What do you think?
Rate this book
Foundling Fathers
When a radical think tank clones America’s founding fathers, The Boys from Brazil meets the bicentennial in this ingeniously satirical mashup of U.S. history, cloning, and technocracy gone terribly wrong.
The trouble starts when a curious teenager, Benjamin, finds an iPhone in his privy. The problem is, it’s supposed to be 1750.
Ben takes his discovery to his brothers—Thomas, John, and George. The boys have been raised in isolation on an island plantation by a firm but kind woman, Mary Libertas. All four of them chafe at Mary’s restrictions upon them—especially Thomas, who has impregnated yet another servant.
Meanwhile, their de facto father figure, Jeff Hancock, complains to the shadowy Antediluvian Society that it is past the time to explain to the boys where they come from and what they must do: Run America the way it used to be run.
In this more-than-slightly-absurdist novella, Philip K. Dick Award–winning author Meg Elison (Find Layla) skewers those looking to an idyllic past to solve the problems they continue to create.
The trouble starts when a curious teenager, Benjamin, finds an iPhone in his privy. The problem is, it’s supposed to be 1750.
Ben takes his discovery to his brothers—Thomas, John, and George. The boys have been raised in isolation on an island plantation by a firm but kind woman, Mary Libertas. All four of them chafe at Mary’s restrictions upon them—especially Thomas, who has impregnated yet another servant.
Meanwhile, their de facto father figure, Jeff Hancock, complains to the shadowy Antediluvian Society that it is past the time to explain to the boys where they come from and what they must do: Run America the way it used to be run.
In this more-than-slightly-absurdist novella, Philip K. Dick Award–winning author Meg Elison (Find Layla) skewers those looking to an idyllic past to solve the problems they continue to create.
133 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 23, 2026
About the author
Meg Elison
49 books1,168 followersMeg Elison is a Hugo, Philip K. Dick and Locus award winning author, as well as a Nebula, Sturgeon, Eugie, and Otherwise awards finalist. A prolific short story writer and essayist, Elison has been published in Scientific American, McSweeney’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fangoria, and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. She lives in the Berkshires.
megelison.com
megelison.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
July 25, 2026
Clever, funny, and perfectly paced. I just loved this.
December 7, 2025
This novella relies on an interesting idea. What would happen if right wing billionaires had access to cloning technology?
Meg Elison explores the extraordinary coming of age of the American founding fathers, brought back and raised on a lonely island. The whole plan? Help them take over the US and make America great again.
Armed with bright young minds and hungry for the truth, they learn that everything they have been taught about themselves was a lie destined to preserve their greatness.
Being born twice is not the same as coming back, though. Great men are also a product of their times... Even if the fairy godmother of genetics provided them with a good baseline, nothing tells us that their clones would be anything but mediocre.
I wish this book was longer. The exposition was really long, and it felt like the story was cut short when we could really have explored what those men could become in the modern world. I wish one of them, using nostalgia as leverage and his name as a brand, had accessed the presidency... Only to lead the country to a disaster.
Special effort was devoted to the style, which really feels like 18th of 19th century English. Reading SF that sounds like Thoreau was really fun.
Thank you NetGalley and Tachyon publishing for the ARC. Thank you Meg Elison as well.
Meg Elison explores the extraordinary coming of age of the American founding fathers, brought back and raised on a lonely island. The whole plan? Help them take over the US and make America great again.
Armed with bright young minds and hungry for the truth, they learn that everything they have been taught about themselves was a lie destined to preserve their greatness.
Being born twice is not the same as coming back, though. Great men are also a product of their times... Even if the fairy godmother of genetics provided them with a good baseline, nothing tells us that their clones would be anything but mediocre.
I wish this book was longer. The exposition was really long, and it felt like the story was cut short when we could really have explored what those men could become in the modern world. I wish one of them, using nostalgia as leverage and his name as a brand, had accessed the presidency... Only to lead the country to a disaster.
Special effort was devoted to the style, which really feels like 18th of 19th century English. Reading SF that sounds like Thoreau was really fun.
Thank you NetGalley and Tachyon publishing for the ARC. Thank you Meg Elison as well.
![Profile Image for laurel [the suspected bibliophile].](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1645808644i/7494844._UX200_CR0,6,200,200_.jpg)
July 27, 2026
"It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds to discover there was pornography on the internet.
And so begins Foundling Fathers, a somewhat experimental thought exercise on the premise that tech billionaires and right-wing whackos (not necessarily two exclusive categories) decided they wanted to make America great again by bringing back the ancient founding fathers—by cloning them and raising them to believe it was 1750, and then slowly introducing them to the modern world so they could rule (again).
It's a wild idea, but, unfortunately, well within the realm of plausibility, based on some of the utterly nonsensical ideas of modern tech billionaires (the concept of the singularity, for one).
The book itself is a little uneven, and too short to really explore all that it was thinking—but any longer and it just wouldn't work. It feels like a short story that was expanded just a touch too much, but it does work. The heavy lifting is done in the last 10% of the book.
It's a really good satire, though, and a quick read.
And so begins Foundling Fathers, a somewhat experimental thought exercise on the premise that tech billionaires and right-wing whackos (not necessarily two exclusive categories) decided they wanted to make America great again by bringing back the ancient founding fathers—by cloning them and raising them to believe it was 1750, and then slowly introducing them to the modern world so they could rule (again).
It's a wild idea, but, unfortunately, well within the realm of plausibility, based on some of the utterly nonsensical ideas of modern tech billionaires (the concept of the singularity, for one).
The book itself is a little uneven, and too short to really explore all that it was thinking—but any longer and it just wouldn't work. It feels like a short story that was expanded just a touch too much, but it does work. The heavy lifting is done in the last 10% of the book.
It's a really good satire, though, and a quick read.
January 3, 2026
This is a fantastic, witty little novella that takes some arch conservative's ultimate wet dream (what if we could make little clones of the Founding Fathers and raise them according to the ideals of the original 1776 conditions, but make sure that they side with us, the modern day tech bro Republican party) and turns it into a perfect punk rebellion. Also, gives us the nightmares of a Thomas Jefferson being unleashed on dating apps. Ye gods and little fishes. Watching the boys unravel their situation and start to poke at the edges of their reality is fascinating, and there are a few moments where you will have to pause because you're laughing so hard at what has just been uttered by characters. Has a real "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" vibe to it, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this hits when it lands next summer. This novella was one of my last and best reads of 2025.
June 25, 2026
If given the means by science, how far would conservatives go to keep steering this country exactly the way they want to? Would they settle for cloning Ronald Reagan? Or would they want to go all the way back?
Foundling Fathers is an absurdist piece of speculative fiction that asks the question of if you clone some (not all) of our founding fathers, raise them to their majority in surroundings identical to those their primes were raised in, and then they find out their lives are complete lies…what happens then?
The answers aren’t pretty. Whenever people talk about “the good ol’ days”, or, “I wish we could go back to that time”, what they’re really longing for is the power structure at that time and how it made their lives easier. Nostalgia screws with your mind: it lets you remember the good as so very good but also fogs over all the bad just outside your purview. It’s what makes so many people want to only remember Thomas Jefferson as a great statesman and academic without remembering he was an unrepentant rapist and slaver. Or remember Ben Franklin as a great inventor and thinker without thinking of him as a slovenly, lecherous drunkard.
So it’s no wonder that nothing goes to plan in this story for anyone. No one gets the answers they want. No one’s plans go the way they wanted or needed them to. As always, the only way through is to adapt. 4⭐️
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this title.
Foundling Fathers is an absurdist piece of speculative fiction that asks the question of if you clone some (not all) of our founding fathers, raise them to their majority in surroundings identical to those their primes were raised in, and then they find out their lives are complete lies…what happens then?
