Customer Reviews

Brain Child

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From the early 80s until his death in 1996 George Turner was widely held to be the best Australian SF writer, and a formidably incisive and literate critic of the genre. Though his work lacks the hard SF elements of, for example, Greg Egan, his characterisations are more convincing, reflecting his earlier career as an award-winning mainstream novelist (he turned to SF late in life). This is probably his best book, having the emotional and intellectual force of the Clarke-award winning Drowning Towers but set against a more believable (and less depressing) future Australia.

The plot concerns the aftermath of Project IQ, a failed experiment in generating high IQ children by genetic manipulation and (more speculatively) totally in vitro gestation. Five groups of four clones each were developed, each having a specialised form of intelligence, three of which survived into adulthood. At this point, however, the transcendentally intelligent 'C' group committed suicide, whilst the 'A' group (scientists) and 'B' group (artists) withdrew into seclusion. The action takes place some 25 years further on, as young journalist David Chance belatedly discovers that he is the son of one of the 'A' group (Arthur), who encourages him to investigate the background to (and motivation for) the 'C' group suicides. Did Conrad, the group's leader, leave a mysterious intellectual legacy behind?

David's investigations take the form of a series of interviews with people connected with the project; Armstrong, its political godfather (in every sense); Conrad's nurse; the brother and the former lover of Derek, the head of security, whom Conrad first befriended and then manipulated to destruction, and so on. As David slowly untangles the disastrous history of the project, he begins to wonder as to the motivations of his seemingly amoral father, the government agents who hijack his quest, and later even himself .....

Where the book really excels is in carrying the reader along with David's fears and fumbling attempts to "do the right thing", only to pull back at the end (which I won't reveal) and indict him for his paranoia and lack of vision (which he predictably characterises as his "humanity"). There are well-directed barbs against contemporary targets too; mindless sf fandom (who find real science "boring" and "uncreative" !), conceptual artists (B group develop a "hypnotic" new product, which "traps viewers into a circular discovery of nothing"), scientific careerists (who, as in Stanislaw Lem's work, react with a mixture of pious waffle and petty savagery when outsmarted) and, of course, politicians. The portrait of the cynical, ego-driven Armstrong (a "robot of greed and menace") is particularly memorable, and indeed bears an uncanny resemblance to the Aussie prime minister of the time. And the horrible fate of the admittedly unsympathetic Derek is hard to forget ...

Overall this is a masterly exploration of the nature of manufactured high intelligence and of its likely impact on society. Sadly, my scientific conscience wouldn't allow me to give it a 10, as Turner just can't resist throwing in an entirely gratuitous (if thankfully unobtrusive) puff for Rupert Sheldrake's lunatic ideas, which unfortunately take centre stage in Genetic Soldier, his final book.

Turner's books seem to go in and out of print in the US and UK, but are consistently available in Australia.

The previous reviewer went into a great degree of detail into both the novel and its author, so I won't bore you to tears trying to recount everything. Suffice to say, the characterizations are very vivid, and the science-fictional elements, though not very detailed, are convincing. Parts of the exposition are a little underdone -- Turner was obviously more interested in the payoff than in the setup -- and I'm curious to know more about the works of art that are so captivating that they can actually hypnotize the viewer and cause them to lose track of reality. Turner obviously skimped here to let the reader's imagination design whatever work of art it wanted, but at least a little of the nature would have been handy. Still, it's a convincing and readable novel that the average reader, even a neophyto to SF, could get through quite easily. Highly recommended if you can get your hands on a copy, and I hope it comes out of the moratorium soon so I can give copies as gifts.

I'm flabbergasted that this book is out of print. Just as the superbrain clone characters in his fascinating novel died without heirs, so must have George Turner. This work is like a sequel to Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD. Set 50 years into our future, our current Genome Project makes this work totally current. A bureaucratic test tube manipulation of human brain cells produces three sets of quadruplets (Group A, B & C) each with a different and genius combination of mental qualities: one computational, one artistic/creative, and one power driven. These three sets of characters grow up to become mechanistic characters who cannot fit in with the barnyard IQs that spawned and surrounded them.

Although their limited ranges of intellect liken them to idiot savants, Turner uses the clones experiences like a scalpel to reveal the current foolishness of man's real life hopes to genetically engineer mankind. Turner's intellectual spokesman, clone Arthur, sums the whole field of cloning up nicely, to paraphrase: since evolution is based on death and decay so that mutations can continue to replace ineffective life forms and adapt to climatic change, extended life spans would result in species stagnation. Man's mind must evolve slowly to fit his surroundings. The manipulation of IQ genes or muscle genes will produce only misfits. Sudden genetic changes become reproductive dead ends. To prevent its misuse, Clone Arthur chooses not to trust mankind with the knowledge of genetic topology discovered by one of the power driven C group of clones.

The most creative Sci-fi device was in implanting visual/audio biochips to bio-wire the eyes and ears of the narrator, David Chance, to become a human camcorder -- imprinting the sights and sounds on a molecular layer inside of his skull which could be later played back like a tape recording. This idea gives a whole new slant to where human memory might reside. The brain may be merely a recording device and consciousness only a playback of that recording.

