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Transhuman: A Novel
Six-time Hugo Award-winner Ben Bova presents Transhuman.
Luke Abramson, a brilliant cellular biologist has one joy in life, his ten-year-old granddaughter, Angela. When he learns that Angela has an inoperable brain tumor and is given less than six months to live, Abramson wants to try an experimental new therapy that he believes will kill Angela's tumor.
Her parents object and the hospital bureaucracy blocks the experimental procedure because it has not been approved by the FDA. Knowing that Angela will die before he can get approval, Abramson abducts Angela from the hospital. He plans to take her to a private research laboratory in Oregon.
Luke has turned his old SUV into a makeshift medical facility, treating Angela as best he can while they are on the road, desperately trying to keep his granddaughter alive long enough to give her the treatment he believes will save her life.
Abramson realizes that he's too old and decrepit to flee across the country with his sick granddaughter, so he injects himself with a genetic factor that has successfully reversed aging in animal tests.
As the chase weaves across the country from one research facility to another, Luke begins to grow physically younger, stronger. He looks and feels the way he did thirty or forty years ago.
But will he be able to save Angela?
Luke Abramson, a brilliant cellular biologist has one joy in life, his ten-year-old granddaughter, Angela. When he learns that Angela has an inoperable brain tumor and is given less than six months to live, Abramson wants to try an experimental new therapy that he believes will kill Angela's tumor.
Her parents object and the hospital bureaucracy blocks the experimental procedure because it has not been approved by the FDA. Knowing that Angela will die before he can get approval, Abramson abducts Angela from the hospital. He plans to take her to a private research laboratory in Oregon.
Luke has turned his old SUV into a makeshift medical facility, treating Angela as best he can while they are on the road, desperately trying to keep his granddaughter alive long enough to give her the treatment he believes will save her life.
Abramson realizes that he's too old and decrepit to flee across the country with his sick granddaughter, so he injects himself with a genetic factor that has successfully reversed aging in animal tests.
As the chase weaves across the country from one research facility to another, Luke begins to grow physically younger, stronger. He looks and feels the way he did thirty or forty years ago.
But will he be able to save Angela?
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2014
44 people are currently reading
484 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
714 books1,036 followersBen Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.
Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.
In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.
In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".
Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.
Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.
Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.
Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).
Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova
Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.
In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.
In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".
Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.
Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.
Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.
Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).
Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 193 reviews
May 27, 2015
I've never had hate-sex, but I have hate-read books, and this was one of these. Much like the Twilight and da Vinci code series, I couldn't look away from this book.
The plot's promising: a scientist discovers some kind of gene therapy whatever that can reverse or accelerate aging. His 8-year-old granddaughter is dying of cancer. He thinks he can age the cancer to death without killing her. Oh, and make himself younger, too.
The FDA is basically like "remember morals? You can't do this thing."
So he throws the dying child and her super-hot green-eyed doctor into the back of a van and they scoot off.
They're being pursued by the FBI, the White House, and an immortality-hungry bazillionaire.
Which is pretty interesting, except that the writing is awful. Ben Bova has won the Hugo award a zillion times and is apparently one of the most important contributors to the sci-fi genre. But this book sucks.
Please let me show you some indicative prose:
"The chief heaved a discontented sigh." (130)
"Jiminez made an elaborate shrug." (69)
"It seemed just the tiniest bit odd to be discussing his pissing habits with a dark-haired, good-looking young woman." (215)
and, THE BEST ONE:
"Hightower cut the connection, thinking about the tribal wisdom of his people, and the old days when white men gave blankets freely to the red men. Blankets that were infected with smallpox, of course." (192)
Characters are often grinning, groaning, or growling. The prose is distractingly plump with cliches. It's almost Dan Brown caliber.
The characters could have redeemed the book if they'd been compelling.
They weren't.
My three least favorite characters were:
1. The most boring 8-year-old girl of all time. I know several young girls between the ages of two weeks old and ten years old. All are more compelling than the girl the protagonist is trying to save. Come on. Give the girl some gravitas. Make us care about her. She just sits around and misses her mom and wants to eat pie. She has no quirks, or interests, or insights. I could not care about whether she lived or died. And I really like kids.
2. The Native American character. All characters who meet him for the first time think about how his dark skin and ponytail must indicate his heritage. Some are racist. The guy's appearance is remarked upon or noticed at least ten times in this book. I cannot tell if the author is racist or if he's smug that he's included a person of color in the book. (Which is, for the record, sort of racist in itself. There's also a character that is looking at a chauffer and thinking she's the result of "miscegenation." I had to look that word up.)
3. Everyone wants to rape the hot female doctor! She gets almost raped several times in the book. Just like everyone notices that the Native American FBI Agent is Native American, they notice that the Hot Doctor is Hot. (She has green eyes. Did you know? Because they are so totally green. Let's mention them again). Many creepers want to get funky with her. They want to do the horizontal Electric Slide. And they try, but she only has eyes for Magical Age Reversing Doctor.
So anyway, everything's racist and badly written, and then the ending is so unbelievably joyous that I could not even begin to deal.
Please don't read this.
The plot's promising: a scientist discovers some kind of gene therapy whatever that can reverse or accelerate aging. His 8-year-old granddaughter is dying of cancer. He thinks he can age the cancer to death without killing her. Oh, and make himself younger, too.
The FDA is basically like "remember morals? You can't do this thing."
So he throws the dying child and her super-hot green-eyed doctor into the back of a van and they scoot off.
They're being pursued by the FBI, the White House, and an immortality-hungry bazillionaire.
Which is pretty interesting, except that the writing is awful. Ben Bova has won the Hugo award a zillion times and is apparently one of the most important contributors to the sci-fi genre. But this book sucks.
Please let me show you some indicative prose:
"The chief heaved a discontented sigh." (130)
"Jiminez made an elaborate shrug." (69)
"It seemed just the tiniest bit odd to be discussing his pissing habits with a dark-haired, good-looking young woman." (215)
and, THE BEST ONE:
"Hightower cut the connection, thinking about the tribal wisdom of his people, and the old days when white men gave blankets freely to the red men. Blankets that were infected with smallpox, of course." (192)
Characters are often grinning, groaning, or growling. The prose is distractingly plump with cliches. It's almost Dan Brown caliber.
The characters could have redeemed the book if they'd been compelling.
They weren't.
My three least favorite characters were:
1. The most boring 8-year-old girl of all time. I know several young girls between the ages of two weeks old and ten years old. All are more compelling than the girl the protagonist is trying to save. Come on. Give the girl some gravitas. Make us care about her. She just sits around and misses her mom and wants to eat pie. She has no quirks, or interests, or insights. I could not care about whether she lived or died. And I really like kids.
2. The Native American character. All characters who meet him for the first time think about how his dark skin and ponytail must indicate his heritage. Some are racist. The guy's appearance is remarked upon or noticed at least ten times in this book. I cannot tell if the author is racist or if he's smug that he's included a person of color in the book. (Which is, for the record, sort of racist in itself. There's also a character that is looking at a chauffer and thinking she's the result of "miscegenation." I had to look that word up.)
3. Everyone wants to rape the hot female doctor! She gets almost raped several times in the book. Just like everyone notices that the Native American FBI Agent is Native American, they notice that the Hot Doctor is Hot. (She has green eyes. Did you know? Because they are so totally green. Let's mention them again). Many creepers want to get funky with her. They want to do the horizontal Electric Slide. And they try, but she only has eyes for Magical Age Reversing Doctor.
So anyway, everything's racist and badly written, and then the ending is so unbelievably joyous that I could not even begin to deal.
Please don't read this.
August 27, 2014
Actual rating: 1.5 stars.
I saw a Ben Bova novel at the library and picked it up on reflex, Bova being in my memory a decent science fiction writer. Transhuman turned out to be a great disappointment. Bova is endlessly repetitive, revisiting background and plot points again and again as if he doesn't think the reader can be expected to remember from one page to the next that Luke doesn't want his granddaughter to die from cancer or that the treatment he intends to give her inhibits cell growth. He plows these two particular plot points over so many times they almost turn to dust and blow away.
Bova has a thing about ethnicity and race. The coding is what you notice first: if Bova doesn't describe a character's race or ethnicity, he or she is white. Otherwise, he goes out of his way to identify blacks as black; Hispanics as Hispanics. If this served the story somehow, it might be valid, but at no point is a character's race or ethnicity relevant to anything: why, for example, do we need to know that a blonde woman is of Italian heritage, or that the color of her hair a surprise to Luke? Why do we need to know that a nurse, a throwaway character whose entire contribution to the story is contained in one sentence, is black and overweight? Is Luke a bigot, or Ben Bova? At first I thought Bova was working under the theory that diversity sells, but in a later chapter he labels a woman's genetic makeup the result of "generations of miscegenation," and the stink of racism virtually wafts from the page.
Bova's idea of creating a native American character is to give him a black ponytail and have him say he likes flatbread. Otherwise he's indistinguishable from any other male character in the book. Female characters likewise blend together, and in an epic bit of shallowness, every one of them wants to get in Luke's pants.
This is poor, poor stuff. It's not even science fiction, more of a medical/car chase mashup thriller, third-rate Michael Crichton. I can't believe I read it all the way through, but maybe I just wanted to get it over with.