The answers aren’t pretty. Whenever people talk about “the good ol’ days”, or, “I wish we could go back to that time”, what they’re really longing for is the power structure at that time and how it made their lives easier. Nostalgia screws with your mind: it lets you remember the good as so very good but also fogs over all the bad just outside your purview. It’s what makes so many people want to only remember Thomas Jefferson as a great statesman and academic without remembering he was an unrepentant rapist and slaver. Or remember Ben Franklin as a great inventor and thinker without thinking of him as a slovenly, lecherous drunkard.
So it’s no wonder that nothing goes to plan in this story for anyone. No one gets the answers they want. No one’s plans go the way they wanted or needed them to. As always, the only way through is to adapt. 4⭐️
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this title.
June 26, 2026
One of my favorite memories early in my time in San Francisco is a group sing-along of Hamilton, in its entirety, in Meg's house in West Oakland. An Aussie friend burst in in full red coat regalia in the middle of the first act. How far we've come, how complicated our feelings! This is a timely romp that comes from a place of deep anger and frustration and love. There are no great men, but we can still do good.
Read
July 14, 2026“It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds to discover there was pornography on the Internet.”
Clones of the Founding Fathers are sick of fascism, too. Alex Brown recommends Meg Elison's witty science fiction novella Foundling Fathers!
Clones of the Founding Fathers are sick of fascism, too. Alex Brown recommends Meg Elison's witty science fiction novella Foundling Fathers!
July 6, 2026
This is a short book (a novella, perhaps? I have no idea what the cutoff is, so whatever) that imagines what would happen if some trillionaire tech dork (ahem) cloned the Founding Fathers in an attempt to reignite the country’s “good ol’ days” (read: be openly extra racist and sexist and shitty in general). It’s fun and clever and certainly a great satirical commentary. I do wish it had been a bit longer, actually, which I almost never say. But to really explore the characters, I think it would have been great to have more time with them. There were some things happening on (and off) the island that I’d have enjoyed being explored more, but I also really liked what we did see of the characters and would have enjoyed some further exploration. That said, I enjoyed it, and absolutely flew through it, so I’d definitely recommend!
July 27, 2026
“I feel I’ve earned my right to my feelings about America, a country I have loved and been so grateful for, despite the way she’s lied to me my whole life-“ Meg Elison, the writer that you are ❤️
July 24, 2026
Cute idea probably but really awful execution, wow
July 19, 2026
I picked this up on the Fourth of July, because it looked like it would be the perfect read for this mixed-feelings semiquincentennial birthday of the United States AND because that cover was so intriguing I couldn’t resist.
And it was perfect for this particular weekend. Not because of its SFnal premise – which has been done before – but for what it says about the U.S. at this particular point in time. And that it says it with dry wit and dark humor and more than a bit of satirical poking at our beliefs in American exceptionalism and the current state of affairs in these (not so) United States.
The premise is both utterly SF and completely bonkers. (And a whole lot closer to being plausible than Ira Levin’s The Boys from Brazil). Between the now everyday occurrence of IVF and artificial insemination, and the not too far distant possibilities of human cloning, the idea of recreating the “Fab Four” of the American Revolution – Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams – isn’t nearly as far-fetched as it was when Levin’s book was published in 1976. (Ironically, now, the year of the US bicentennial.)
However, human cloning isn’t nearly as simple as cloning a plant or even a mouse. Which is where this book gets interesting. Because it’s not about the tech. It’s about the people. And people are not just collections of cells, they’re collections of memory and experience. Things that are a LOT harder to replicate.
Because time marches on.
So the idea of a group of über wealthy men hiding their desire to clone themselves and live forever behind a project to clone the “Founding Fathers” of the country in order to recreate a political system they believe will favor “their kind of people” and that they are certain they will be able to control isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. In fact, it’s that possibility that makes the story work – particularly as the plan falls apart.
That plan hinges on four men who were leaders – and who are raised to BE leaders. Except in complete isolation from the 21st century world in the hopes of re-creating the men they used to be in a world that is not the one that created their originals.
They’re not supposed to eat from the “Tree of Knowledge” of where the world is now until they’re ready to be led by their noses to lead everyone else. But as Robert Burns famously penned in 1785, a quote with which Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and Adams would have been all too familiar, “The best-laid schemes of mice and men go oft awry.”
All because Benjamin Franklin discovered the wonders of the smartphone ahead of his time. Of course it was Franklin. Who else would it have been?
Escape Rating A-: I absolutely DID pick this book up for the cover. The story is a LOT deeper and more thought provoking that that cover implies, but that cover, and the opening scene, were more than intriguing enough to pull the reader in. Once I was in, I was hooked.
The idea behind the story is both very SFnal AND completely rooted in today at the same time. It’s doing what SF does best – taking a look at present conditions while providing just enough of a “fig leaf” to let the reader step outside the real world while looking at, well, the real world. There are messages if you look for them, but if a reader doesn’t want to look, the story is more than enough to carry them past those points. (Even if they shouldn’t let themselves be carried past – IMHO.)
The cloning part of this story has been done before in one fashion or another. Levin’s The Boys from Brazil cloned Hitler. Multiple times. Problems ensued. Jurassic Park is about the de-extinction of dinosaurs through cloning. But the concept has also been treated more thoughtfully, and more on point for this story, in both The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler, about an attempt at de-extinctioning the woolly mammoth, and more recently and much closer to the issues of Foundling Fathers, in Cameron Reed’s Hugo-nominated novelette, The Girl That My Mother is Leaving Me For.
Because this story isn’t about the process of cloning or even the process of raising and educating those “foundling fathers”. It’s about the way the scheme falls apart and what happens in the aftermath.
Just because the boys have the same genetics as their progenitors, that does not mean they’re going to turn out the same as their originals, because it’s impossible to fully recreate the experiences that made them who they were. Even the isolation that keeps them from learning the “truth” of the 21st century is a factor. They may not know the present but as they reach adulthood they know they do not possess the liberty they have been taught to cherish.
(This is the part of the story that most aligns with Cameron Reed’s story, in that it is possible to recreate some of the conditions that made the original person so singular, but the world and its changes mean that it can’t REALLY be done.)
When the scheme to “recreate” these giants of American history collapses and is exposed, they see the world as it really is – and that it is NOT the world they were prepared for. And the way that works out, both for the Antediluvian Society (yes, really) that funded the project and for the young men themselves is all about the way that the world currently operates, both for them and for us.
Looking back at the past will not move us forward, both because the past is another country and because the past is gone. It’s what we do in the present to make the future that matters. No matter how much some might wish to return to a past that they believe is more glorious – or more favorable – or more controllable – or more in keeping with their own antediluvian prejudices.
Foundling Fathers turned out to be a surprising and perfect read for this Independence Day. The characters of those “Founding Fathers” managed to portray these towering figures as young men who are less than larger than life yet still reflect the characteristics we remember them for – even as their personalities were extended into a world the originals never imagined. The story is both witty and biting – and it bites in exactly the places and people it should in this fascinating and fantastic story.
Originally published at Reading Reality
And it was perfect for this particular weekend. Not because of its SFnal premise – which has been done before – but for what it says about the U.S. at this particular point in time. And that it says it with dry wit and dark humor and more than a bit of satirical poking at our beliefs in American exceptionalism and the current state of affairs in these (not so) United States.
The premise is both utterly SF and completely bonkers. (And a whole lot closer to being plausible than Ira Levin’s The Boys from Brazil). Between the now everyday occurrence of IVF and artificial insemination, and the not too far distant possibilities of human cloning, the idea of recreating the “Fab Four” of the American Revolution – Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams – isn’t nearly as far-fetched as it was when Levin’s book was published in 1976. (Ironically, now, the year of the US bicentennial.)
However, human cloning isn’t nearly as simple as cloning a plant or even a mouse. Which is where this book gets interesting. Because it’s not about the tech. It’s about the people. And people are not just collections of cells, they’re collections of memory and experience. Things that are a LOT harder to replicate.
Because time marches on.
So the idea of a group of über wealthy men hiding their desire to clone themselves and live forever behind a project to clone the “Founding Fathers” of the country in order to recreate a political system they believe will favor “their kind of people” and that they are certain they will be able to control isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. In fact, it’s that possibility that makes the story work – particularly as the plan falls apart.
