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Clone Catcher
Book by Slote, Alfred
- GenresScience Fiction
154 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
20 people want to read
About the author
Alfred Slote
41 books12 followersAlfred Slote (born September 11, 1926) is a children's author known for his numerous sports and space novels. His writing has been described as "making space travel seem as ordinary as piling in the family wagon for a jaunt to McDonald's". Slote's 1991 novel Finding Buck McHenry was adapted into a 2000 television film. He currently resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 13, 2013
Pretty dumb.
Since there isn't a summary on this site, at least at the time I am writing this review, I'll retype the paragraph written on the back because I'm too lazy to summarize it myself:
"It is 2019. Arthur Dunn, world-famous clone catcher, has been called to Australia by wealthy businessman Sir William Montagu. His wife, Lady Kate, is very ill. Unless her runaway clone can be found in time for a transplant operation, she will die. But Dunn's job is very difficult -- for Lady Kate's clone, like her parent, is a superb actress. Not only could she be anyplace, she could be anyone!"
This is a short book - 155 pages - and meant for readers age "7 to 10". I am older than the target audience, so perhaps my criticism is a little harsh. With that being said, this book sucked.
First of all, the cover of this book basically gives away the ending. A young woman's face wearing the mask of an old woman's face... hmm, I wonder who Lady Kate's clone is disguised as?
Secondly, this book is full of misconceptions about cloning. Clones aren't really all that exotic. Identical twins = genetic clones. A clone and its parent would even be less similar to each other than identical twins, because the clone and its parent would presumably grow up in very different time periods and environments, where identical twins often grow up in the same household.
Unlike what this book suggests, clones and their parents would not be "exactly the same", just as no two identical twins are "exactly the same". Unfortunately, this book seems a bit confused on that aspect of cloning:
pg 23 "Kate was a firebrand, a great woman, a beauty. Her clone is exactly like her."
pg 56 " ' But why do you ask me what I would do, Mr. Dunn? How is that helpful to you?'
'You are your clone, ma'am. And she is you. When I talk to you I talk to her.' "
pg 72 "Because of his genetic makeup, he would have to be in love with Mary Montagu."
And then there's THIS ridiculousness:
"Clones are, at first glance, indistinguishable from normal people. But when you've been around them a bit you see the differences. Their skin has a taut, waxy look, as though it were somehow pulled tight. I understand this may be due in part to their being created from a single cell." (pg 63)
As a final bit of irritation, my copy of this book is so old that the cover got detached from it while I was reading it. And then there was gross dry yellow crumbly pieces of glue in the spine that kept falling on me. >:(
Since there isn't a summary on this site, at least at the time I am writing this review, I'll retype the paragraph written on the back because I'm too lazy to summarize it myself:
"It is 2019. Arthur Dunn, world-famous clone catcher, has been called to Australia by wealthy businessman Sir William Montagu. His wife, Lady Kate, is very ill. Unless her runaway clone can be found in time for a transplant operation, she will die. But Dunn's job is very difficult -- for Lady Kate's clone, like her parent, is a superb actress. Not only could she be anyplace, she could be anyone!"
This is a short book - 155 pages - and meant for readers age "7 to 10". I am older than the target audience, so perhaps my criticism is a little harsh. With that being said, this book sucked.
First of all, the cover of this book basically gives away the ending. A young woman's face wearing the mask of an old woman's face... hmm, I wonder who Lady Kate's clone is disguised as?
Secondly, this book is full of misconceptions about cloning. Clones aren't really all that exotic. Identical twins = genetic clones. A clone and its parent would even be less similar to each other than identical twins, because the clone and its parent would presumably grow up in very different time periods and environments, where identical twins often grow up in the same household.
Unlike what this book suggests, clones and their parents would not be "exactly the same", just as no two identical twins are "exactly the same". Unfortunately, this book seems a bit confused on that aspect of cloning:
pg 23 "Kate was a firebrand, a great woman, a beauty. Her clone is exactly like her."
pg 56 " ' But why do you ask me what I would do, Mr. Dunn? How is that helpful to you?'
'You are your clone, ma'am. And she is you. When I talk to you I talk to her.' "
pg 72 "Because of his genetic makeup, he would have to be in love with Mary Montagu."
And then there's THIS ridiculousness:
"Clones are, at first glance, indistinguishable from normal people. But when you've been around them a bit you see the differences. Their skin has a taut, waxy look, as though it were somehow pulled tight. I understand this may be due in part to their being created from a single cell." (pg 63)
As a final bit of irritation, my copy of this book is so old that the cover got detached from it while I was reading it. And then there was gross dry yellow crumbly pieces of glue in the spine that kept falling on me. >:(
Displaying 1 of 1 review