I saw a Ben Bova novel at the library and picked it up on reflex, Bova being in my memory a decent science fiction writer. Transhuman turned out to be a great disappointment. Bova is endlessly repetitive, revisiting background and plot points again and again as if he doesn't think the reader can be expected to remember from one page to the next that Luke doesn't want his granddaughter to die from cancer or that the treatment he intends to give her inhibits cell growth. He plows these two particular plot points over so many times they almost turn to dust and blow away.
Bova has a thing about ethnicity and race. The coding is what you notice first: if Bova doesn't describe a character's race or ethnicity, he or she is white. Otherwise, he goes out of his way to identify blacks as black; Hispanics as Hispanics. If this served the story somehow, it might be valid, but at no point is a character's race or ethnicity relevant to anything: why, for example, do we need to know that a blonde woman is of Italian heritage, or that the color of her hair a surprise to Luke? Why do we need to know that a nurse, a throwaway character whose entire contribution to the story is contained in one sentence, is black and overweight? Is Luke a bigot, or Ben Bova? At first I thought Bova was working under the theory that diversity sells, but in a later chapter he labels a woman's genetic makeup the result of "generations of miscegenation," and the stink of racism virtually wafts from the page.
Bova's idea of creating a native American character is to give him a black ponytail and have him say he likes flatbread. Otherwise he's indistinguishable from any other male character in the book. Female characters likewise blend together, and in an epic bit of shallowness, every one of them wants to get in Luke's pants.
This is poor, poor stuff. It's not even science fiction, more of a medical/car chase mashup thriller, third-rate Michael Crichton. I can't believe I read it all the way through, but maybe I just wanted to get it over with.
April 22, 2014
Embarrassingly terrible.
March 23, 2016
I saw this book in the science fiction section of airport bookstores many times and finally gave it a go, and I immediately regretted it.
- there are low/no stakes at any point in the novel
- it is mindlessly repetitive and could have easily been 100 pages shorter
- it is laughably unbelievable in many different ways
- many of the characters (who ought to be smart people, given their status/accomplishments) do incredibly stupid things, repeatedly
- nearly all of the characters are flat or stereotypes
- there is no arc; on a scale of 1 to 10, the intensity is a flat 3 for the entirety of the novel
I just realized I don't want to write this any more. Save yourself the trouble.
- there are low/no stakes at any point in the novel
- it is mindlessly repetitive and could have easily been 100 pages shorter
- it is laughably unbelievable in many different ways
- many of the characters (who ought to be smart people, given their status/accomplishments) do incredibly stupid things, repeatedly
- nearly all of the characters are flat or stereotypes
- there is no arc; on a scale of 1 to 10, the intensity is a flat 3 for the entirety of the novel
I just realized I don't want to write this any more. Save yourself the trouble.
May 11, 2014
No, I did not finish this book in three days. I abandoned it after 50 or so pages--not something I do often, but I simply couldn't get past the actions of one of the characters that strained credulity. Add to that a pedestrian writing style and I just wasn't able to justify putting the time in when there are so many other books calling out to be read. Perhaps die-hard Ben Bova fans will feel differently; he has, after all, won numerous awards and written "more than one hundred works of science fact and fiction."
July 31, 2014
My telomeres are significantly shorter after having slogged through this boring and poorly-written book.
May 2, 2014
This was something akin to a medical thriller. Just without to much thrill to it. Somewhat of a sci fi book because it was dealing with the future development of gene therapy. So sci fi I will call it. Grandpa abducts his granddaughter to treat her with a new gene therapy to treat her cancer. Being old he shoots himself up with the same juice in the hopes to reverse his aging so he can stay ahead of the folks coming after them. A decent story with enough kick to make it a quick read. Just beware some of the characters reminded me of the old Bullwinkle shows. Kind of like Boris and Natasha types. Seemed as if character development was one of the weak areas of the story. Taken as a whole though, again it was a decent book.
May 18, 2025
An interesting idea and story. it had a lot going on from sick children to rich corporate CEO's, The FBI, Healthcare, the Army, various White House Staff, and The President of the United States (A woman which is nice).
The science is in the vein of Creighton but more focus on the characters. The possible fallout is timely and overall it's a good story.
That being said, I found it just ok. Nothing wrong with the writing but for me it had too many characters and some not really believable moments. Not in the science but in the other things like escapes and events.
This is just me. Ben handled it well, I was never confused but still way too much going on. Glad I read a Ben Bova book finally but not sure he is my cup of tea.
The science is in the vein of Creighton but more focus on the characters. The possible fallout is timely and overall it's a good story.
That being said, I found it just ok. Nothing wrong with the writing but for me it had too many characters and some not really believable moments. Not in the science but in the other things like escapes and events.
This is just me. Ben handled it well, I was never confused but still way too much going on. Glad I read a Ben Bova book finally but not sure he is my cup of tea.
August 25, 2019
This was terrible. Super easy to read - It was done in a matter of hours, thank goodness. That may be its only saving grace.
I kept thinking that this had to get better, but unfortunately it only got worse. The book follows Luke, a simple-minded septuagenarian scientist who kidnaps his bland and uncharismatic 8 year old granddaughter in order to use his experimental science project to cure her cancer. He is aided by a super hot young doctor and a number of other scientist women madly in love with him. Meanwhile, he is pursued by a collection of thugs hell bent on preventing him from releasing his discovery to the world.
Besides the one dimensional characters, the author’s attempt at creating racially diverse characters threatened to create actual instances of racism. For example, the Native American FBI agent is described as “He had a long black ponytail that made him look Native American.” What?
Obviously the prose left much to be desired. The plot was also riddled with holes. I guess that I can at least say that this one is over, and that I’ve learned a lesson about picking up random books at the library and not vetting their quality first.
I kept thinking that this had to get better, but unfortunately it only got worse. The book follows Luke, a simple-minded septuagenarian scientist who kidnaps his bland and uncharismatic 8 year old granddaughter in order to use his experimental science project to cure her cancer. He is aided by a super hot young doctor and a number of other scientist women madly in love with him. Meanwhile, he is pursued by a collection of thugs hell bent on preventing him from releasing his discovery to the world.
Besides the one dimensional characters, the author’s attempt at creating racially diverse characters threatened to create actual instances of racism. For example, the Native American FBI agent is described as “He had a long black ponytail that made him look Native American.” What?
Obviously the prose left much to be desired. The plot was also riddled with holes. I guess that I can at least say that this one is over, and that I’ve learned a lesson about picking up random books at the library and not vetting their quality first.
November 25, 2019
Thanks, I hate it.
This is the worst book I've ever read. It may well be the worst book I'll ever read. If the cover is going to proudly announce its author is a multi Hugo award winner, they might want to clarify that said awards were given for editing a pulp magazine. Transhuman was the most egocentric, self-serving, misogynistic garbage ever put to paper. I watch Jenny Nicholson and Caleb Joseph on YouTube and I think this would makes some of the bad books they've read look like literary masterpieces.
All the female characters in this book magically forget all their morals and values and supposed personality traits as soon as the main character - an octogenarian scientist with urinary problems - walks into a room. Any room. Doesn't have to be the same room. And the FBI detective. Hightower. The most cliched Native American character since Hanna Barbera's 'Apache Cheif', an animated character from, what, the 60's.
Don't read this. Unless you review bad books on YouTube for the lols. Your eyes will bleed from rolling so hard. Your accompanying groans will summon Bad Writing Demons from the depths of the Ninth Circle of Hell.
This is the worst book I've ever read. It may well be the worst book I'll ever read. If the cover is going to proudly announce its author is a multi Hugo award winner, they might want to clarify that said awards were given for editing a pulp magazine. Transhuman was the most egocentric, self-serving, misogynistic garbage ever put to paper. I watch Jenny Nicholson and Caleb Joseph on YouTube and I think this would makes some of the bad books they've read look like literary masterpieces.
All the female characters in this book magically forget all their morals and values and supposed personality traits as soon as the main character - an octogenarian scientist with urinary problems - walks into a room. Any room. Doesn't have to be the same room. And the FBI detective. Hightower. The most cliched Native American character since Hanna Barbera's 'Apache Cheif', an animated character from, what, the 60's.
Don't read this. Unless you review bad books on YouTube for the lols. Your eyes will bleed from rolling so hard. Your accompanying groans will summon Bad Writing Demons from the depths of the Ninth Circle of Hell.
February 27, 2015
In-plausible from cover to cover. Doesn't even reach the level of books for juveniles. Horrible writing by an author that deserved my respect at one time. There is nothing believable about the characters, action sequences, reactions of characters, or sub-themes. Repeated attempts to flesh out this weak story with love triangles, schemes of corporate greed, political intrigue, family infighting and possible modern day fountain of youth science fell so flat they left a brown stain on the pages. Embarrassing for anyone who had anything to do with subjecting the reading public to it. Movie coming soon most likely.
I have a very hard time believing Ben Bova actually was the author of this obvious effort to ring the cash register on the strength of an author's prior work. It's stupidity was past the insulting point. This book had zero redeeming qualities - an achievement in itself.
The only bright spot is that the book was returned to the public library before any fines were wasted on it.