That plan hinges on four men who were leaders – and who are raised to BE leaders. Except in complete isolation from the 21st century world in the hopes of re-creating the men they used to be in a world that is not the one that created their originals.
They’re not supposed to eat from the “Tree of Knowledge” of where the world is now until they’re ready to be led by their noses to lead everyone else. But as Robert Burns famously penned in 1785, a quote with which Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and Adams would have been all too familiar, “The best-laid schemes of mice and men go oft awry.”
All because Benjamin Franklin discovered the wonders of the smartphone ahead of his time. Of course it was Franklin. Who else would it have been?
Escape Rating A-: I absolutely DID pick this book up for the cover. The story is a LOT deeper and more thought provoking that that cover implies, but that cover, and the opening scene, were more than intriguing enough to pull the reader in. Once I was in, I was hooked.
The idea behind the story is both very SFnal AND completely rooted in today at the same time. It’s doing what SF does best – taking a look at present conditions while providing just enough of a “fig leaf” to let the reader step outside the real world while looking at, well, the real world. There are messages if you look for them, but if a reader doesn’t want to look, the story is more than enough to carry them past those points. (Even if they shouldn’t let themselves be carried past – IMHO.)
The cloning part of this story has been done before in one fashion or another. Levin’s The Boys from Brazil cloned Hitler. Multiple times. Problems ensued. Jurassic Park is about the de-extinction of dinosaurs through cloning. But the concept has also been treated more thoughtfully, and more on point for this story, in both The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler, about an attempt at de-extinctioning the woolly mammoth, and more recently and much closer to the issues of Foundling Fathers, in Cameron Reed’s Hugo-nominated novelette, The Girl That My Mother is Leaving Me For.
Because this story isn’t about the process of cloning or even the process of raising and educating those “foundling fathers”. It’s about the way the scheme falls apart and what happens in the aftermath.
Just because the boys have the same genetics as their progenitors, that does not mean they’re going to turn out the same as their originals, because it’s impossible to fully recreate the experiences that made them who they were. Even the isolation that keeps them from learning the “truth” of the 21st century is a factor. They may not know the present but as they reach adulthood they know they do not possess the liberty they have been taught to cherish.
(This is the part of the story that most aligns with Cameron Reed’s story, in that it is possible to recreate some of the conditions that made the original person so singular, but the world and its changes mean that it can’t REALLY be done.)
When the scheme to “recreate” these giants of American history collapses and is exposed, they see the world as it really is – and that it is NOT the world they were prepared for. And the way that works out, both for the Antediluvian Society (yes, really) that funded the project and for the young men themselves is all about the way that the world currently operates, both for them and for us.
Looking back at the past will not move us forward, both because the past is another country and because the past is gone. It’s what we do in the present to make the future that matters. No matter how much some might wish to return to a past that they believe is more glorious – or more favorable – or more controllable – or more in keeping with their own antediluvian prejudices.
Foundling Fathers turned out to be a surprising and perfect read for this Independence Day. The characters of those “Founding Fathers” managed to portray these towering figures as young men who are less than larger than life yet still reflect the characteristics we remember them for – even as their personalities were extended into a world the originals never imagined. The story is both witty and biting – and it bites in exactly the places and people it should in this fascinating and fantastic story.
Originally published at Reading Reality
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
My thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for an advance copy of a novella that deals asks questions about are great people created and shaped by their pasts, or can they manipulated to fit a mythology, and what happens when the real world clashes with the reality they have grown up knowing, and a mother decides to let her children live.
American history has heroes and villains, even a creation tale as deep and rich as Norse and Greek mythology, a darkness vaster than the Cthullhu tales, and probably as fictional. The founding fathers walked on water, created a nation out of whole cloth, freed the Americas from oppression, and never owned slaves. Or abused the slaves they owned. And never fell out with their child. Except maybe John Adams, who well arrested people who spoke bad about him, but seemed to love his wife, though he did ignore her. We grew up on cherry trees, kites with lightening, writing Declarations, and well, John Adams defended the British troops at the Boston Massacre. They had feet not only of clay, something Americans don't want to think about. Exceptionalism is America's birthright. Many feel by letting more people in, by letting women vote, by letting minorities feel citizenship, that America has lost their way. The founding fathers wouldn't recognize this country they would say. Or maybe they would fit right in. Foundling Fathers by Meg Elison asks the question, what makes a leader, a thinker, a inventor, a John Adams, and how could technology make a new one today, and what happens when these ghosts of the past, find out that all they know is a lie.
Ben Franklin is just about to use his favorite privy when he finds a strange block, with a glassy surface on the window sill. Confused Franklin picks up the object, pushes a button, and finds a whole new world. Pictures of women not in frocks, but in outfits for frolicking. Weather, Instagram, and even more pictures of women. Ben brings this to his brothers, all who share different last names, but have grown up on an island hidden from the hated British, raised by their loving Mother, and teacher John Hancock. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the oldest George Washington, are first stunned by the device, but questions always thought about suddenly make sense. Devices flying through the sky. The boat they never meet bringing supplies. The slaves who care for them. These boys know something is up, but have no idea what, or why, or even who to trust. The four make a solid Declaration that they will get answers, and throw off the shackles of oppression.
A dark book, one I am sure a tech bro or two is trying to do. Probably with Ronald Reagan or something. I can easily see this happening. However it is a funny book, and one that asks a lot of questions. What makes a person become a Founding Father. Money, wealth and power, sure, but there are a lot of things here that make one question that. Questions that I think we never ask about the heroes we are supposed to love so much. For a novella this is a very complete story, though I do want more adventures of these four in modern America. What snuck up on me most was how I felt about the Mother character. One doesn't get much from her until near the end, in a scene that really hit me quite hard, and left me quite moved.
An interesting book about character, cloning, and what people think about leadership, and of course control. A funny book, with a lot of dark humor and lots of hidden things that only occur later. I really enjoy this book, and would like to see more about these characters, and read more by Meg Elison.
American history has heroes and villains, even a creation tale as deep and rich as Norse and Greek mythology, a darkness vaster than the Cthullhu tales, and probably as fictional. The founding fathers walked on water, created a nation out of whole cloth, freed the Americas from oppression, and never owned slaves. Or abused the slaves they owned. And never fell out with their child. Except maybe John Adams, who well arrested people who spoke bad about him, but seemed to love his wife, though he did ignore her. We grew up on cherry trees, kites with lightening, writing Declarations, and well, John Adams defended the British troops at the Boston Massacre. They had feet not only of clay, something Americans don't want to think about. Exceptionalism is America's birthright. Many feel by letting more people in, by letting women vote, by letting minorities feel citizenship, that America has lost their way. The founding fathers wouldn't recognize this country they would say. Or maybe they would fit right in. Foundling Fathers by Meg Elison asks the question, what makes a leader, a thinker, a inventor, a John Adams, and how could technology make a new one today, and what happens when these ghosts of the past, find out that all they know is a lie.
Ben Franklin is just about to use his favorite privy when he finds a strange block, with a glassy surface on the window sill. Confused Franklin picks up the object, pushes a button, and finds a whole new world. Pictures of women not in frocks, but in outfits for frolicking. Weather, Instagram, and even more pictures of women. Ben brings this to his brothers, all who share different last names, but have grown up on an island hidden from the hated British, raised by their loving Mother, and teacher John Hancock. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the oldest George Washington, are first stunned by the device, but questions always thought about suddenly make sense. Devices flying through the sky. The boat they never meet bringing supplies. The slaves who care for them. These boys know something is up, but have no idea what, or why, or even who to trust. The four make a solid Declaration that they will get answers, and throw off the shackles of oppression.
A dark book, one I am sure a tech bro or two is trying to do. Probably with Ronald Reagan or something. I can easily see this happening. However it is a funny book, and one that asks a lot of questions. What makes a person become a Founding Father. Money, wealth and power, sure, but there are a lot of things here that make one question that. Questions that I think we never ask about the heroes we are supposed to love so much. For a novella this is a very complete story, though I do want more adventures of these four in modern America. What snuck up on me most was how I felt about the Mother character. One doesn't get much from her until near the end, in a scene that really hit me quite hard, and left me quite moved.
An interesting book about character, cloning, and what people think about leadership, and of course control. A funny book, with a lot of dark humor and lots of hidden things that only occur later. I really enjoy this book, and would like to see more about these characters, and read more by Meg Elison.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
There is much fiction currently being written, both inside the sff fields and outside, that are in conversation with our current political situation. Thomas Ha's "In My Country", a Hugo finalist for Best Short Story comes immediately to mind (largely because I'm currently reading it), and Meg Elison's upcoming novella from Tachyon Publications, "Foundling Fathers" is another. As I fished around for how to start this review, several ways came to mind. What I settled upon, however, is what I believe is quite possibly the best first line of any novella (or maybe any other piece of fiction) I've ever read:
"It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds to discover there was pornography on the internet."
I don't know what a sentence like that says about me - that it drew me into the book completely and utterly - but I feel that if that doesn't draw in the reader, well, I'm sure there's something else that would, but I find it difficult to believe.
The year, as far as Ben Franklin knows, is 1750. What he has discovered is a smartphone that someone left in a "privy". Like any intelligent and curious teenage boy, he started poking around, and well, you know. He immediately takes the device to his brothers: Tom, John, and George (who of course are Jefferson, Adams, and Washington). This is one more piece of evidence that not all is what it seems to be. What are those things that fly in the sky? Why do they never see the boat that comes to bring them supplies? Why does their calendar not match up with what they learn from the device about Ptolemy (among other things)?
Let's back up a bit. The boys, their "parents" Jeff Hancock and Mary Libertas, and a bunch of "slaves" there to serve their every need, are part of an elaborate scheme by the Antediluvian Society, a group of right wing billionaires who (and where have you heard this before?) want to make America what it was, bring it back to the glory of yesteryear. The boys are being brought up with Christian values (as the society sees them), manners, and other behaviors of 1750. They are living on an island in isolation so they don't know anything about the outside "real world". The Saratoga plan (there's always a plan, and like most plans, this one does not survive contact with the enemy), is to introduce the clones (I mean, did I have to tell you they were clones, and thus this novella becomes science fiction?) to society and return America to its former (in the society's eyes) glory.
Of course, the boys aren't supposed to know it's 2026 and not 1750, but they were raised to be as intelligent as the originals, and once they found the smartphone they started putting two and two together and really did get four and demanded to know what was really going on and what their part is in the whole thing.
As I finished the book, I didn't know what to think of it. But the more I thought about it, the better it got. The fact that the right wing cabal's plan was going awry feels like it parallels what is going on in the real world in the U.S. today, and it really is sweet and delicious. To be fair, we don't know how things really end up in the novella, just as we don't know how things are going to end up in the real world we are living in today. It's not necessarily easy to predict where we're going to end up in our timeline, and so Elison didn't predict where the Fab Four (John, Ben, Tom, and George), as I've come to think about them, are going to end up. This is a terrific read, and one that I heartily recommend. Just don't leave your cellphone laying around where people who aren't supposed to see it will find it. You never know what will happen.
"It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds to discover there was pornography on the internet."
I don't know what a sentence like that says about me - that it drew me into the book completely and utterly - but I feel that if that doesn't draw in the reader, well, I'm sure there's something else that would, but I find it difficult to believe.
The year, as far as Ben Franklin knows, is 1750. What he has discovered is a smartphone that someone left in a "privy". Like any intelligent and curious teenage boy, he started poking around, and well, you know. He immediately takes the device to his brothers: Tom, John, and George (who of course are Jefferson, Adams, and Washington). This is one more piece of evidence that not all is what it seems to be. What are those things that fly in the sky? Why do they never see the boat that comes to bring them supplies? Why does their calendar not match up with what they learn from the device about Ptolemy (among other things)?
Let's back up a bit. The boys, their "parents" Jeff Hancock and Mary Libertas, and a bunch of "slaves" there to serve their every need, are part of an elaborate scheme by the Antediluvian Society, a group of right wing billionaires who (and where have you heard this before?) want to make America what it was, bring it back to the glory of yesteryear. The boys are being brought up with Christian values (as the society sees them), manners, and other behaviors of 1750. They are living on an island in isolation so they don't know anything about the outside "real world". The Saratoga plan (there's always a plan, and like most plans, this one does not survive contact with the enemy), is to introduce the clones (I mean, did I have to tell you they were clones, and thus this novella becomes science fiction?) to society and return America to its former (in the society's eyes) glory.
Of course, the boys aren't supposed to know it's 2026 and not 1750, but they were raised to be as intelligent as the originals, and once they found the smartphone they started putting two and two together and really did get four and demanded to know what was really going on and what their part is in the whole thing.
As I finished the book, I didn't know what to think of it. But the more I thought about it, the better it got. The fact that the right wing cabal's plan was going awry feels like it parallels what is going on in the real world in the U.S. today, and it really is sweet and delicious. To be fair, we don't know how things really end up in the novella, just as we don't know how things are going to end up in the real world we are living in today. It's not necessarily easy to predict where we're going to end up in our timeline, and so Elison didn't predict where the Fab Four (John, Ben, Tom, and George), as I've come to think about them, are going to end up. This is a terrific read, and one that I heartily recommend. Just don't leave your cellphone laying around where people who aren't supposed to see it will find it. You never know what will happen.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This novella explores a fascinating question, what if cloning technology allowed us to bring back historical figures like the founding fathers? And it pairs that with the reality of modern times and how things would most likely go down, which is to say terribly and problematic. Right wing billionaires trying to bring back the founding fathers for their own usage is a very fitting occurrence, and this book feels realistic despite being science fiction.
This novella follows four young men, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. They are being raised on an island as though it is 1750, despite it actually being 2026. However, they are starting to realize that it may not in fact be 1750. A large clue to this is the phone that Franklin finds left behind in the bathroom, giving the wonderful opening line: “It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds to discover there was pornography on the internet”. If that doesn’t hook you in, I don’t know what will!
The story is told in a way that feels authentic to teenage boys as well as them being raised in a historical fashion. The overall tone and wording is distinctive as being older English in a way that ensures the reader is kept in the story, but not in a way that is overly difficult to understand and thus distracting. I really appreciated how the historical elements were shown and the reactions of the boys to various modern technologies from their outdated lens was highly entertaining. However they are still teenage boys having teenage boy thoughts, adding to the commentary that just because they are clones does not mean they will serve the role being hoped for them
Ultimately, the boys are discovering that the world they have been raised in is not how the rest of the world is and there are expectations set upon their existence due to who they are supposed to be. This story is an excellent satire on billionaires trying anything to hold power and restore the world to what they assume would be the ideal.
Owing to the novella format, this book is quite short and I feel like a lot of elements of the plot could have been further explored, however the overall message of the story is perfectly conveyed. I would have loved to know more about various things that occur, but this book did not leave me needing more because it wrapped up everything quite well. I loved how quick this was to read and I finished it easily as an evening read!
I really enjoyed this book, it was a fun science fiction/speculative fiction read with a heavy dose of satire in the best way! I would recommend this book to fans of what if questions, and humor regarding American history. However, as a self proclaimed hater of history classes throughout my life (because I’m bad at them), this was a wonderful read that did not bring out my hatred. This book is out June 23, 2026!
Thank you to Netgalley, Tachyon Publishing, and Meg Elison for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book!
This novella follows four young men, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. They are being raised on an island as though it is 1750, despite it actually being 2026. However, they are starting to realize that it may not in fact be 1750. A large clue to this is the phone that Franklin finds left behind in the bathroom, giving the wonderful opening line: “It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds to discover there was pornography on the internet”. If that doesn’t hook you in, I don’t know what will!
The story is told in a way that feels authentic to teenage boys as well as them being raised in a historical fashion. The overall tone and wording is distinctive as being older English in a way that ensures the reader is kept in the story, but not in a way that is overly difficult to understand and thus distracting. I really appreciated how the historical elements were shown and the reactions of the boys to various modern technologies from their outdated lens was highly entertaining. However they are still teenage boys having teenage boy thoughts, adding to the commentary that just because they are clones does not mean they will serve the role being hoped for them
Ultimately, the boys are discovering that the world they have been raised in is not how the rest of the world is and there are expectations set upon their existence due to who they are supposed to be. This story is an excellent satire on billionaires trying anything to hold power and restore the world to what they assume would be the ideal.
Owing to the novella format, this book is quite short and I feel like a lot of elements of the plot could have been further explored, however the overall message of the story is perfectly conveyed. I would have loved to know more about various things that occur, but this book did not leave me needing more because it wrapped up everything quite well. I loved how quick this was to read and I finished it easily as an evening read!
I really enjoyed this book, it was a fun science fiction/speculative fiction read with a heavy dose of satire in the best way! I would recommend this book to fans of what if questions, and humor regarding American history. However, as a self proclaimed hater of history classes throughout my life (because I’m bad at them), this was a wonderful read that did not bring out my hatred. This book is out June 23, 2026!
Thank you to Netgalley, Tachyon Publishing, and Meg Elison for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Imagine if a group of right-wing misogynists with billions more money than sense decided that what they needed was a group of cloned founding fathers to assume the leadership of America and take it back to the 18th century values that made it great. The young brothers Tom Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Adams, and George Washington have been growing up on an isolated island off the Virigina coast in what they believe to be the 1700s. The only adults they know are their mother, their teacher, and servants all of whom are really contracted employees who have sustained this artificial setting according to a plan. Politics and beliefs are not genetically determined, although personality characteristics may be, and the intelligent young men are finding discrepancies and suspecting something is not right about their world and the engineered book-teaching they have been spoon-fed. Then Ben finds a smartphone in the privy, and all hell breaks loose. “It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds to discover there was pornography on the internet.”
The concept is fantastically original, with great comic contrasts as the boys scheme and confront authority, But then they are abruptly epiloged into modern society. The only way this truncation of the story arc makes sense to me is if the novella is the first of several that make up one complete novel. I’m looking forward to the rest of it. Meanwhile, it might be best to wait for the publication of more story before reading this set-up novella.
Meg Elison made it into the big time when her debut novel The Book of the Unnamed Midwife won the Philip K Dick Award for US paperback original publication in 2015. Since then, she has written sequel novels for that, a striking collection Big Girl, and numerous shorter works. Thank you to Tachyon Publications for an Advance Review Copy of The Foundling Fathers in epub format, in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title is scheduled for release on 23 June 2026.
The concept is fantastically original, with great comic contrasts as the boys scheme and confront authority, But then they are abruptly epiloged into modern society. The only way this truncation of the story arc makes sense to me is if the novella is the first of several that make up one complete novel. I’m looking forward to the rest of it. Meanwhile, it might be best to wait for the publication of more story before reading this set-up novella.
Meg Elison made it into the big time when her debut novel The Book of the Unnamed Midwife won the Philip K Dick Award for US paperback original publication in 2015. Since then, she has written sequel novels for that, a striking collection Big Girl, and numerous shorter works. Thank you to Tachyon Publications for an Advance Review Copy of The Foundling Fathers in epub format, in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title is scheduled for release on 23 June 2026.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A huge thank you to Tachyon for an advance copy of Meg Elison's Foundling Fathers!
I found this book while digging through spec-fic publishers and the premise just looked like too much fun to pass up. Finding out the author, Meg Elison, is from the Berkshires (right in my backyard) pretty much sealed the deal. But then I checked out the press kit and author’s video - which got an actual lol - and I was officially excited.
The book delivers in a big way. The writing is super witty, and I adored the contrast between the 18th-century period English and the bluntness of modern speech. “What is this before me?” to “John Hancock had fucking had it" is peak comedic timing for me. I found myself laughing out loud at the start of nearly every chapter.
By the middle of the book, I was already picturing this on-screen. There are some abrupt transitions between characters and timelines, but if you view it through a cinematic lens - thinking of them as hard cuts, really - the pacing makes a lot of sense, especially when all four boys are speaking concurrently.
My only real gripe is that I wanted more. The “explosive” events leading to the boys' escape felt a bit rushed, and I think there was a lot of tension there that could have been fleshed out further. I also wished Jefferson had faced some actual consequences for his inferred sexual assaults, but the book stays true to the reality that, in his life, he never really did. All that said, of course I want more. It’s a phenomenally-written novella, and wanting more of a world is a pretty good sign of a successful story.
I really like when an absurd concept is taken seriously. We get that here. Elison gets the temperaments of these guys right - they are flawed people in a flawed system overseen by flawed men. The ending, where they finally meet the person who "made" them, is handled perfectly. I usually hate using the word "masterful," but for that specific scene, I can't think of a better way to describe it. Elison captures the boy’s profound disappointment wonderfully - a sentiment she echoes in her afterword.
It’s a huge “Mission: Accomplished” for Meg Elison and Foundling Fathers. Like an actual “Mission: Accomplished,” not a USS Abraham Lincoln “Mission: Accomplished.” We’re lucky to be along for the ride.
Keep an eye out for this one from Tachyon in June.
I found this book while digging through spec-fic publishers and the premise just looked like too much fun to pass up. Finding out the author, Meg Elison, is from the Berkshires (right in my backyard) pretty much sealed the deal. But then I checked out the press kit and author’s video - which got an actual lol - and I was officially excited.
The book delivers in a big way. The writing is super witty, and I adored the contrast between the 18th-century period English and the bluntness of modern speech. “What is this before me?” to “John Hancock had fucking had it" is peak comedic timing for me. I found myself laughing out loud at the start of nearly every chapter.
By the middle of the book, I was already picturing this on-screen. There are some abrupt transitions between characters and timelines, but if you view it through a cinematic lens - thinking of them as hard cuts, really - the pacing makes a lot of sense, especially when all four boys are speaking concurrently.
My only real gripe is that I wanted more. The “explosive” events leading to the boys' escape felt a bit rushed, and I think there was a lot of tension there that could have been fleshed out further. I also wished Jefferson had faced some actual consequences for his inferred sexual assaults, but the book stays true to the reality that, in his life, he never really did. All that said, of course I want more. It’s a phenomenally-written novella, and wanting more of a world is a pretty good sign of a successful story.
I really like when an absurd concept is taken seriously. We get that here. Elison gets the temperaments of these guys right - they are flawed people in a flawed system overseen by flawed men. The ending, where they finally meet the person who "made" them, is handled perfectly. I usually hate using the word "masterful," but for that specific scene, I can't think of a better way to describe it. Elison captures the boy’s profound disappointment wonderfully - a sentiment she echoes in her afterword.
It’s a huge “Mission: Accomplished” for Meg Elison and Foundling Fathers. Like an actual “Mission: Accomplished,” not a USS Abraham Lincoln “Mission: Accomplished.” We’re lucky to be along for the ride.
Keep an eye out for this one from Tachyon in June.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Foundling Fathers by Meg Elison - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for this eARC in exchange for my honest review 🫶
First things first— I absolutely FLEW through this! I had such a blast with this book, finished it in just under an hour!
The premise is honestly fascinating (and, I will admit, not too far fetched in our current climate): deluded right-wing billionaires cloning the founding fathers and raising them as if it were the 1700s on a remote island in order to recapture the magic of those geniuses in present times. Elison does a fantastic job of fleshing out each of the boys, sprinkling in traits familiar to the original Founding Fathers while also giving them voices unique to these brothers raised by a single mother— a delightfully accurate glimpse into life as a sibling.
This novella follows four young men, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. They are being raised on an island as though it is 1750, despite it actually being 2026. However, they are starting to realize that it may not in fact be 1750. A large clue to this is the phone that Franklin finds left behind in the bathroom, giving the wonderful opening line: “It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds to discover there was pornography on the internet”. If that doesn’t hook you in, I don’t know what will!
Things take a sharp turn when the boys try to confront their mother about their discovery— the story turned fairly dark fairly quickly, but it was done almost seamlessly, with the grief and disbelief and innocence lost being almost tangible.
The way Mary— the woman given the role of mother to the Foundling Fathers— code-switches from Revolutionary-era English to modern when she isn’t around the boys is staggeringly well-written, as are Ben, Thomas, George, and John’s reactions to various modern technologies through their outdated lenses. While they may be (clones of) Founding Fathers, they are still very much teenage boys, and that comes through beautifully.
This story is a fun science fiction/speculative fiction read with a heavy dose of satire— particularly regarding billionaires trying anything to hold power and restore the world to what they assume would be the ideal— and a delightful 250th birthday gift to America. Highly highly recommend!
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for this eARC in exchange for my honest review 🫶
First things first— I absolutely FLEW through this! I had such a blast with this book, finished it in just under an hour!
The premise is honestly fascinating (and, I will admit, not too far fetched in our current climate): deluded right-wing billionaires cloning the founding fathers and raising them as if it were the 1700s on a remote island in order to recapture the magic of those geniuses in present times. Elison does a fantastic job of fleshing out each of the boys, sprinkling in traits familiar to the original Founding Fathers while also giving them voices unique to these brothers raised by a single mother— a delightfully accurate glimpse into life as a sibling.
This novella follows four young men, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. They are being raised on an island as though it is 1750, despite it actually being 2026. However, they are starting to realize that it may not in fact be 1750. A large clue to this is the phone that Franklin finds left behind in the bathroom, giving the wonderful opening line: “It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds to discover there was pornography on the internet”. If that doesn’t hook you in, I don’t know what will!
Things take a sharp turn when the boys try to confront their mother about their discovery— the story turned fairly dark fairly quickly, but it was done almost seamlessly, with the grief and disbelief and innocence lost being almost tangible.
The way Mary— the woman given the role of mother to the Foundling Fathers— code-switches from Revolutionary-era English to modern when she isn’t around the boys is staggeringly well-written, as are Ben, Thomas, George, and John’s reactions to various modern technologies through their outdated lenses. While they may be (clones of) Founding Fathers, they are still very much teenage boys, and that comes through beautifully.
This story is a fun science fiction/speculative fiction read with a heavy dose of satire— particularly regarding billionaires trying anything to hold power and restore the world to what they assume would be the ideal— and a delightful 250th birthday gift to America. Highly highly recommend!
July 1, 2026
The back cover gives away the plot premise, so I am not going to worry about that spoiler.
In the near future a bunch of really rich right-wing guys decide to clone the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben Franklin and George Washington. They raise them from birth on a deserted island off the coast of Virginia. They tell them that it is the 18th century. They give them an education of that time and teach them the speech and manners of those days. They hire a woman to be act as their "mother".
When they are young men, the whole thing falls apart. Their "mother" accidently losses her iPhone, and Ben Franklin discovers it.
There is a fun escape story. The creators of this mess try to control it. All four of the founding fathers go into different lives.
This is a concept book. It is better not to ask questions like, "how could rich smart people think this was a good idea? or 'how technically could you get cells bearing identical male and female DNA for all four of them? or "how could you think raising the four of them on an uninhabited island in a 250-year-old world, would prepare them to be effective right-wing leaders today?"
It is more fun to go along for the ride. Elison comes up with credible versions of what the four of them might be like in this bizarre setting. Franklin is smart and lazy. Adams is smart and quick to take offense. Jefferson is a genius and a womanizer. Washington is a rock of common sense. She has fun running them through mock versions of their lives. Washington leads them in battle. Franklin masters the technology. Jefferson discovers the true year from the night sky.
I enjoyed the story. It is fast paced and doesn't take itself too seriously. It skewers the mindless worship of the founding fathers by carrying it to its logic extreme, while at the same time showing that the four of them were substantial people.
In the near future a bunch of really rich right-wing guys decide to clone the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben Franklin and George Washington. They raise them from birth on a deserted island off the coast of Virginia. They tell them that it is the 18th century. They give them an education of that time and teach them the speech and manners of those days. They hire a woman to be act as their "mother".
When they are young men, the whole thing falls apart. Their "mother" accidently losses her iPhone, and Ben Franklin discovers it.
There is a fun escape story. The creators of this mess try to control it. All four of the founding fathers go into different lives.
This is a concept book. It is better not to ask questions like, "how could rich smart people think this was a good idea? or 'how technically could you get cells bearing identical male and female DNA for all four of them? or "how could you think raising the four of them on an uninhabited island in a 250-year-old world, would prepare them to be effective right-wing leaders today?"
It is more fun to go along for the ride. Elison comes up with credible versions of what the four of them might be like in this bizarre setting. Franklin is smart and lazy. Adams is smart and quick to take offense. Jefferson is a genius and a womanizer. Washington is a rock of common sense. She has fun running them through mock versions of their lives. Washington leads them in battle. Franklin masters the technology. Jefferson discovers the true year from the night sky.
I enjoyed the story. It is fast paced and doesn't take itself too seriously. It skewers the mindless worship of the founding fathers by carrying it to its logic extreme, while at the same time showing that the four of them were substantial people.
Want to Read
July 26, 2026I have not read the book yet. These are my thoughts and perspective after reading the Reactor magazine review by Alex Brown.
The way the Founding Fathers are revered in the USA is reminding me of Stalin, Lenin and the other fearless leaders of totalitarian Soviet times. I grew up in the 1980s in Communist Eastern Europe, I vividly remember in elementary school we were fed a lot of mythology about these men for reasons of political indoctrination. Their portraits were on the classroom walls, huge statues of them in public spaces, stories about their noble struggles to build the bright future we were all promised...
In the 1990s, my parents and my teenage self immigrated to the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.
By the 2010s, I was a naturalized citizen, married to an American white man who counted Thomas Jefferson among his personal heroes, and dragged me along to visit TJ's plantation house in Virginia. My (now ex) husband was enthralled by all the cool stuff Mr Founding Father had collected and the mansion he built around his massive ego... I mainly remember the kitchen gardens and the hidden passageways for the "help".
History is written by the winners and rewritten by the powerful to suit their agenda. Dark humor and satire is how we coped in the 1980s Soviet block. Here's a couple of jokes from back then.
"We have the same freedoms here as in America: there, everyone is free to criticize the President of the USA; here, everyone is also free to criticize the President of the USA."
"US President: I love political jokes, I collect them. Soviet leader: Me too, I collect the people who tell them." (in prison camps)
The way the Founding Fathers are revered in the USA is reminding me of Stalin, Lenin and the other fearless leaders of totalitarian Soviet times. I grew up in the 1980s in Communist Eastern Europe, I vividly remember in elementary school we were fed a lot of mythology about these men for reasons of political indoctrination. Their portraits were on the classroom walls, huge statues of them in public spaces, stories about their noble struggles to build the bright future we were all promised...
In the 1990s, my parents and my teenage self immigrated to the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.
By the 2010s, I was a naturalized citizen, married to an American white man who counted Thomas Jefferson among his personal heroes, and dragged me along to visit TJ's plantation house in Virginia. My (now ex) husband was enthralled by all the cool stuff Mr Founding Father had collected and the mansion he built around his massive ego... I mainly remember the kitchen gardens and the hidden passageways for the "help".
History is written by the winners and rewritten by the powerful to suit their agenda. Dark humor and satire is how we coped in the 1980s Soviet block. Here's a couple of jokes from back then.
"We have the same freedoms here as in America: there, everyone is free to criticize the President of the USA; here, everyone is also free to criticize the President of the USA."
"US President: I love political jokes, I collect them. Soviet leader: Me too, I collect the people who tell them." (in prison camps)
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
What happens when eccentric billionaires have access to cloning and choose to recreate the myth of America's birth? Find out in Meg Ellison’s new political satire novella, Foundling Fathers.
Ellison has written a lovely, rainy Saturday summer read. Don’t take this book too seriously. The premise is meant to be ridiculous. We can laugh at the billionaires knowing they are not smart enough to realize their plan would never work in the long run.
This is not a laugh out loud read. You’ll likely give out gentle chuckles from time to time but a nice smile will be on your face the whole time. You will be gripped from the opening line. Elison tells you everything you need to know about the real Benjamin Franklin. If you’re also looking for subtle and then not so subtle references to Epstein, you’re in luck, they’re all over the place!
Ellison has chosen a spectacular cast for her story. Four founding fathers of whom lived exceptionally different lives, at times opposed each other. Their “mother”, a conservative conformist in her youth who carried these clones into the 21st century. Included are several side characters who are all definitely “straight” white men obsessed with “making America great again”.
With humor and unexpected twists you’ll be enthralled with Meg Elison’s new work and be hopeful she will continue to work in this sphere.
Nothing But The Good is a review page dedicated to positive forward reviews. Discussing what we enjoyed about reading. Thank you to Tachyon and NetGalley for this ARC. Goodreads for
Ellison has written a lovely, rainy Saturday summer read. Don’t take this book too seriously. The premise is meant to be ridiculous. We can laugh at the billionaires knowing they are not smart enough to realize their plan would never work in the long run.
This is not a laugh out loud read. You’ll likely give out gentle chuckles from time to time but a nice smile will be on your face the whole time. You will be gripped from the opening line. Elison tells you everything you need to know about the real Benjamin Franklin. If you’re also looking for subtle and then not so subtle references to Epstein, you’re in luck, they’re all over the place!
Ellison has chosen a spectacular cast for her story. Four founding fathers of whom lived exceptionally different lives, at times opposed each other. Their “mother”, a conservative conformist in her youth who carried these clones into the 21st century. Included are several side characters who are all definitely “straight” white men obsessed with “making America great again”.
With humor and unexpected twists you’ll be enthralled with Meg Elison’s new work and be hopeful she will continue to work in this sphere.
Nothing But The Good is a review page dedicated to positive forward reviews. Discussing what we enjoyed about reading. Thank you to Tachyon and NetGalley for this ARC. Goodreads for
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
TL;DR: An interesting thought experiment
Source: NetGalley, thank you so much!
Plot: A goverment faction clones our founding fathers, what could go wrong?
Characters: These weren’t really the important part, it was more the idea.
Setting: Again, not important.
SciFi: We didn’t get much of that either?
Thoughts:
I’m not sure what to feel about this one besides “It’s something I read”. The thought experiment is interesting, and I feel like perhaps with a bit more exploration this could have been very fascinating. But as it was we got a very surface level look at the type of people who might/would do this. The disregard for selfhood, for being ones own person. The idea that just the genetics decides the person.
It’s a very simple idea with a simple execution. It’s short and to the point, so there isn’t a whole lot I can say about it. I will also add, the misogyny is strong and deeply built in. I full understand that it’s part of the villianizing of the people doing this that we’re supposed to buy into but it was uncomfortable. There was also some clear violence against immigrants so if you don’t want to read that, continue on.
Overall it was just… something I read? I can’t give you much more. If you’re a history buff I can see this being a fun experiment to explore but I’m not sure if it really served me in any way.
Source: NetGalley, thank you so much!
Plot: A goverment faction clones our founding fathers, what could go wrong?
Characters: These weren’t really the important part, it was more the idea.
Setting: Again, not important.
SciFi: We didn’t get much of that either?
Thoughts:
I’m not sure what to feel about this one besides “It’s something I read”. The thought experiment is interesting, and I feel like perhaps with a bit more exploration this could have been very fascinating. But as it was we got a very surface level look at the type of people who might/would do this. The disregard for selfhood, for being ones own person. The idea that just the genetics decides the person.
It’s a very simple idea with a simple execution. It’s short and to the point, so there isn’t a whole lot I can say about it. I will also add, the misogyny is strong and deeply built in. I full understand that it’s part of the villianizing of the people doing this that we’re supposed to buy into but it was uncomfortable. There was also some clear violence against immigrants so if you don’t want to read that, continue on.
Overall it was just… something I read? I can’t give you much more. If you’re a history buff I can see this being a fun experiment to explore but I’m not sure if it really served me in any way.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Holy cow, this immediately started out so fun! I love a story that just throws you in with no preamble, sink or swim. I started at midnight and read straight through to the end, only stopping long enough to get a snack.
The boys are so well written, not just the way Elison worked the more familiar traits into their makeup, but the way they were so obviously close-knit young men with a single mother. The two that stood out the most were John Adams, the baby, and Thomas Jefferson, the steadfast mama's boy with a Madonna/whore complex. But Washington and Franklin were exactly the levelheaded antithesis you'd expect from a gaggle of brothers. Just a perfect glimpse into siblinghood.
The story turns dark so quickly as the boys start to confront their caregivers about their unreality. I wasn't prepared, but it was so gracefully segued. I don't know that I've ever had such an initially fun book shift so viscerally, with such definitive moments where innocence was lost. The grief and disbelief were tangible, and so eloquently written.
I don't have the words to properly convey how much I loved this book. It was funny, insightful, poignant; I don't often wish I could go back and read a book again for the first time, but if ever there was one to choose, for me it's this one.
Thank you to NetGalley, Tachyon Publications, and Meg Elison for the opportunity to read this in advance!
The boys are so well written, not just the way Elison worked the more familiar traits into their makeup, but the way they were so obviously close-knit young men with a single mother. The two that stood out the most were John Adams, the baby, and Thomas Jefferson, the steadfast mama's boy with a Madonna/whore complex. But Washington and Franklin were exactly the levelheaded antithesis you'd expect from a gaggle of brothers. Just a perfect glimpse into siblinghood.
The story turns dark so quickly as the boys start to confront their caregivers about their unreality. I wasn't prepared, but it was so gracefully segued. I don't know that I've ever had such an initially fun book shift so viscerally, with such definitive moments where innocence was lost. The grief and disbelief were tangible, and so eloquently written.
I don't have the words to properly convey how much I loved this book. It was funny, insightful, poignant; I don't often wish I could go back and read a book again for the first time, but if ever there was one to choose, for me it's this one.
Thank you to NetGalley, Tachyon Publications, and Meg Elison for the opportunity to read this in advance!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
What if radical billionaires had cloning technology and decided to bring back the Founding Fathers? The concept is intriguing, parts were hilarious (the boys discovering an iPhone and finding porn within a matter of minutes), the pace was nearly perfect, but this fell a little flat for me overall. I would have loved to see this do MORE. Yes, it's a novella, but I felt much could have been shortened or, honestly, taken out completely to make room for either more humor and/or concepts to create a bigger impact. I think it would have been hilarious to see the boys actually talk to the billionaires about what they specifically want for the country. Would have been even funnier if the boys replied with what would be considered more left-leaning retorts. I would have liked to see them interact with the modern world a little more too. This was an amazing concept, but I really needed and wanted more out of it! Not necessarily a full-length novel, but edited in a way that leaves more room for the important and intriguing parts.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for an advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are, as always, my very own. This one is set to release on June 23rd.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for an advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are, as always, my very own. This one is set to release on June 23rd.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Meg Elison delivers a delightfully twisted satirical novella in Foundling Fathers. She starts with Benjamin Franklin finding a mobile phone and quite quickly working out how to navigate its mysteries. This Benjamin Franklin has three brothers – Samual Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington – and the four were born and have been raised on a remote island. The finding of the phone sets off a chain of events that will reveal to them who they really are and what their purpose is.
Foundling Fathers plays with the idea that what right wing Americans really want is to go back to the past. And what better way to do this than to clone a group of the Founding Fathers and put them in place to “save America”. Only nothing is that simple and Elison has fun playing with what she considers to be the potential consequences of playing god in this way.
