost.