Le Gène Maudit

by John Boyd (Pseudonym), Boyd Bradfield Upchurch

French translation of 'The Doomsday Gene'.

254 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Boyd was the primary pen-name of Boyd Bradfield Upchurch, an American science fiction author.

Reviews

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amal Severn is an AE 7, a genetic experimental human designed for high mental achievement then self-destruction, a la the replicants from Bladerunner. His area of expertise seems to be seismology and he has developed a method of accurately forecasting strong earthquakes. He meets an attractive young psychologist Lyn Oberlin, with some mind-reading abilities, who takes to Amal as she can’t read him for some reason, and they start a strangely chaste romance. Amal has vague recollections of being simebody else in 1934 and together he and Lyn visit a reconstruction of California c.1934 and Amal hones his tectonic plate fault techniques. He returns and makes a prediction of a major earthquake to a specific minute, recorded for future legal proceedings, and together he and Lyn wait. And so does the reader. A lot happens between Lyn and Amal but little of it is to do with the plot and a more cynical fellow than me might suspect John Boyd of padding. However, the revelation of the Thanatos factor which was revealed in about page 3, returns again 160 pages later. The final third of the book is actually pretty good, particularly the earthquake scenes, but on the whole you could just as easily pass on this one.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Simpliste et sans grand intérêt. De la littérature de gare.