Foundling Fathers is an enjoyable thought experiment. In it Elison can consider the cause of “true believers” and but also what these great men of American history might actually think about the state of their Nation in the early 21st century. But more than all of that it has its tongue firmly in its cheek and provides an enjoyable way to deconstruct current US politics.
Foundling Fathers plays with the idea that what right wing Americans really want is to go back to the past. And what better way to do this than to clone a group of the Founding Fathers and put them in place to “save America”. Only nothing is that simple and Elison has fun playing with what she considers to be the potential consequences of playing god in this way.
Foundling Fathers is an enjoyable thought experiment. In it Elison can consider the cause of “true believers” and but also what these great men of American history might actually think about the state of their Nation in the early 21st century. But more than all of that it has its tongue firmly in its cheek and provides an enjoyable way to deconstruct current US politics.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The premise of this book is that a group of American billionaires decide to lo0ok to the past for future leadership, and clone the founding fathers, based on the idea that the individuals were special and that this specialness can be used for current leadership. The part set on the Island (i.e. most of it) is clever, and particularly interesting since I just read Yesteryear. they are very different books, but both are playing with the idea of returning to a better past.
The move of the island is sudden and jarring and that's where the satire really kicks in. It's biting and insightful and I loved it.
I may have missed some references since I am not American, particularly in relation to the personalities of the boys / founding fathers. This book works on many levels and I really enjoyed reading it.
Thanks to NetGalley, Tachyon Publications and Meg Elison for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The move of the island is sudden and jarring and that's where the satire really kicks in. It's biting and insightful and I loved it.
I may have missed some references since I am not American, particularly in relation to the personalities of the boys / founding fathers. This book works on many levels and I really enjoyed reading it.
Thanks to NetGalley, Tachyon Publications and Meg Elison for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
July 30, 2026
This was such a fun and quick read! An evil conglomerate has cloned four founding fathers - George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. They're raised on an isolated island with no contact with the outside world. They live and are educated as they would have been in their own lifetimes, and they have no contact with the outside world. The idea is that they'll be able to save America from its amorality and loss of traditional values. Then Ben finds a phone and pretty quickly lands on porn.
After that, things spiral and happen pretty quickly as the boys realize they've been living a lie. I don't want to spoil any of that so I won't go into detail. Let me just say they have BIG feelings about it, and their reactions are very understandable and also pretty funny. I loved the little vignettes of their lives after they get off the island. Let's hope none of the wrong people read this one because it feels like it could very much be real in today's climate! Definitely worth the read.
Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC!
After that, things spiral and happen pretty quickly as the boys realize they've been living a lie. I don't want to spoil any of that so I won't go into detail. Let me just say they have BIG feelings about it, and their reactions are very understandable and also pretty funny. I loved the little vignettes of their lives after they get off the island. Let's hope none of the wrong people read this one because it feels like it could very much be real in today's climate! Definitely worth the read.
Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
* thanks to Tachyon Publications for the NetGalley review copy (pub date: June 2026)
Aaaagh. I LOVE the crazy concept of this book: Clones of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams are being raised in isolation, in 1700s-style conditions, by a shady group of billionaires who want to use these dingdongs to lead the US and take it back to the way it was in the 1700s, when white men were men and everyone else was property (and where we seem to be headed even without the clones, thanks to the maga fuckwits).
ANYWAY, then Ben Franklin finds an iPhone in the privy and everything goes bananas. This should have been SO FUNNY, but the plot is way too jumpy and the timeline is way too compressed — they find the phone and like five minutes later another crazy thing happens and then there’s a location change and some conversations and then it’s basically over. With a little room to breathe and really lean into the absurdity of it all, this could have been a five star book.
Aaaagh. I LOVE the crazy concept of this book: Clones of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams are being raised in isolation, in 1700s-style conditions, by a shady group of billionaires who want to use these dingdongs to lead the US and take it back to the way it was in the 1700s, when white men were men and everyone else was property (and where we seem to be headed even without the clones, thanks to the maga fuckwits).
ANYWAY, then Ben Franklin finds an iPhone in the privy and everything goes bananas. This should have been SO FUNNY, but the plot is way too jumpy and the timeline is way too compressed — they find the phone and like five minutes later another crazy thing happens and then there’s a location change and some conversations and then it’s basically over. With a little room to breathe and really lean into the absurdity of it all, this could have been a five star book.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I have to confess, I picked this up because of the intriguing premise: what would happen if America's Founding Fathers—Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams—got their hands on modern smartphones? I was expecting a sci-fi take that would really lean into their brilliant minds and distinct personalities, perhaps creating some high-stakes drama or showcasing their 'prodigy' status in their youth.
While the book does capture some of their charm, I felt it was a bit light compared to their legendary historical statures. However, once I reached the final chapter, everything clicked. It cleared up why the author chose this specific direction and ending. It felt 'grounded' and logical in its own way. Even though it wasn't as dramatic as I’d hoped, it was still an enjoyable read with a truly satisfying conclusion.
Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
#NetGallery #Foundling Fathers
While the book does capture some of their charm, I felt it was a bit light compared to their legendary historical statures. However, once I reached the final chapter, everything clicked. It cleared up why the author chose this specific direction and ending. It felt 'grounded' and logical in its own way. Even though it wasn't as dramatic as I’d hoped, it was still an enjoyable read with a truly satisfying conclusion.
Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
#NetGallery #Foundling Fathers
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I was immediately intrigued upon seeing the concept of this novella, despite having limited knowledge about the founding of the USA - and Foundling Fathers was a fun read. It's packed full of interesting ideas, but the novella format often doesn't leave enough space to fully explore them - I would have liked further expansion of the events of the latter third of the novel, as well as what happened next.
The misogyny, racism, and all round bigotry which pervade the text serves a purpose, but it's still hugely discomfiting to read.
The characters are a highlight of this novella - again, despite a lack of background knowledge beyond the musical Hamilton, I could easily distinguish between the boys. Even the background characters seemed distinct, with their own motivations. I would have liked to learn more about Mary, however.
All in all, Foundling Fathers is a fun, speedy read - albeit with occassional moments where some gritting of teeth may be necessary! I would love to have seen it explored further.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
Thank you to Tachyon Publications and Netgalley for the ARC.
The misogyny, racism, and all round bigotry which pervade the text serves a purpose, but it's still hugely discomfiting to read.
The characters are a highlight of this novella - again, despite a lack of background knowledge beyond the musical Hamilton, I could easily distinguish between the boys. Even the background characters seemed distinct, with their own motivations. I would have liked to learn more about Mary, however.
All in all, Foundling Fathers is a fun, speedy read - albeit with occassional moments where some gritting of teeth may be necessary! I would love to have seen it explored further.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
Thank you to Tachyon Publications and Netgalley for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thank you to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars.
A collection of billionaires decide that the US's political system needs an overall and decides the way to deal with this is to clone the founding fathers with a view to them taking the country back to the 'good old days.'
The book starts with the four young men having been brought up on an island in ignorance of the outside world until they begin to gain awareness.
I really liked the idea of this book as a way to explore the obsession that modern society has of returning to old ideals and ways of thinking. Unfortunately the idea worked a little better for me than the execution. I didn't find any of the founding fathers particularly compelling, although I will confess my knowledge of early American politics is lacking and I probably would have understood more references here if I did!
Definitely a unique read, but one that didn't entirely work for me.
3.5 stars.
A collection of billionaires decide that the US's political system needs an overall and decides the way to deal with this is to clone the founding fathers with a view to them taking the country back to the 'good old days.'
The book starts with the four young men having been brought up on an island in ignorance of the outside world until they begin to gain awareness.
I really liked the idea of this book as a way to explore the obsession that modern society has of returning to old ideals and ways of thinking. Unfortunately the idea worked a little better for me than the execution. I didn't find any of the founding fathers particularly compelling, although I will confess my knowledge of early American politics is lacking and I probably would have understood more references here if I did!
Definitely a unique read, but one that didn't entirely work for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews