Brain Child: A Novel [Hardcover]

George Turner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1991

David Chance, the unknowing offspring of a long-forgotten experiment that produced genetically engineered child geniuses, learns terrible secrets about his own conception and discovers the horrifying course that human history is taking. Reprint. AB. NYT.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Australian writer Turner provides a chilling tale of genetic manipulation. Raised in a state orphanage, David Chance is working as a journalist in rural Australia when experimental scientist Arthur Hazard reveals himself to be David's father and commands David to undertake a strange mission. Hazard explains that he is one of 12 people conceived without parents, the result of gene experimentation conducted by the government in an attempt to create geniuses. A success was scored with four of the so-called vitro kids, but they all committed suicide in 2023, shortly before David was born, possibly leaving a hidden legacy of knowledge. David is now enjoined to track down this legacy. He travels through the political and physical environments of Australia in 2047, looking for evidence and being either helped or hampered by people driven by secrets or expectations of their own. Turner, whose Drowning Towers won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, uses the test-tube geniuses to spotlight the deficiencies and the triumphs of being "merely" human. His future world is believable, the imagined scientific breakthroughs he postulates are intriguing and his characters are real enough to make us care about the issues he raises.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Raised in a state orphanage and trained as a journalist, David Chance settles into a comfortable niche in society until a letter from his natural father plunges him into a world of treachery and violence. As he uncovers the truth behind a generation of failed experiments in breeding genetically superior humans, Chance discovers his own carefully manipulated heritage. The Australian-born author of Drowning Towers ( LJ 9/15/88) explores the darker side of human concerns in a complexly layered sf/mystery set in an all-too-possible 21st century. Most collections should have this.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 407 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (May 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688105955
• ISBN-13: 978-0688105952
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,845,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making Gods from Dogs - Turner's Masterpiece, June 5, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Chris Boden) (Tsukuba, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brain Child: A Novel (Hardcover)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Young Feller had much to offer., February 25, 2000

By 

Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brain Child: A Novel (Hardcover)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IMMORTALITY AS NONSENSE, May 24, 2000

By 

Worldreels (MANKATO, MN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Brain Child (Paperback)

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.