Typical of Turner's greatness, the author explores the scientific realms of psychology, genetics and sociology and a dabbling of other branches which make his novels so interesting. There's always some twist on the old formula but with some additional spices which accent the former. In Brain Child, the reader observes a broad glimpse in the areas of art appreciation, intelligence quotients and hypnosis. These three undertakings aren't explored to a lesser degree than his standard sciences- they are all equally as fulfilling in their right as the next.

Exploitation is a major factor to consider when reading Brain Child. Abuses of power, intelligence, social standing, money, etc. are being utilized throughout the entire book. The abuses are obvious but it's the more obscure manipulation which will keep your eyes glued to the pages. Exasperating this factor is the indication that the Nursery experiments have such a high degree of intelligence that baseline humans have little or no understanding of their logic, emotion or goals. Therefore, the reader, too, will have an incomplete path to follow in order to ascertain the ambitions of the gifted experiments.

I was captivated by a full 85% of the novel while I tried to envision what Turner had in store for his finale. My far-flung guesses in distant spheres of hyper-reality took me to the chances that: 1) the super-intelligent Nursery experiment Conrad manipulating the athletic idol of Derek to the benefit of humankind and 2) of subliming into the quantum ether by Nursery Group C in order to manipulate mankind through a third hand. Obviously, the pathway to the investigations solution was left wide-open until the near end. However, Turner took a much more practical approach to the explanation of Group C's suicide. I felt disappointed at the simple explanation.

Although I didn't give this story 5 stars, I really enjoyed reading this book.

It's about a young orphan who became a journalist, sucked into a drama of intrigue, secrecy, murder, science and gene manipulation, psychology, and unadulterated government abuse of power.

The basic premise is the long term results of a government gene manipulation project which created several groups of clones with different traits. We discover early that our young journalist is the illegitmate offspring of one of these clones.

A mystery surrounds the early demise of one the groups, with a secret 'legacy' being the holy grail that our protaganist seeks.

He is overmatched against the people of power and intellect he is dealing with, and winds up being successful in spite of himself and the multitude of deceptions he's immersed within.

I wasn't thrilled with the way the story ended, but was gripped with the action and suspense thoughout the novel.

This book is worth a read.

David Chance is a young journalist, brought up in an orphanage.

Many years later he gets a message out of the blue, and a man claims to be his father. Even more surprising is that fact that his father claims to be a superhuman.

There is a mystery and a terrible secret at the heart of this story, and David has to investigate while several of the superhumans killed themselves.

Good book, suspenseful and well written, although one has to overlook the back drop of global warmism if one isn't a lefty.

This book falls into the category of Mystery more than Sci Fi. It was a good read about how people manipulating each other to get a final prize. It was averagly interesting and will keep you occupied.

"Brain Child" focuses on a mystery surrounding a group of genetically modified humans. Or are they human? The book continually raises the question of what exactly it means to be Homo sapiens sapiens. It's a great concept for driving the plot, but Turner mentions it so often that I began to feel as if he were grinding it into my face in order to make sure I noticed.

A man, David Chance, discovers that he is the child of one of these modified humans--a man named Arthur Hazard. Hazard basically uses Chance to locate the mysterious "legacy," a supposed gene-modification that could raise mere humans into gods. The legacy was created by another of the modified humans, affectionately known as "Young Feller." As the story progresses, the reader will begin to notice that Young Feller (who is dead by suicide in the story's setting) does not follow a code of ethics quite similar to our own. Is he an unsavory picture of our future? Or is he just unsavory in any light?

The prose is mediocre at best. While Turner has some lovely ethical conceits driving his plot, the actual writing is bland. The characters over-explain every situation so that the reader cannot possibly misconstrue any conjecture. It feels like having a mystery spoon fed to you... in very large, tasteless bites. Some concepts, such as the evolutionary consequences of immortality, are pushed on the reader so hard that the concepts begin to lose their luster of intrigue and mystery. Turner leaves nothing to the imagination.

Overall, I did feel compelled to finish the book, if only to discover exactly *what* the legacy was; however, the characters lacked luster, and the writing just lacked. I doubt that I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good SF novel. I might recommend it to someone who was interested in the unintended consequences of genetic modification, but I would stress that only the theories and concepts were interesting, as the plot just isn't worth your time.

Brain Child

The book that I read is "Brain Child," a novel by George Turner. Brain Child was an interesting story, but even though it was interesting I would not suggest this book to anyone. It was very confusing the words were very difficult to understand most of the words I had never even heard of before. Also I wasn't really thrilled with the way the story ended, but it was gripped with action and suspense throughout the whole book.

The story was about a young orphan who became a journalist, sucked into a drama of intrigue. It was full of tons of secrecy, murder, and gene manipulation. Also unadulterated government abuse of power. Basically the premise is the long term results of a government gene manipulation project which created several different clones with different traits. After reading a little more I discovered that the young journalist was one of the clones. He ends up being very successful although he was deceived.

All in all the entire story was very good, but the way that it was wrote was made for and older audience and I would not refer this book to anyone under a certain age. It was really hard to comprehend the whole point of this story. I had to go back several times to make sure I understood everything and that I didn't miss anything.