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
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.
The first volume in Carey’s Rampart trilogy is set centuries into a future shaped by war and climate change, where the scant remains of humankind are threatened by genetically modified trees and plants.
Teenager Koli Woodsmith lives in Mythen Rood, a village of about 200 people in a place called Ingland, which has other names such as “Briton and Albion and Yewkay.” He was raised to cultivate, and kill, the wood from the dangerous trees beyond Mythen Rood’s protective walls. Mythen Rood is governed by the Ramparts (made up entirely of members of one family—what a coincidence), who protect the village with ancient, solar-powered tech. After the Waiting, a time in which each child, upon turning 15, must decide their future, Koli takes the Rampart test: He must “awaken” a piece of old tech. After he inevitably fails, he steals a music player which houses a charming “manic pixie dream girl” AI named Monono, who reveals a universe of knowledge. Of course, a little bit of knowledge can threaten entire societies or, in Koli’s case, a village held in thrall to a family with unfettered access to powerful weapons. Koli attempts to use the device to become a Rampart, he becomes their greatest threat, and he’s exiled to the world beyond Mythen Rood. Luckily, the pragmatic Koli has his wits, Monono, and an ally in Ursala, a traveling doctor who strives to usher in a healthy new generation of babies before humanity dies out for good. Koli will need all the help he can get, especially when he’s captured by a fearsome group ruled by a mad messianic figure who claims to have psychic abilities. Narrator Koli’s inquisitive mind and kind heart make him the perfect guide to Carey’s (Someone Like Me, 2018, etc.) immersive, impeccably rendered world, and his speech and way of life are different enough to imagine the weight of what was lost but still achingly familiar, and as always, Carey leavens his often bleak scenarios with empathy and hope. Readers will be thrilled to know the next two books will be published in short order.
A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-47753-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A book you’ll want to revisit like a favorite song, especially once you know the words to sing along.
Two sisters fight their way back to each other across death and Faerie through riddle songs and murder ballads.
After co-writing the epistolary enemies-to-lovers SF novel This Is How You Lose the Time War (2019) with Max Gladstone, El-Mohtar makes a solo debut featuring another haunting harmony. The town of Thistleford is known for the grammar, or transformative magic, that flows from the Faerie land of Arcadia to be conjugated in the River Liss and translated through the Professors, the pair of willow trees rooted into its banks. The Hawthorn family is known for its willow-wood business as well as the stirring duets of sisters Esther and Ysabel: respectively, the gregarious elder daughter cheekily composing riddle songs for her immortal lover and the shy younger beauty who can belt a murder ballad but secretly wishes to be the adored subject of a beloved’s poem. When a greedy mortal suitor forcibly separates the sisters on opposite sides of Arcadia’s border, they must bridge an impossible distance measured only by how far the voice can reach. True to the title, darkness lurks just beneath the surface of this story, in which death is cruel yet not without its lingual loopholes. El-Mohtar’s blend of prose and poetry will catch readers in its fast-moving flow, even if the magic system requires multiple rereads. The core tale will be relatable regardless of a reader’s genre affinity: an ode to sisters’ secret languages, a paean to petty adolescent envy reshaped into the foundation for growing together into adulthood, an anthem for bloody retribution. The only slightly bitter note is the rather neat resolution, but the poetic justice nonetheless adds up to a satisfying performance.
A book you’ll want to revisit like a favorite song, especially once you know the words to sing along.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781250341082
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Tordotcom
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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