I have a very hard time believing Ben Bova actually was the author of this obvious effort to ring the cash register on the strength of an author's prior work. It's stupidity was past the insulting point. This book had zero redeeming qualities - an achievement in itself.
The only bright spot is that the book was returned to the public library before any fines were wasted on it.
July 21, 2015
This was quite the disappointment. Look, I know what you're thinking. I agree Ben Bova's a good author. It's not even up for discussion. His reputation precedes him. This is not a good novel, though. Bova's trademark easy-reading style does not even save it. TRANSHUMAN feels like one of these dreaded 'drawer novels' thrown in to close a publishing contract. It's a science fiction novel without science fiction. It's a medical thriller without any medical science in it, except for the word telomerase.
All there is to TRANSHUMAN is a desperate, stubbon, paper-thin superhero grandfather, equiped with the superpower of cellular biology, ready to bend the law in order to save his granddaughter's life. It's rigid, cliché and hollow. It's not even half the things it pretends to be. It's an easy summer reading for people who don't like to ask questions to their entertainment, but obviously I'm not that guy.
All there is to TRANSHUMAN is a desperate, stubbon, paper-thin superhero grandfather, equiped with the superpower of cellular biology, ready to bend the law in order to save his granddaughter's life. It's rigid, cliché and hollow. It's not even half the things it pretends to be. It's an easy summer reading for people who don't like to ask questions to their entertainment, but obviously I'm not that guy.
June 25, 2018
I started this a few days ago. Aside from racist caricature of Hightower being Native American - everytime someone meets him they remark on some sort of stereotype, even his boss who wants him to cut his hair but thinks that it would be a HR disaster. Additionally, next to none of this is said aloud, which really doesn't add much to the story aside from significant racialization for reasons that detract from the story trying to be told. Most not all of the text is very basic and lacks mastery of English at all. DNF'd and glad to be done with it.
July 15, 2016
When Luke Abramson's eight year old granddaughter is dying of an untreatable brain tumor, he whisks her away to try an experimental treatment to stop the cancer. Soon he is being hunted by the FBI, a major biomedical foundation, and the White House, all who want to control his research. Bova does a good job creating a suspenseful story.
March 17, 2017
This book is thoroughly terrible in every respect. I know Bova's won multiple Hugos and I've read many of his books before, so I really wonder what the hell happened here.
February 5, 2024
I endured it
August 25, 2024
I’ve read some terrible books, but this is one of the worst I’ve ever read. The premise sounds like it could have been interesting- an aging biology professor has a granddaughter who has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He believes he can cure her, but his treatment is highly experimental and unapproved. So he kidnaps his granddaughter. Realizing somewhat belatedly that he’s too old to run from the FBI while treating little Angela, he decides to inject himself with the same experimental treatment so he can be young again.
Okay, so it’s a little off the rails. But it could have made for an interesting story. Somehow though… it didn’t.
Luke, the main character, was someone I felt sympathy for in the beginning. He really believed he had the only chance of saving his granddaughter, so I understood his anger and frustration when no one listened to him. I even understood why he took her out of the hospital.
But the more time I spent reading his point of view, the less I liked him. And I know not every character is supposed to be likable. But Luke isn’t an antihero. He’s literally supposed to be the hero of the story. We’re supposed to be on his side and think he’s doing the right thing I think we’re expected to KNOW he’s doing the right thing.
Part of the problem is that this book has a huge case of telling rather than showing. And as the main character, Luke suffers the most from this. He TELLS basically everyone that Angela will die if they don’t help. But he doesn’t do a lot to show that level of desperation or the love and fear for his granddaughter that you would expect.
Honestly, he thinks about his overactive prostate more than his granddaughter. It’s like once he gets Angie out of the hospital, she’s only so much baggage. I mean, I get it, he’s 75. But Luke’s prostrate was like the supporting character no one wanted in this book. I literally lost count of the number of times Luke goes to the bathroom, thinks about going to the bathroom, or wishes he’d gone to the bathroom. And you’d think- at least, I had hoped! -that once his telomere treatment started working, I wouldn’t have to read or think about this anymore. But no. Luke is, of course, amazed that he DOESN’T have to go all the time. Sorry, Professor, but wasn’t that exactly what you expected to happen? He’s one hundred percent sure this will work and make him younger- but he’s surprised by the results?!
Basically every other character is a caricature. Angie’s mom is sad and hysterical. Her father is grumpy and angry. As the story goes on, mom is reduced to being just hysterical and dad is just angry.
Angie doesn’t have much personality. At first this makes sense, because she’s very sick. I’m assuming she’s on some kind of medication. So her being tired, sleeping a lot, and not having much to say, isn’t surprising. But as she gets better, she doesn’t play any more of an active role. Even when she’s suffering side effects from the treatment in the form of rapid aging, she doesn’t complain or even ask about it. She’s eight. At one point she breaks her arm, and all she says it “it hurts!” This kid has maybe ten lines of dialogue in the whole book, and all of them could have been said by a much younger child.
I’m guessing the author hasn’t spent much time around kids. I’m also guessing he doesn’t know any chronically ill kids or kids with cancer. Kids understand more than many adults give them credit for. Kids who have complex medical issues learn to ask questions. Especially kids who grow up with biology professors for grandparents. Angie is an only child, an only grandchild. Luke dotes on her. There’s no way he wasn’t explaining biology to her as soon as she could understand.
The next character we meet is Tamara. Despite not being mentioned on the book jacket at all, she goes along for the entire kidnapping/family road trip. She’s Angie’s doctor, and doesn’t initially believe in Luke’s experimental treatment. She does agree to get him a meeting with the hospital board to plead his case, but won’t recommend the treatment herself.
He’s actually able to legally sign Angie out of the hospital, which is… implausible. Apparently this is possible because Luke signed her into the hospital. Which… okay. He probably signed the initial consent for treatment when Angie first came to the hospital, probably as an emergency. But then Luke says her parents gave up the right to …stop him from taking her out of the hospital? When they let him sign her in. That’s… not how that works.
Tamara says he can’t sign Angie out without her permission because she’s Angie’s doctor. That’s not how that works either. People sign themselves out against medical advice every day. Angie is a minor, but the hospital has referred her to hospice. Her family can take her home. But there’s no way Tamara should have let Luke sign Angie out, without her parents’ permission. No matter who signed her into the hospital, Luke isn’t her legal guardian. Any doctor worth their medical license would have stalled him, called hospital security, and then called Angie’s parents.
Basically the only way Luke even gets away with this is because Tamara helps him. But WHY does she help him? She’s risking her medical license, her whole career, not to mention the health of her patient. Because a man she barely knows thinks he can save the kid? Tamara doesn’t believe (at this point) that he can do it. She has logical and reasonable objections to this whole plan.
But there’s one small thing about Luke that I haven’t mentioned yet. He has some kind of magic that only works on women. (This book, with its many many stereotypes and prejudices- we’ll get to those- would say “heterosexual women”, but I’m just going to go with “women who are in any way attracted to men”)
It seems none of the women in this story can meet and interact with Luke for long without being attracted to him. This isn’t immediately apparent from his first interactions with Tamara, but it’s the only explanation I can come up with for her behavior.
They go to an old friend of Luke’s, Yolanda, who runs a private clinic. She came to visit and “help out” after Luke’s wife died many years ago, and was disappointed he didn’t keep in closer contact. They ran into each other at a conference once, and she was really bummed out that they didn’t get any alone time.
I thought, okay. She’s a colleague, they’re around the same age… he’s obviously not interested, but it’s not beyond belief that she might find him attractive. But. It’s been years since Yolanda has seen Luke. And from the moment he shows up with Angie and Tamara, she acts like a jealous ex. I really dislike seeing this behavior from people who are actually exes. Because they’re EXES, and people have a right to move on. When we’re talking about people who have no romantic history at all, it’s over the top at best, creepy and possessive at worst.
Tamara is younger than Luke, mid 30s or so. It’s just weird that the first place Yolanda’s mind goes is “she’s young and she’s hot” so she’s jealous. And WOW is she jealous. So jealous that she’s glad Tamara spent the night at the clinic with Angie, and Luke didn’t, because that means they weren’t sleeping together then. Because, you know, the ONLY reason Tamara could possibly have for not sleeping with Luke was that they weren’t staying in the same place. Yolanda has zero concern for Angie, or really even for Luke as far as I can tell. She thinks Angie is terminal and Luke’s treatment might kill her. Is she concerned about his state of mind, this guy she’s so into? Is she worried about how hard it will hit him when Angie dies, or even when it becomes clear that his treatment isn’t helping? Does she ask him even once how he’s holding up, the way a real friend would? Hell, no. She just wants to get into this old guy’s pants.
So Yolanda calls the FBI and turns them in. Because Tamara will go to jail too. That’s literally her justification.
She even gives the FBI agent the names of several people she thinks Luke might contact. The only name she doesn’t give him is the person she thinks he’ll actually go to for help- a former student Yolanda literally thinks “will welcome him with open arms- and open legs.” And of course Yolanda is pissed about it.
What in the ever loving misogynistic slut shaming shit is this?! Women should be supporting other women, especially in STEM, but not in this book. Apparently Yolanda is a special snowflake. It’s okay for her to want to sleep with Luke, but God forbid anyone else might want to. Ugh. I don’t understand what anyone sees in this man, but carry on, ladies.
The FBI agent assigned to this case- there’s just one- is Jerry Hightower. Jerry is a Native American. He’s Navajo. He wears his hair in a ponytail and has a suede jacket. He grew up in a trailer park on a reservation. Because of course he did. This is his entire character. We get glimpses into Luke’s and Tamara’s backgrounds, how they became interested in the careers they ended up pursuing. Jerry… not so much. Every person who meets Jerry notices his ponytail and the fact that he’s Native American. Every. Single. Person. One guy calls him “chief”. His FBI supervisor doesn’t like the ponytail, but figures complaining about it would be an HR nightmare.
Jerry seems like a good guy. He might even be an interesting character if he was in some other book, written by someone who wasn’t interested in writing a cardboard cutout of stereotypes. Unfortunately, Jerry is in this book.
Jerry spends most of the book almost but not quite catching Luke. At one point he trusts Luke to stay where he is while Jerry goes off to get some paperwork in order. Sure. Seems like something an FBI agent would do- leave someone who’s already crossed state lines while kidnapping, and trust them to stay put. Naturally this doesn’t work out well… for Jerry. It does work out for Luke.
There’s a weird interlude where Luke, Tamara, and Angie end up spending Christmas at a plantation near New Orleans. A shady businessman who Luke has been receiving funding from sends them there, because a former basketball player he helped take over a pharmaceutical company, owns it. In case you missed all the not so subtle hints, the guy who owns the plantation is African American. He’s turned the plantation into some kind of museum or something where tourists come to stay for… reasons? Where do they stay? In the former slave quarters, which have ben turned into guest accommodations.
There are a lot of issues with this book. That’s definitely one of them.
I do think that it’s important to not forget the horrible things that happened in our past. And there’s a context under which maybe visiting an old plantation could be educational. But just the idea of the freaking slave quarters being a place where people would stay by choice… the implication that the slave quarters have been renovated to be… less awful, so people would be comfortable there… this is just beyond gross.
And it’s such a weird place for the story to go. It doesn’t need to be there at all. The plantation thing could have been entirely left out. Shady business guy could have had a pharm company executive friend who lived ANYWHERE between Luke and company’s last stop, and their final destination in Oregon. The plantation stop didn’t have to happen AT ALL.
At this point Luke’s weird sex appeal has become contagious. The guy who owns the plantation becomes the first of many men who wants to have sex with Tamara. She agrees to have dinner with him, but is clearly uncomfortable about it. She doesn’t want to upset or anger him while they’re relying on his help, and trying to figure out how to get away from him. Because the shady business guy wants them to stay there. When Luke plans their escape, Tamara insists they leave before she would have had to go to dinner. I’m with her, don’t get me wrong. But the whole thing was just creepy.
Now that I think of it, the plantation guy doesn’t make sense. HE runs the pharmaceutical company, not his shady business friend. If someone is going to try and exploit Luke’s as yet unproven cure for cancer and cure for aging, why would this guy not just do that himself? Shady business guy seems to have the legal rights to Luke’s work all sewn up, but it’s not really clear what business he’s even in. And he probably doesn’t know how to market this thing. Pharmacy company guy could have weaseled his way into this, and seems shady enough himself to do it.
I’m just as glad he didn’t, because this plot is already more than overly complicated enough.
Because in addition to the shady business guy, the freaking US government has an interest in Luke’s work too. Specifically they would like to control it and make it all but disappear- except for the elite, of course, including themselves. They have a full on conspiracy theory about how this would destroy social security and the US economy, and that can’t happen because then these people would lose their power and western civilization would collapse. Or something like that. I don’t even pretend to understand at this point.
The really crazy thing is that they’re basing this all on some number crunching Yolanda once did, and reported to the government, that says Luke’s treatment should work. But wait- Yolanda doesn’t think it will work. She thinks Luke might kill Angie, hence turning him in. Or does she believe it WILL work, but she was just that desperate to get rid of Tamara? I have no idea.
Either way, at this point all Luke and Tamara know is that Angie’s tumors are shrinking, but she’s showing signs of premature aging. And they know Luke is looking and feeling younger. All anyone else knows is that Luke looks younger, and they only know that if they’ve seen him. Shady business dude likes Skype, so he has seen Luke. But he’s maybe met the guy once before. How is he so sure, based on almost nothing, that Luke and his research are worth anything? How is the government?
Even once they know Angie’s tumor is gone… knowing how to cure one cancer doesn’t necessarily mean they can cure all cancer. It’s just one type of brain tumor. Granted, it’s glioblastoma, which is particularly aggressive and deadly. A true cure would be a game changer, and definitely something people would want access to. But even Luke’s treatment has problems. It cures Angie’s cancer, but gives her the symptoms of progeria, a rare genetic disease that causes premature aging. There’s currently no cure for that. In the book, Luke basically hand waives this problem away, saying they can reverse it.
For a novel that relies a lot on science, this book doesn’t actually contain much science. I appreciate science in my science fiction when it’s applicable. I don’t mind if it’s somewhat vague or if I don’t understand every little nuance. But I do like authors who build off of today’s science to know something about it. I don’t expect or need every detail of fictionalized science or technology to be explained. But I do expect something I’m supposed to find plausible, to be explained in such a way that I BELIEVE it’s plausible.
This story is seemingly set in present day or the near future. There are smart phones, people travel by car and airplane. Progeria is curable, but Luke’s telomere research hasn’t even started human trials before he decides he and his granddaughter should be Guinea pigs. It’s possible for Luke to just give Angie a second copy of a gene that reduces her risk of developing tumors in the future. It just doesn’t make sense how far medicine and science have advanced, but how impossible most people believe his treatment is for Angie- until Luke convinces them somehow. No one is convinced or even made more sympathetic by the sight of a sick little girl who happens to be their friend’s granddaughter, which is weird. You would think Luke would want them to see how sick she is, and tug at their heartstrings by, I don’t know, telling them what she wants to be when she grows up. If he’s down for kidnapping, emotional manipulation shouldn’t be a stretch.
But that’s not how Luke rolls, apparently. He would rather turn up and ask for help from old friends and former students. All of whom seem to not be surprised to see HIM, but clearly weren’t expecting Tamara, and may not have been expecting Angie either.
Which brings us to the latest member of the all-female Luke fan club: Shannon. Shannon is a former student, the one Yolanda didn’t tell Jerry about. Shannon has been crushing on Luke since she was his student, which somehow Yolanda is fully aware of but Luke has no clue about. Luke isn’t really very observant about these things. Tamara tried to tell him about Yolanda, but he didn’t believe her until he was pretty much hit over the head with it. Tamara figures out pretty quickly that Shannon has feelings for him too- actually Shannon thinks of it as having been in love with him for years. She seems to have not made a move mostly because he was married. Not for any of the million and one other very good reasons not to come onto your graduate advisor, but just because he was married. Not sure if she had any respect for his wife, or just didn’t think she would have a chance.
I don’t like Shannon. For a supposedly brilliant medical professional, she’s an idiot. And her level of jealousy is worse than Yolanda’s. She doesn’t want Tamara anywhere near Luke. She doesn’t care that Tamara is Angie’s doctor. In fact, like basically everyone else in this book, she doesn’t really seem to think of Angie at all. Helping Angie is a way to have Luke around, period. And she’s very interested in that. Or in him, I should say. At least she’s consistent. When she heard Luke’s wife had died of cancer, Shannon almost flew to where he lives. Even though her husband was still alive. He died later, though- of cancer, of course.
Shannon is another victim of the casual sexism of this book. Her father wanted her to go to college, so that’s fine I guess. Then she had to talk him into “letting her” go to grad school. Not talk him into paying for it, or try to win him over to the idea because she wanted his approval. She had to. Talk. Him. Into. Letting. Her. Go.
I’m sorry, WTF? A grown adult, presumably with the means to support herself, doesn’t need her father’s permission to go to grad school. She doesn’t need his permission for anything. Yikes.
The story actually manages to get weirder from there. Jerry eventually catches up to Luke, with the head of security from Shady Business Guy’s company. Apparently this dude has so much influence he can get the government to make the FBI make Jerry let this creep tag along. And he IS a creep. The author goes out of his way to tell us that security guy used to be a cop, but had a lot of excessive force complaints against him and a habit of beating up LGBT people. Except Bova calls them “homosexuals” if I’m remembering right. And at this point I’m trying to forget as much as possible about this book. I mean, there are a lot of other ways to show this character is violent and not into following the rules. Bova could have left it at the excessive force complaints, and not garnished that with the completely unnecessary homophobia. It’s just gross he felt that was in any way necessary. This guy is also a wannabe rapist who goes after Tamara.
You might think this travesty of a book was written decades ago. It was actually published in 2014. Some of the racist and misogynistic content of this book could at least be partially explained if it was a product of a different time. It would still be awful, but being published this recently, there’s not even that thin of an explanation or excuse for any of this. I’m not sure why this was published at all, except it was written by Ben Bova. Does he just not have editors anymore? Did the publisher just decide whatever manuscript he turned in was good to go?
Okay, so it’s a little off the rails. But it could have made for an interesting story. Somehow though… it didn’t.
