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BABY STEPS

From the Genetic Pressure series , Vol. 1

A thought-provoking genetics tale hampered by questionable theories.

A horse breeder and a game designer seek genetically engineered babies in this debut novel.

In 2022, Yale roommates Rachael Stein and Debbie Robinson both want medical careers, Rachael as a veterinarian specializing in horses. By 2044, Rachael has achieved success as an IVF horse breeder with a second Kentucky Derby winner to her credit, owned by her closest friends, the wealthy Greg and Alison Davos. Rachael gets a surprise visit from Debbie, who’d lost touch after making a small fortune selling her eggs to a Hong Kong company. She drops a bomb in Rachael’s quiet life with a spree that includes “drugs, gun wounds, rape, and kidnapping.” Reeling from those events and from news of Debbie’s 300 to 600 offspring, Rachael accepts Alison’s offer of a free visit to Better Genetics Corporation and a $2 million full-options package. Housed in a secret Caribbean location, the company is dedicated to ending genetic diseases by providing designer babies to the rich; their slogan is “Only God plays dice. Humans don’t have to.” Meanwhile, in Palo Alto, California, wealthy game designer Max Allerton has given up on finding a decent woman to marry and have children with. As an anonymous online friend warns him, marriage, for men, “gets worse than slavery.” Max, too, makes the trip to Better Genetics, choosing—as nearly everyone does, including Rachael—to have a superintelligent, tall, Greek-skinned, violet-eyed child. Though Max encounters secrets and lies from those around him, he and others, including Rachael, develop novel forms of family life united by their violet-eyed children, who represent the new Genetic Age where all are Prime.

In his series opener, Clark taps into the anxieties and hopes that parents have for their children. His premise is intriguing; readers will likely ask themselves what characteristics they would choose if they could, and why. Also of interest are the novel’s imaginative speculations about future forms of family life, such as four-person marriages. Implausible or questionable elements, though, detract from the story’s effectiveness. Rachael—who believes Debbie “likely had already had sex with some of her own children”—eventually responds to her lurid shenanigans with tender lovemaking as they chant “Circle of Trust. Circle of Kindness” to each other. The story skirts the issue of eugenics by asserting that “there is no racial superiority theory. There’s no government forcing…specific genetic phenotypes on anyone.” Yet nearly every Better Genetics client selects the same, presumably considered superior, observable traits. While the author relies on scientific concepts, he admits in the foreword that “there is not a lot of good data to support my theories.” Some terms, such as “pair-bond depletion,” can’t be found on Google while other evidence sounds like it comes from alt-right discussion forums like Reddit’s The Red Pill or from questionable evolutionary psychology theories. Readers’ satisfaction will likely depend on how well such ideas resonate with them.

A thought-provoking genetics tale hampered by questionable theories.

Pub Date: April 3, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-73304-990-0

Page Count: 370

Publisher: Better Publishing Corporation

Review Posted Online: June 22, 2020

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DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

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IRON FLAME

From the Empyrean series , Vol. 2

Unrelenting, and not in a good way.

A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.

Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.

Unrelenting, and not in a good way.

Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023

ISBN: 9781649374172

Page Count: 640

Publisher: Red Tower

Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024

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