Necessary Ill — Deb Taber

Sometimes the cure is the disease...

Jin is a designer and spreader of plagues intended to keep the human population in balance with the dwindling resources at hand. Jin is also a neuter, one of a clandestine group of naturally genderless humans whose lack of gender-specific hormones and needs results in an advanced capacity to grasp science and mathematics-but in Jin's case, not human nature and emotion. When a young woman named Sandy is thrust violently into the world of the neuters, the worlds of genders and neuters begin to clash, and only Jin can set things right...if it can connect with others enough to understand how.

From the limestone caverns deep beneath the New Mexico desert to the streets of Albuquerque, Amarillo, and St. Louis, Jin straddles the line between creation and destruction. With the help of Sandy, an enclave of underground artists, and an unwitting ally bent on taking the neuters down, Jin struggles to create the disease that will save humanity from itself...even if no one wants to be saved.