Luke, the main character, was someone I felt sympathy for in the beginning. He really believed he had the only chance of saving his granddaughter, so I understood his anger and frustration when no one listened to him. I even understood why he took her out of the hospital.
But the more time I spent reading his point of view, the less I liked him. And I know not every character is supposed to be likable. But Luke isn’t an antihero. He’s literally supposed to be the hero of the story. We’re supposed to be on his side and think he’s doing the right thing I think we’re expected to KNOW he’s doing the right thing.
Part of the problem is that this book has a huge case of telling rather than showing. And as the main character, Luke suffers the most from this. He TELLS basically everyone that Angela will die if they don’t help. But he doesn’t do a lot to show that level of desperation or the love and fear for his granddaughter that you would expect.
Honestly, he thinks about his overactive prostate more than his granddaughter. It’s like once he gets Angie out of the hospital, she’s only so much baggage. I mean, I get it, he’s 75. But Luke’s prostrate was like the supporting character no one wanted in this book. I literally lost count of the number of times Luke goes to the bathroom, thinks about going to the bathroom, or wishes he’d gone to the bathroom. And you’d think- at least, I had hoped! -that once his telomere treatment started working, I wouldn’t have to read or think about this anymore. But no. Luke is, of course, amazed that he DOESN’T have to go all the time. Sorry, Professor, but wasn’t that exactly what you expected to happen? He’s one hundred percent sure this will work and make him younger- but he’s surprised by the results?!
Basically every other character is a caricature. Angie’s mom is sad and hysterical. Her father is grumpy and angry. As the story goes on, mom is reduced to being just hysterical and dad is just angry.
Angie doesn’t have much personality. At first this makes sense, because she’s very sick. I’m assuming she’s on some kind of medication. So her being tired, sleeping a lot, and not having much to say, isn’t surprising. But as she gets better, she doesn’t play any more of an active role. Even when she’s suffering side effects from the treatment in the form of rapid aging, she doesn’t complain or even ask about it. She’s eight. At one point she breaks her arm, and all she says it “it hurts!” This kid has maybe ten lines of dialogue in the whole book, and all of them could have been said by a much younger child.
I’m guessing the author hasn’t spent much time around kids. I’m also guessing he doesn’t know any chronically ill kids or kids with cancer. Kids understand more than many adults give them credit for. Kids who have complex medical issues learn to ask questions. Especially kids who grow up with biology professors for grandparents. Angie is an only child, an only grandchild. Luke dotes on her. There’s no way he wasn’t explaining biology to her as soon as she could understand.
The next character we meet is Tamara. Despite not being mentioned on the book jacket at all, she goes along for the entire kidnapping/family road trip. She’s Angie’s doctor, and doesn’t initially believe in Luke’s experimental treatment. She does agree to get him a meeting with the hospital board to plead his case, but won’t recommend the treatment herself.
He’s actually able to legally sign Angie out of the hospital, which is… implausible. Apparently this is possible because Luke signed her into the hospital. Which… okay. He probably signed the initial consent for treatment when Angie first came to the hospital, probably as an emergency. But then Luke says her parents gave up the right to …stop him from taking her out of the hospital? When they let him sign her in. That’s… not how that works.
Tamara says he can’t sign Angie out without her permission because she’s Angie’s doctor. That’s not how that works either. People sign themselves out against medical advice every day. Angie is a minor, but the hospital has referred her to hospice. Her family can take her home. But there’s no way Tamara should have let Luke sign Angie out, without her parents’ permission. No matter who signed her into the hospital, Luke isn’t her legal guardian. Any doctor worth their medical license would have stalled him, called hospital security, and then called Angie’s parents.
Basically the only way Luke even gets away with this is because Tamara helps him. But WHY does she help him? She’s risking her medical license, her whole career, not to mention the health of her patient. Because a man she barely knows thinks he can save the kid? Tamara doesn’t believe (at this point) that he can do it. She has logical and reasonable objections to this whole plan.
But there’s one small thing about Luke that I haven’t mentioned yet. He has some kind of magic that only works on women. (This book, with its many many stereotypes and prejudices- we’ll get to those- would say “heterosexual women”, but I’m just going to go with “women who are in any way attracted to men”)
It seems none of the women in this story can meet and interact with Luke for long without being attracted to him. This isn’t immediately apparent from his first interactions with Tamara, but it’s the only explanation I can come up with for her behavior.
They go to an old friend of Luke’s, Yolanda, who runs a private clinic. She came to visit and “help out” after Luke’s wife died many years ago, and was disappointed he didn’t keep in closer contact. They ran into each other at a conference once, and she was really bummed out that they didn’t get any alone time.
I thought, okay. She’s a colleague, they’re around the same age… he’s obviously not interested, but it’s not beyond belief that she might find him attractive. But. It’s been years since Yolanda has seen Luke. And from the moment he shows up with Angie and Tamara, she acts like a jealous ex. I really dislike seeing this behavior from people who are actually exes. Because they’re EXES, and people have a right to move on. When we’re talking about people who have no romantic history at all, it’s over the top at best, creepy and possessive at worst.
Tamara is younger than Luke, mid 30s or so. It’s just weird that the first place Yolanda’s mind goes is “she’s young and she’s hot” so she’s jealous. And WOW is she jealous. So jealous that she’s glad Tamara spent the night at the clinic with Angie, and Luke didn’t, because that means they weren’t sleeping together then. Because, you know, the ONLY reason Tamara could possibly have for not sleeping with Luke was that they weren’t staying in the same place. Yolanda has zero concern for Angie, or really even for Luke as far as I can tell. She thinks Angie is terminal and Luke’s treatment might kill her. Is she concerned about his state of mind, this guy she’s so into? Is she worried about how hard it will hit him when Angie dies, or even when it becomes clear that his treatment isn’t helping? Does she ask him even once how he’s holding up, the way a real friend would? Hell, no. She just wants to get into this old guy’s pants.
So Yolanda calls the FBI and turns them in. Because Tamara will go to jail too. That’s literally her justification.
She even gives the FBI agent the names of several people she thinks Luke might contact. The only name she doesn’t give him is the person she thinks he’ll actually go to for help- a former student Yolanda literally thinks “will welcome him with open arms- and open legs.” And of course Yolanda is pissed about it.
What in the ever loving misogynistic slut shaming shit is this?! Women should be supporting other women, especially in STEM, but not in this book. Apparently Yolanda is a special snowflake. It’s okay for her to want to sleep with Luke, but God forbid anyone else might want to. Ugh. I don’t understand what anyone sees in this man, but carry on, ladies.
The FBI agent assigned to this case- there’s just one- is Jerry Hightower. Jerry is a Native American. He’s Navajo. He wears his hair in a ponytail and has a suede jacket. He grew up in a trailer park on a reservation. Because of course he did. This is his entire character. We get glimpses into Luke’s and Tamara’s backgrounds, how they became interested in the careers they ended up pursuing. Jerry… not so much. Every person who meets Jerry notices his ponytail and the fact that he’s Native American. Every. Single. Person. One guy calls him “chief”. His FBI supervisor doesn’t like the ponytail, but figures complaining about it would be an HR nightmare.
Jerry seems like a good guy. He might even be an interesting character if he was in some other book, written by someone who wasn’t interested in writing a cardboard cutout of stereotypes. Unfortunately, Jerry is in this book.
Jerry spends most of the book almost but not quite catching Luke. At one point he trusts Luke to stay where he is while Jerry goes off to get some paperwork in order. Sure. Seems like something an FBI agent would do- leave someone who’s already crossed state lines while kidnapping, and trust them to stay put. Naturally this doesn’t work out well… for Jerry. It does work out for Luke.
There’s a weird interlude where Luke, Tamara, and Angie end up spending Christmas at a plantation near New Orleans. A shady businessman who Luke has been receiving funding from sends them there, because a former basketball player he helped take over a pharmaceutical company, owns it. In case you missed all the not so subtle hints, the guy who owns the plantation is African American. He’s turned the plantation into some kind of museum or something where tourists come to stay for… reasons? Where do they stay? In the former slave quarters, which have ben turned into guest accommodations.
There are a lot of issues with this book. That’s definitely one of them.
I do think that it’s important to not forget the horrible things that happened in our past. And there’s a context under which maybe visiting an old plantation could be educational. But just the idea of the freaking slave quarters being a place where people would stay by choice… the implication that the slave quarters have been renovated to be… less awful, so people would be comfortable there… this is just beyond gross.
And it’s such a weird place for the story to go. It doesn’t need to be there at all. The plantation thing could have been entirely left out. Shady business guy could have had a pharm company executive friend who lived ANYWHERE between Luke and company’s last stop, and their final destination in Oregon. The plantation stop didn’t have to happen AT ALL.
At this point Luke’s weird sex appeal has become contagious. The guy who owns the plantation becomes the first of many men who wants to have sex with Tamara. She agrees to have dinner with him, but is clearly uncomfortable about it. She doesn’t want to upset or anger him while they’re relying on his help, and trying to figure out how to get away from him. Because the shady business guy wants them to stay there. When Luke plans their escape, Tamara insists they leave before she would have had to go to dinner. I’m with her, don’t get me wrong. But the whole thing was just creepy.
