A thoughtful, compelling rumination on the human cost of medical advancement.
In Brodsky’s debut SF novel, a medical researcher grapples with the implications of a miracle drug.
As Will Dalal worked his way through school, the world was rocked by radical developments in medical technology—specifically, the ability to clone entire organs from small tissue samples: “Immortality had never looked so achievable, so tangible, so close. But as always, there was a catch. Though almost all human organs could be replicated with enough precision to replace the God-given ones, the brain often turned out just slightly awry.” Now Will is a postdoctoral fellow in the Genner Lab, where he’s researching medication to help “victims of brain regeneration” whose new brains didn’t come out quite right. The work gives Will purpose in a life otherwise hampered by feelings of romantic frustration and loneliness. Can the medicine that Will is developing—the eponymous Brill pill—really make a positive difference in the lives of the “zombies,” as he likes to think of them? As figures from his past reappear, Will begins to suspect that his efforts could be making the crisis even worse. The author’s prose is cutting and psychological; she briskly captures the evolving relationship between Will and Margot, a librarian who volunteers with the zombies: “They spent a lot of time together without noticing it. That is, Will did not notice it. Margot did. Her life had changed significantly over the past three years, just a little bit at a time, but she was aware of it, and she had let it happen.” Though the book’s premise might suggest a thriller plot, the story unfolds slowly. Brodsky is most interested in the moral implications of Will’s work and its effects on him and those around him. It’s a deliberative exploration of the murky relationship between medical and technological ethics, one that feels especially timely.
A thoughtful, compelling rumination on the human cost of medical advancement.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 978-1647425234
Page Count: 384
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.
Set in the future and reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, this novel dramatizes a story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power.
In the beginning, Darrow, the narrator, works in the mines on Mars, a life of drudgery and subservience. He’s a member of the Reds, an “inferior” class, though he’s happily married to Eo, an incipient rebel who wants to overthrow the existing social order, especially the Golds, who treat the lower-ranking orders cruelly. When Eo leads him to a mildly rebellious act, she’s caught and executed, and Darrow decides to exact vengeance on the perpetrators of this outrage. He’s recruited by a rebel cell and “becomes” a Gold by having painful surgery—he has golden wings grafted on his back—and taking an exam to launch himself into the academy that educates the ruling elite. Although he successfully infiltrates the Golds, he finds the social order is a cruel and confusing mash-up of deception and intrigue. Eventually, he leads one of the “houses” in war games that are all too real and becomes a guerrilla warrior leading a ragtag band of rebelliously minded men and women. Although it takes a while, the reader eventually gets used to the specialized vocabulary of this world, where warriors shoot “pulseFists” and are protected by “recoilArmor.” As with many similar worlds, the warrior culture depicted here has a primitive, even classical, feel to it, especially since the warriors sport names such as Augustus, Cassius, Apollo and Mercury.
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-345-53978-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
An unrelentingly dark and disquieting look at the way societies conform to committing atrocities.
A processing plant manager struggles with the grim realities of a society where cannibalism is the new normal.
Marcos Tejo is the boss’s son. Once, that meant taking over his father’s meat plant when the older man began to suffer from dementia and require nursing home care. But ever since the Transition, when animals became infected with a virus fatal to humans and had to be destroyed, society has been clamoring for a new source of meat, laboring under the belief, reinforced by media and government messaging, that plant proteins would result in malnutrition and ill effects. Now, as is true across the country, Marcos’ slaughterhouse deals in “special meat”—human beings. Though Marcos understands the moral horror of his job supervising the workers who stun, kill, flay, and butcher other humans, he doesn’t feel much since the crib death of his infant son. “One can get used to almost anything,” he muses, “except for the death of a child.” One day, the head of a breeding center sends Marcos a gift: an adult female FGP, a “First Generation Pure,” born and bred in captivity. As Marcos lives with his product, he gradually begins to awaken to the trauma of his past and the nightmare of his present. This is Bazterrica’s first novel to appear in America, though she is widely published in her native Argentina, and it could have been inelegant, using shock value to get across ideas about the inherent brutality of factory farming and the cruelty of governments and societies willing to sacrifice their citizenry for power and money. It is a testament to Bazterrica’s skill that such a bleak book can also be a page-turner.
An unrelentingly dark and disquieting look at the way societies conform to committing atrocities.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982150-92-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
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