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| Author: |
Maria Quinn |
| Barcode/ISBN13: | 9780732287177 |
| ISBN: | 0732287170 |
| Imprint/Brand: | Voyager |
| Release Date: | Mar 2009 |
| Format: | B Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 432 |
| Weight: | 288 grammes |
| Price in AUD: | $24.99 |
| Categories: | Book Australian Author Science Fiction |
Lonely genetic scientist Piggy Brown is desperate for a child but he's in a tricky situation: he needs a lawyer to help him. Dancer is used to contracts which push the envelope of the law and he has his own reasons for wanting to find a way to grant this brilliant man's wish. The Conjugal Contract lawyer visits The Nest the official centre for surrogates and inveigles them into recommending someone they have used before someone who wont ask too many questions about the baby she carries. But choosing a surrogate can be risky and this one Angela comes with baggage: her own child Molly ... a six year old who has already seen too much of her mothers world. When a grotesque kidnapping happens everyone's life is thrown into chaos and Jack Lee Chief Investigator for UN Ethical Science Council decides its time to take charge for the sake of the future.
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Welcome to the future Australia, or is it just around the corner? Genetic modification and surrogate parents are the norm in this view of society to come, but even Paradise has problems. Dr Mitchell Brown, known as Piggy because of his appearance, wants a child, but there are major legal obstacles to his desire, so he gets Dancer, a lawyer, to assist in drawing up the Conjugal Contract.
But Piggy is a genius, and has managed to isolate and control the human ageing process. This has brought him to the attention of the UN Ethical Science Council, who want to control his discoveries for the sake of humanity. Other parties also want to take over, and Piggy's desire for a child leaves him vulnerable and open to be blackmailed or worse......
A fascinating book, which speculates about where we will go in terms of social and technological change, based on current capabilities. The characters are a little two dimensional, but the plot is well developed, the storyline flows and drags you into the middle of these people, making you feel like part of the whole scenario. I enjoyed it overall, and found that while the story is set in the future, the issues raised, including cloning, genetic selection and modification, and surrogate parenting, are increasingly relevant today.
ISBN 978-0-7322-8717-7 The Gene Thieves by Maria Quinn Aust, SF / Techno Thriller, 420 pages, © 2009 Dewey Decimal 823.3? Read September 6 to 13, 2009.
I bough this book from the Author at a meet the Author book event held at the Customs house Library, part of the reason for this event was that a pivotal moment of the story in fact takes place at the Customs house Library, as envisaged in the near future. This book is the Author’s first published book and I expect that the scenes in the background of the story are places and things that the Author is fond of? It is worth mentioning that Maria Quinn comes to novel writing from ‘the trade’, in her case copy writing for Advertising and script writing for TV etc., as opposed to the ‘Literary’ path of Academic credentials or persistent amateur writing attempts?
The book is entirely acceptable as both a Science Fiction story, the consequences of an innovation are explored, and as a mainstream techno-thriller, as there is a crime and a mystery that has to be resolved through the story. The story is this, in a world where the institution of Marriage has been replaced by sequential conjugal contracts and surrogate pregnancies are a reproductive option, a researcher has decoded a genetic pathway to longevity. He is already wealthy, as he has sold to the Japanese Government a patent for blue eyes. He wants to have a child, in effect another child of his late parents. Corporate forces kidnap his child and the ransom demanded is the longevity technology. A dashing UN Science nobbling committee activist, marriage contract lawyers and a Surrogate baby farm collective all become involved. In spite of the ‘defeat’ of the institution of Marriage, it seems that guilt and divine retribution survive into the future as several ‘sinners’ get their come-uppance through the book and in the end, the eternal family triumphant? The ‘Adventures’ are at times James Bond-ish, but under the circumstances they are credible and through the book the body count of incidental figures mounts, there is cross dressing, beach side holidays recalled, a family secret, surfing and Sydney sights, so what’s not to like about this book? Maria has finished a second book, which is a non-SF book, although the world that has been created in this book could stand a sequel / prequel?
Conclusion – I recommend this book, and I hope that Maria will be encouraged to write more Science Fictional / Techno thriller books as the genre is enriched by the entry of Writers with ’new to the Genre’ writing skills and points of view, also I do have a weakness for Sydney centric SF.