Now that I think of it, the plantation guy doesn’t make sense. HE runs the pharmaceutical company, not his shady business friend. If someone is going to try and exploit Luke’s as yet unproven cure for cancer and cure for aging, why would this guy not just do that himself? Shady business guy seems to have the legal rights to Luke’s work all sewn up, but it’s not really clear what business he’s even in. And he probably doesn’t know how to market this thing. Pharmacy company guy could have weaseled his way into this, and seems shady enough himself to do it.
I’m just as glad he didn’t, because this plot is already more than overly complicated enough.
Because in addition to the shady business guy, the freaking US government has an interest in Luke’s work too. Specifically they would like to control it and make it all but disappear- except for the elite, of course, including themselves. They have a full on conspiracy theory about how this would destroy social security and the US economy, and that can’t happen because then these people would lose their power and western civilization would collapse. Or something like that. I don’t even pretend to understand at this point.
The really crazy thing is that they’re basing this all on some number crunching Yolanda once did, and reported to the government, that says Luke’s treatment should work. But wait- Yolanda doesn’t think it will work. She thinks Luke might kill Angie, hence turning him in. Or does she believe it WILL work, but she was just that desperate to get rid of Tamara? I have no idea.
Either way, at this point all Luke and Tamara know is that Angie’s tumors are shrinking, but she’s showing signs of premature aging. And they know Luke is looking and feeling younger. All anyone else knows is that Luke looks younger, and they only know that if they’ve seen him. Shady business dude likes Skype, so he has seen Luke. But he’s maybe met the guy once before. How is he so sure, based on almost nothing, that Luke and his research are worth anything? How is the government?
Even once they know Angie’s tumor is gone… knowing how to cure one cancer doesn’t necessarily mean they can cure all cancer. It’s just one type of brain tumor. Granted, it’s glioblastoma, which is particularly aggressive and deadly. A true cure would be a game changer, and definitely something people would want access to. But even Luke’s treatment has problems. It cures Angie’s cancer, but gives her the symptoms of progeria, a rare genetic disease that causes premature aging. There’s currently no cure for that. In the book, Luke basically hand waives this problem away, saying they can reverse it.
For a novel that relies a lot on science, this book doesn’t actually contain much science. I appreciate science in my science fiction when it’s applicable. I don’t mind if it’s somewhat vague or if I don’t understand every little nuance. But I do like authors who build off of today’s science to know something about it. I don’t expect or need every detail of fictionalized science or technology to be explained. But I do expect something I’m supposed to find plausible, to be explained in such a way that I BELIEVE it’s plausible.
This story is seemingly set in present day or the near future. There are smart phones, people travel by car and airplane. Progeria is curable, but Luke’s telomere research hasn’t even started human trials before he decides he and his granddaughter should be Guinea pigs. It’s possible for Luke to just give Angie a second copy of a gene that reduces her risk of developing tumors in the future. It just doesn’t make sense how far medicine and science have advanced, but how impossible most people believe his treatment is for Angie- until Luke convinces them somehow. No one is convinced or even made more sympathetic by the sight of a sick little girl who happens to be their friend’s granddaughter, which is weird. You would think Luke would want them to see how sick she is, and tug at their heartstrings by, I don’t know, telling them what she wants to be when she grows up. If he’s down for kidnapping, emotional manipulation shouldn’t be a stretch.
But that’s not how Luke rolls, apparently. He would rather turn up and ask for help from old friends and former students. All of whom seem to not be surprised to see HIM, but clearly weren’t expecting Tamara, and may not have been expecting Angie either.
Which brings us to the latest member of the all-female Luke fan club: Shannon. Shannon is a former student, the one Yolanda didn’t tell Jerry about. Shannon has been crushing on Luke since she was his student, which somehow Yolanda is fully aware of but Luke has no clue about. Luke isn’t really very observant about these things. Tamara tried to tell him about Yolanda, but he didn’t believe her until he was pretty much hit over the head with it. Tamara figures out pretty quickly that Shannon has feelings for him too- actually Shannon thinks of it as having been in love with him for years. She seems to have not made a move mostly because he was married. Not for any of the million and one other very good reasons not to come onto your graduate advisor, but just because he was married. Not sure if she had any respect for his wife, or just didn’t think she would have a chance.
I don’t like Shannon. For a supposedly brilliant medical professional, she’s an idiot. And her level of jealousy is worse than Yolanda’s. She doesn’t want Tamara anywhere near Luke. She doesn’t care that Tamara is Angie’s doctor. In fact, like basically everyone else in this book, she doesn’t really seem to think of Angie at all. Helping Angie is a way to have Luke around, period. And she’s very interested in that. Or in him, I should say. At least she’s consistent. When she heard Luke’s wife had died of cancer, Shannon almost flew to where he lives. Even though her husband was still alive. He died later, though- of cancer, of course.
Shannon is another victim of the casual sexism of this book. Her father wanted her to go to college, so that’s fine I guess. Then she had to talk him into “letting her” go to grad school. Not talk him into paying for it, or try to win him over to the idea because she wanted his approval. She had to. Talk. Him. Into. Letting. Her. Go.
I’m sorry, WTF? A grown adult, presumably with the means to support herself, doesn’t need her father’s permission to go to grad school. She doesn’t need his permission for anything. Yikes.
The story actually manages to get weirder from there. Jerry eventually catches up to Luke, with the head of security from Shady Business Guy’s company. Apparently this dude has so much influence he can get the government to make the FBI make Jerry let this creep tag along. And he IS a creep. The author goes out of his way to tell us that security guy used to be a cop, but had a lot of excessive force complaints against him and a habit of beating up LGBT people. Except Bova calls them “homosexuals” if I’m remembering right. And at this point I’m trying to forget as much as possible about this book. I mean, there are a lot of other ways to show this character is violent and not into following the rules. Bova could have left it at the excessive force complaints, and not garnished that with the completely unnecessary homophobia. It’s just gross he felt that was in any way necessary. This guy is also a wannabe rapist who goes after Tamara.
You might think this travesty of a book was written decades ago. It was actually published in 2014. Some of the racist and misogynistic content of this book could at least be partially explained if it was a product of a different time. It would still be awful, but being published this recently, there’s not even that thin of an explanation or excuse for any of this. I’m not sure why this was published at all, except it was written by Ben Bova. Does he just not have editors anymore? Did the publisher just decide whatever manuscript he turned in was good to go?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2023
The nice thing to say is, I'm not the target audience.
I kept waiting for the thoroughly unlikable main character to have some comeuppance and learn something about life, death, boundaries, masculinity, women's lives, children's inner worlds etc. But he doesn't. The book just barrels on with its racist, fatphobic, sexist stereotypes right to the end, and the character learns nothing. But science wins etc.
Its the kind of thing your annoying boomer science boss might read so as not to challenge their emotional, psychological or social intelligence.
I kept waiting for the thoroughly unlikable main character to have some comeuppance and learn something about life, death, boundaries, masculinity, women's lives, children's inner worlds etc. But he doesn't. The book just barrels on with its racist, fatphobic, sexist stereotypes right to the end, and the character learns nothing. But science wins etc.
Its the kind of thing your annoying boomer science boss might read so as not to challenge their emotional, psychological or social intelligence.
May 28, 2025
It didn’t take long to read the 300 odd pages of this book but good heavens…it was hardly worth the time. A “brilliant” septuagenarian male scientist has found a cure, he believes, for his 8 year old granddaughter who is dying from inoperable brain tumours.
Despite being the focus of all the characters’ activities, Angela, the 8yo is hardly fleshed out as a character at all so although we don’t wish her ill and we know she will be OK she is pretty boring. The characters littering the novel are pure fantasy. All the women of course fancy grandad, (who is injecting himself with the drugs he’s giving his granddaughter, and starts looking younger and younger!). The women are “green eyed” or good looking and fabulous except the peripheral characters who are generally overweight especially if they are black or Latinos. And, my god, don’t mention the bad hair! The FBI guy, we are told repeatedly, is huge and looks Native American because of his “black ponytail “! Racism oozes from the pages.
So I don’t think I would recommend this novel. It’s an interesting premise spoilt by poor writing and dreadful characterisations.
Despite being the focus of all the characters’ activities, Angela, the 8yo is hardly fleshed out as a character at all so although we don’t wish her ill and we know she will be OK she is pretty boring. The characters littering the novel are pure fantasy. All the women of course fancy grandad, (who is injecting himself with the drugs he’s giving his granddaughter, and starts looking younger and younger!). The women are “green eyed” or good looking and fabulous except the peripheral characters who are generally overweight especially if they are black or Latinos. And, my god, don’t mention the bad hair! The FBI guy, we are told repeatedly, is huge and looks Native American because of his “black ponytail “! Racism oozes from the pages.
So I don’t think I would recommend this novel. It’s an interesting premise spoilt by poor writing and dreadful characterisations.
May 11, 2015
Originally posted on my blog, SpecFic Junkie.
When you're writing fiction, especially realistic science fiction, it's important to maintain your reader's suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately, Transhuman ruins it almost immediately out of the gates, having characters continually make implausible choices to make the mediocre plot continue forward.
The plot is pretty simple: a nearly octogenarian cellular biologist's eight-year-old granddaughter is dying from a highly aggressive brain cancer that isn't responding to treatment. He realizes, however, that his anti-aging research could be applied to help fight the cancer. But no one seems to want to let him experiment on his granddaughter, so he has to kidnap her and run off to put her through the treatment in secret.
It's a pretty common trope, all things considered. However, usually when the scientist goes underground in this scenario, they don't need to continually be asking other people for help. For good reason. The more people you involve, the less likely they are to go along with your scheme.
However, the protag of Transhuman gets a whole bunch of medical professionals to go along with his scheme, rather than telling him (as pretty much any medical professional would) that it's a severe violation of medical ethics to do human experimentation, even if the patient is terminal. And when the patient is your kin, you clearly shouldn't be doing anything because it's one of the biggest conflicts of interest.
But nope. Folks go along because the sob story of an eight-year-old dying of cancer is just too much. Which, having grown up with a doctor in the family, is ridiculous. Yes, it's very sad when children die of terminal illnesses. However, it's also a reality of the medical profession, and not a reason to throw ethics out the window.
Also, there's a level of grossness going on continually. It's implied repeatedly that the major reason a lot of his associates are going along with him is because... they really want to sleep with him. Yup. Attraction. A great reason to throw ethics out the window. Granted, if it were just one person, it might be reasonable. But the number of times that the protagonist is able to get people to agree to stuff they should have no reason to consent to is just mind-boggling. And ruins any suspension of disbelief.
He also gets his granddaughter's attending physician (who agrees to come along as they run from the FBI) to agree to give him his highly experimental anti-aging therapy... while he's trying to do all this. Because that's exactly what his granddaughter needs while he's trying an experimental therapy on her. To be on experimental therapy himself.
And it keeps getting more ridiculous. The government gets involved because they're so scared of this treatment getting out and ruining the economy that they feel the needs to trap him on an army base with no contact with the outside world. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of the government, but I feel like they'd recognize that there are things that could be done to handle the economic impact of a discovery like this. None of them are discussed. And no one seems to recognize that sweeping it under the rug once won't keep it from being discovered independently by someone else.
What's the government supposed to do then? Just keep trapping scientists on army bases? That won't be suspicious at all.
The characters are also pretty one-dimensional for the most part, with very simple motives and no thinking power of their own. They jump to conclusions and pretty much never re-examine them. I have to wonder if Ben Bova had a contract and just had to produce something. And so voila! Here we go, something! It's also super light science fiction, especially for being hard scifi. If it hadn't been Ben Bova writing this, it would have been classified as a basic thriller.
In fact, it probably would have gotten better reception that way.
When you're writing fiction, especially realistic science fiction, it's important to maintain your reader's suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately, Transhuman ruins it almost immediately out of the gates, having characters continually make implausible choices to make the mediocre plot continue forward.
The plot is pretty simple: a nearly octogenarian cellular biologist's eight-year-old granddaughter is dying from a highly aggressive brain cancer that isn't responding to treatment. He realizes, however, that his anti-aging research could be applied to help fight the cancer. But no one seems to want to let him experiment on his granddaughter, so he has to kidnap her and run off to put her through the treatment in secret.
It's a pretty common trope, all things considered. However, usually when the scientist goes underground in this scenario, they don't need to continually be asking other people for help. For good reason. The more people you involve, the less likely they are to go along with your scheme.
However, the protag of Transhuman gets a whole bunch of medical professionals to go along with his scheme, rather than telling him (as pretty much any medical professional would) that it's a severe violation of medical ethics to do human experimentation, even if the patient is terminal. And when the patient is your kin, you clearly shouldn't be doing anything because it's one of the biggest conflicts of interest.
But nope. Folks go along because the sob story of an eight-year-old dying of cancer is just too much. Which, having grown up with a doctor in the family, is ridiculous. Yes, it's very sad when children die of terminal illnesses. However, it's also a reality of the medical profession, and not a reason to throw ethics out the window.
Also, there's a level of grossness going on continually. It's implied repeatedly that the major reason a lot of his associates are going along with him is because... they really want to sleep with him. Yup. Attraction. A great reason to throw ethics out the window. Granted, if it were just one person, it might be reasonable. But the number of times that the protagonist is able to get people to agree to stuff they should have no reason to consent to is just mind-boggling. And ruins any suspension of disbelief.
He also gets his granddaughter's attending physician (who agrees to come along as they run from the FBI) to agree to give him his highly experimental anti-aging therapy... while he's trying to do all this. Because that's exactly what his granddaughter needs while he's trying an experimental therapy on her. To be on experimental therapy himself.
And it keeps getting more ridiculous. The government gets involved because they're so scared of this treatment getting out and ruining the economy that they feel the needs to trap him on an army base with no contact with the outside world. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of the government, but I feel like they'd recognize that there are things that could be done to handle the economic impact of a discovery like this. None of them are discussed. And no one seems to recognize that sweeping it under the rug once won't keep it from being discovered independently by someone else.
What's the government supposed to do then? Just keep trapping scientists on army bases? That won't be suspicious at all.
The characters are also pretty one-dimensional for the most part, with very simple motives and no thinking power of their own. They jump to conclusions and pretty much never re-examine them. I have to wonder if Ben Bova had a contract and just had to produce something. And so voila! Here we go, something! It's also super light science fiction, especially for being hard scifi. If it hadn't been Ben Bova writing this, it would have been classified as a basic thriller.
In fact, it probably would have gotten better reception that way.
July 25, 2018
Typical fare from Ben Bova lately. It was good, not great, but good. I really wish he would stop trying to add sex into everything though. It just doesn't work very well with his writing style.
November 15, 2014
The characters never gripped me, mostly because for a brilliant scientist the prof acts like a spoiled 8 year old. No real planning, no collaboration, it is always just his way or the highway and his way is often the most harebrained schemes to get away from people who are actually helping him. That all the women are in love with him is a joke. He is also incapable of learning and has but one tactic - run like hell and the devil take the hindmost. The entire kidnapping deal would have been avoided if he had used his supposed great intellect to convince the daughter that supposedly adores him to let him try and save his granddaughter. But his powers of persuasion are weak because if you push back he basically just calls you a stupid murderer and walks away in a huff. What a chump.
The science part of this was interesting, but a bit to silver bulletish. I don't know jack about telomerase inhibitors/accelerators but nothing works that well. Oh and the government getting all bent out of shape with a cure to cancer and aging because it would destroy the budget - ludicrous.
I am with Ben Bova on the way modern government regulated institutions now are all form based rather than substance - if you tick the right boxes and the functionary can absolve themselves of responsibility you can do anything. If the box does not get ticked you are dead in the streets and they will step over you with no remorse.
The science part of this was interesting, but a bit to silver bulletish. I don't know jack about telomerase inhibitors/accelerators but nothing works that well. Oh and the government getting all bent out of shape with a cure to cancer and aging because it would destroy the budget - ludicrous.
I am with Ben Bova on the way modern government regulated institutions now are all form based rather than substance - if you tick the right boxes and the functionary can absolve themselves of responsibility you can do anything. If the box does not get ticked you are dead in the streets and they will step over you with no remorse.
August 3, 2016
I wish I'd read the reviews before starting this one. Holy crap, was this book a steaming pile. I was shocked to find out that it was published in 2014, because it reads like something written in the sixties. The women in the book are distinguished only by their ethnicity and their weight. (And naturally, they all want the MC, even though he's seventy-five years old and something of a dick. I've forgotten his name already, even though I finished the book literally thirty seconds ago.)
The only explanation is that Bova isn't being edited like he should be, on account of his wall of awards. This book reads like a mashup of every cliche and soft core erotic fantasy that has gone through Bova's mind during the last ten years or so. It's ridiculous. When my homeschooled daughter is old enough I'm going to have her read this as an example of everything you should never, ever do when you're writing a novel. It's like Donald Trump in the form of a book.
The only explanation is that Bova isn't being edited like he should be, on account of his wall of awards. This book reads like a mashup of every cliche and soft core erotic fantasy that has gone through Bova's mind during the last ten years or so. It's ridiculous. When my homeschooled daughter is old enough I'm going to have her read this as an example of everything you should never, ever do when you're writing a novel. It's like Donald Trump in the form of a book.
May 5, 2015
I'm not a science fiction fan nor have I read Ben Bova before so I can't tell you whether his latest book is consistent with his previous works. I can tell you I was fascinated with the plot. After reading a summer full of murder mysteries, it was refreshing to find a novel with an interesting twist. Genetic research is making fantastic gains, so the plot of Transhuman was believable to me. The impact such scientific innovations would have on government entitlement programs is also fascinating and a bit scary when you know the shaky status of today's government finances.
The plot moves along fairly well but I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed in the ending. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the novel and consider the time I spent reading it worth the effort. Unfortunately I can't say that about all the novels I've read recently. It's not the best, nor the worst novel I've read this year.
The plot moves along fairly well but I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed in the ending. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the novel and consider the time I spent reading it worth the effort. Unfortunately I can't say that about all the novels I've read recently. It's not the best, nor the worst novel I've read this year.
