Exogene by T.C. McCarthy

This book is the life story of a military clone in a future war for natural resources.

Cloning is here regardless of the ethics or morality surrounding its existence. A logical step forward is to assume that the military industrial complex is exploring how cloning can impact future wars and if cloned warriors are financially viable they will probably be produced. I realize that is somewhat cynical but cynicism is a root theme in the book.

The use of religion to keep warrior clones focused is a re-visitation of the Manchurian Candidate. (The original version, I never saw the remake.) The genetics or clone warriors are supposed to be identity free, satisfied with numeric nomenclature and focused only on killing. Sadly the killing focus supported by religion seems congruent with the jihad motivation of the Islamic extremists or the 1950’s rallying cry of “kill a Commie for Christ”. The author clearly demonstrates the power of combining religion and warring into religious killing for the right to enter Nirvana.

This is a war story based on the need for resources which is obviously motivated by the current debacles to maintain the flow of oil. As much as we would like to think that war is motivated by the desire to do the “right” thing, most often it is done to line the pockets of the perpetrators.

The insights developed as the girls “spoiled” provides a somewhat depressing mental state as escape is pursued to ruined, radioactive terrain. This is a war story, fought with logical extensions of current technology and hopefully an illogical use of clone warriors (slaves).

It was a thought provoking look at a possible future of war.

Body of work of Body of work of T.C. McCarthy

Web Site: http://www.tcmccarthy.com/About_TC_McCarthy.html

The Treasured One by David and Leigh Eddings

This book is a continuation of the series, The Dreamers. Two sets of gods, a younger and a an older are attempting to deal with a insect like genetic altering villain who creates minions on the fly. The elder gods recruit humans from their domains to deal with the villain since they are incapable of taking life.

I enjoy the Eddings work. This series seems to be too much like light beer, less taste and definitely less filling. I like the characters and I like the verbal interplay. The plot seems to be a replay of the previous book as opposed to growing from the last book. The plethora of omnipotent beings is a bit amusing but not overly so. Lots of fighting, spectacular deeds by unlikely heroes and some pontificating on the greed of some organized religion. It appears to be more of a young adult book than I had anticipated. A very light but never the less entertaining read.

Body of work of David Eddings

Review: http://www.sfsite.com/04a/to197.htm

Web Site: www.eddings.fantasyka.art.pl/english.html