Review: Interesting Premise, Poor Fact Finding, Poor Writing.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 18, 2013
I really wanted to like this book. It was one of those suggestions that scroll across when you buy something related in your kindle and I didn't read the reviews first. I should have then I wouldn't be struggling to write this review. And I am struggling here because I love Indie fiction and don't want to dampen anyone's fire to write but I really do feel like this is a bad book.Another review expressed some of what I found at length but I also found those significant flaws to be show stoppers and I have to express my own views.Facts are Facts: In fiction the world can be played with in creative ways but there are Rubicons that shouldn't be crossed except in very special circumstances.-In genetics, (and I hit another author on this pretty hard so it is a problem other Indie authors share), there are rules and the rules are almost immutable. If you tweak X you will get Y...you will not get Z, A, B or D. You will always get Y when you tweak X and only X. If you remove something, there will be consequences. Extras are not good. And so on and so forth. Too many people who are potential readers are well versed in genetics nowadays to try to pull fast ones with the 'knowns' of the science.-Antibiotics don't cause inherited immune system flatlining. Period. While I understand what the author was perhaps trying to say, the way she expressed it was contrary to science. It is common for people to say things that imply our use of antibacterials and antibiotics are making us weak, that isn't quite the same as saying people are being born without immune systems from one too many Z-Pacs being prescribed to their parents. A little research is needed before writing.-Leaders are not defined by a single rung on the ladder that is our DNA. Even if the tendency toward behavior associated with leadership potential could be ever linked to any DNA, it would probably be a cluster and it would be a tendency and not an ID card defining the person. Most often, great leaders have offspring which are troubled and far less talented in the leadership arena. If it were genetic, then version 2.0 should inherit it at least 50% of the time. And defining a cluster that does anything is very, very difficult because of the quadrillions of possible combinations that can be made if our entire DNA strand is taken into account.-Exposure as a way to build immunity via heridity? Listen, if they can find and do all that they are purported to be doing with DNA then they can tell who has an immune system or not at birth rather than wasting resources for 8 years and then letting them suffer in absolute agony getting disease after disease. That's just stupid.Aside from the fact problem, there is the writing style. It is simplistic to the point of madness and makes many of the characters seem like they are reading description cards from some text based game from the 1980s. The characters are also not consistent within themselves, becoming something different at the drop of the hat. I actually thought perhaps the author had mixed up the personalities of Neklema and Kim for a bit it was so drastic.And let's not forget the logic. There is none. The motivations for the various actions make no sense no matter how much suspension of disbelief the reader engages in. It's just wasteful and stupid and no one would do it. Why on earth would anyone invest like whole groups of people did in terms of time, resources and their own lives when they knew it was stupid to do so, had no purpose and wasn't a cause they believed in. They wouldn't.I hate giving bad reviews. I really, truly do. But the author in this case simply needs to pull the book entirely. Pull it, do a good bit of research and then re-write it. There are core elements that can be re-used in a new version.