October 19, 2019
While this book was an enjoyable thriller, worthy of reading to the end, it wouldn’t remain that much of a memorable book for me were it not for one particular reason: this is the book I was reading while my wife was in labour to give birth to my first-born.
It’s a shame I couldn’t be reading something spectacular, but hey, the book gods chose this and then my little boy decided he was ready.
I can appreciate any one who reads this review will be in no way enlightened as to why it achieved 3 stars, but I really don’t care.
I didn’t write this for you. Hah!
It’s a shame I couldn’t be reading something spectacular, but hey, the book gods chose this and then my little boy decided he was ready.
I can appreciate any one who reads this review will be in no way enlightened as to why it achieved 3 stars, but I really don’t care.
I didn’t write this for you. Hah!
Read
August 12, 2016Sometimes it's best to wait a few weeks after reading a book to realize its effect. This book had an interesting--and now I read--somewhat plausible concept of reversing aging. The author details the discomforts (and humiliations) of aging in a heartfelt way. The sum of all those ailments and the effect on one's state of mind feels accurate.
August 14, 2022
If you are into cellular research and have been following the research and talking about telomeres and cellular aging this book will give you a lot to think about.
The basic storyline is how a grandfather who researches the biology of stopping the aging affects of cells, has also noted that a reverse technique could be used to stop cancer cells from developing. The premise is based on the theory that if we could control telomere production on select cells we could defeat disease, especially cancer. This story is about how this grandfather, takes his granddaughter, Angela, who is dying from an incurable brain tumor condition, out of the hospital setting where they have technically written her off as terminal and takes her away so he can use an experimental treatment that may save her life. At the same time, he does the opposite treatment on himself to allow him the strength to do this physically, so the story is discussing two different versions of using the treatment while getting Angela's doctor Tamara Minter to come along to care for Angela during the treatment.
Of course, we have to discuss the corporate version of the use of this therapy--the profits--and the government's view because it would require a whole new outlook on spending budgets while making the masses in the population healthier. Both sides were from very elitist narcissistic views. We also get a view of law enforcement being tampered with to control others for certain people's benefit. If I didn't know that this book was written in 2014, I would have sworn it was discussing 2022 tactics being seen in the public.
It is a good read if you don't mind the technology theory description of this interesting theory. Herr's hoping that fiction becomes a reality for all.
The basic storyline is how a grandfather who researches the biology of stopping the aging affects of cells, has also noted that a reverse technique could be used to stop cancer cells from developing. The premise is based on the theory that if we could control telomere production on select cells we could defeat disease, especially cancer. This story is about how this grandfather, takes his granddaughter, Angela, who is dying from an incurable brain tumor condition, out of the hospital setting where they have technically written her off as terminal and takes her away so he can use an experimental treatment that may save her life. At the same time, he does the opposite treatment on himself to allow him the strength to do this physically, so the story is discussing two different versions of using the treatment while getting Angela's doctor Tamara Minter to come along to care for Angela during the treatment.
Of course, we have to discuss the corporate version of the use of this therapy--the profits--and the government's view because it would require a whole new outlook on spending budgets while making the masses in the population healthier. Both sides were from very elitist narcissistic views. We also get a view of law enforcement being tampered with to control others for certain people's benefit. If I didn't know that this book was written in 2014, I would have sworn it was discussing 2022 tactics being seen in the public.
It is a good read if you don't mind the technology theory description of this interesting theory. Herr's hoping that fiction becomes a reality for all.
January 29, 2019
Somewhat disappointing book. Ben Bova is one of the beloved names from when I started reading sci fi. I don't know how much of my dissatisfaction is because this book is not as well written as his previous books or if what I see has changed so much I would view all his writing the same way now.
The story wandered and things repeated. Essentially the same thing happened a few times with different people in different places and could have been cut. This could be a way to fill word count which while understandable, is not pleasurable to read.
Vague spoiler
The science was almost magic wand waving techno babble. It does refer to the right science but the disregard for scientific protocol and experimentation is on par with Frankenstein. Let's try this, it works, Yay!
It could be considered an ok story if I just read it and forgot about it. By analyzing it for a review, I find it left a bad taste in my mouth and I have unhappy feelings about having read it. I am resisting dropping it a star since it is the review and the comparison to where I thought Ben Bova was in terms of writing that is causing my dislike. It is not a bad book but neither is it a good book.
The story wandered and things repeated. Essentially the same thing happened a few times with different people in different places and could have been cut. This could be a way to fill word count which while understandable, is not pleasurable to read.
Vague spoiler
The science was almost magic wand waving techno babble. It does refer to the right science but the disregard for scientific protocol and experimentation is on par with Frankenstein. Let's try this, it works, Yay!
It could be considered an ok story if I just read it and forgot about it. By analyzing it for a review, I find it left a bad taste in my mouth and I have unhappy feelings about having read it. I am resisting dropping it a star since it is the review and the comparison to where I thought Ben Bova was in terms of writing that is causing my dislike. It is not a bad book but neither is it a good book.
August 17, 2022
Luke Abrahamson is a biochemist working on a cure for cancer to save his dying granddaughter. The narrative suggests the author has a certain amount of knowledge of the human gene. Luke is single-minded, determined and willing to experiment on both himself and his granddaughter. There is an emphasis on what every character is wearing, even the minor ones, which is a little strange and unnecessary.
I found traveling from place to place a little tiring and improbable due to the difficulty of moving the patient. The idea of Luke getting younger while his granddaughter gets sicker is an interesting idea. The pharmaceutical companies wanted to control the discovery and the government is worried about paying for old age, very apt. Fisk as the greedy and controlling head of a research institute is very effective. His stooge Novak is also sinister, which is a real social comment on the health industry in America.
The FBI agent Hightower is a nice contrast to the other authority figures, as he appears fair and reasonable, in a culture of greed and self-interest. The way he protects Tamara from the thug Novak reinforces the idea of him being on the side of right and justice, despite initially pursuing Luke for kidnapping.
The ending, like traveling across the country, is a little stretched. The idea that Luke could escape from a high-security army base and elude trained soldiers makes them look incompetent. I understand why the author has done it, as he needs to have a way for Luke to publish his work.
I found traveling from place to place a little tiring and improbable due to the difficulty of moving the patient. The idea of Luke getting younger while his granddaughter gets sicker is an interesting idea. The pharmaceutical companies wanted to control the discovery and the government is worried about paying for old age, very apt. Fisk as the greedy and controlling head of a research institute is very effective. His stooge Novak is also sinister, which is a real social comment on the health industry in America.
The FBI agent Hightower is a nice contrast to the other authority figures, as he appears fair and reasonable, in a culture of greed and self-interest. The way he protects Tamara from the thug Novak reinforces the idea of him being on the side of right and justice, despite initially pursuing Luke for kidnapping.
The ending, like traveling across the country, is a little stretched. The idea that Luke could escape from a high-security army base and elude trained soldiers makes them look incompetent. I understand why the author has done it, as he needs to have a way for Luke to publish his work.
February 4, 2025
Well. It wasn’t a good book but I DID finish it so two stars.
I kept thinking that we’d get idk maybe a POV of the granddaughter or that she would be relevant in some way that wasn’t just as a vehicle for this novel to exist, but no. She’s more like a pet than a kid and seems to have no internal monologue. She could have been in a coma this entire time and nothing would change.
Not to mention the weirdly racial tone the novel has in general. Race was often brought up for no real end point. I was wondering if there would be some kind of commentary to bring it together but no it just sits there.
Also the women in this novel are written so so funnily. Like it’s bad. All of Luke’s past coworkers and students want to suck his dick so bad that they act actually very irrationally? Considering their position in life? Like sure call the feds on him bc ur jealous of the physician (who is NOTTTT mentioned at all in the summary) who’s there to take care of his dying granddaughter. Right. Logical.
But then again, the characters aren’t written very deep at all. The main character, Luke? He barely feels emotionally present. I remember during a few points as I was reading being like, “focus Luke what are you even doing right now?” Because it felt like he was just doing things to do things.
Logic in this story isn’t really real.
The more I write the more I want to knock it down a star. But I did finish so two it is.
Tbh I did find the concept interesting, I just wish it was used better.
I kept thinking that we’d get idk maybe a POV of the granddaughter or that she would be relevant in some way that wasn’t just as a vehicle for this novel to exist, but no. She’s more like a pet than a kid and seems to have no internal monologue. She could have been in a coma this entire time and nothing would change.
Not to mention the weirdly racial tone the novel has in general. Race was often brought up for no real end point. I was wondering if there would be some kind of commentary to bring it together but no it just sits there.
Also the women in this novel are written so so funnily. Like it’s bad. All of Luke’s past coworkers and students want to suck his dick so bad that they act actually very irrationally? Considering their position in life? Like sure call the feds on him bc ur jealous of the physician (who is NOTTTT mentioned at all in the summary) who’s there to take care of his dying granddaughter. Right. Logical.
But then again, the characters aren’t written very deep at all. The main character, Luke? He barely feels emotionally present. I remember during a few points as I was reading being like, “focus Luke what are you even doing right now?” Because it felt like he was just doing things to do things.
Logic in this story isn’t really real.
The more I write the more I want to knock it down a star. But I did finish so two it is.
Tbh I did find the concept interesting, I just wish it was used better.
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