Customer Reviews

Brain Freeze - 321

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book appears to me as a sustained attack on cryonics.
If cryonicists are an ethnic group, I believe this is a classic
piece of hate literature, whose prime intent is to generate
hostility against cryonicists. The novel is a parody of the
cryopreservation of Ted Williams by the cryonics organization
Alcor. The true wishes of Ted Williams to be cryopreserved
were not as well documented as they should have been (although
two out of three of Ted's children gave sworn statements to
the court that their father really wanted to be cryopreserved).
The author is apparently one of those who chose to believe the
third (estranged) child, and this may be the source of his
hostility. The book contains many sections devoted to an attempt
to debunk the science behind cryonics. In my view, the author's
ignorance of biomedical science and his misconceptions of
cryonics technology make him into an inept debunker. But his
mind seems to be additionally clouded with emotion because every
supposedly scientific analysis is permeated with expressions
of nausea and disgust. We are told that the blood brain barrier
is composed of "tight cellular junctions between each brain cell
and neuron" (the BBB is actually tight junctions of endothelial
cells). He mistakenly claims that the BBB cannot be crossed by
vitrifying cryoprotectants. The author insists that vitrification
results in freezing damage, despite the fact that at the 2005
meeting of the Society of Cryobiology a cryobiologist announced
that he had vitrified a rabbit kidney to -135oC and transplanted
the kidney into a rabbit (after rewarming and cryoprotectant
washout) with full kidney functionality. If the author thinks
scientists uniformly vilify cryonics, he should take a look at
the Scientists' Open Letter on Cryonics. The Wikipedia entry on
cryonics or a Google search on cryonics is a better place to
learn about the science and technology of cryonics than this
mishmash of misconceptions clouded by hostility. Characters in
a novel are puppets in the hands of the novelist, so it is not
surprising that the cryonics leader is arrogant, rude and insulting
-- easy to hate. A valid critique of cryonicists would present them
as they are (at worst deluded, but sincere), not as cultists with
evil motives. The depiction of the commandos who raid the cryonics
facility to steal a cryopreserved head is an extraordinary piece
of confused characterization for a novelist. He portrays them
as both idealists and extortionists. Why would they demand money
and the release of Reggie's torso in exchange for Reggie's head?
Why could they not have taken both the head and the torso in such
a skillfully-executed raid? The skilled commandos turn into
incompetant slobs when it suits the author's purpose -- to be
disgusting when they rape the heroine. Their motives make little
sense. What do they hope to achieve by exchanging a cryopreserved
torso for the life of the heroine? Are they suicidal idealists or
disgusting extortionists? The author makes a happy ending for
himself: the hero flies a fuel-laden plane into the cryonics facility,
incinerating all inside, as well as ruining the lives of the hero
and heroine -- leaving the reader with more reasons to despise
the cryonicists who are blamed.

It's sad when a has-been journalist grabs a story that he hopes will attract nationwide attention, and he ends up publishing his book through an obscure imprint, generating virtually no interest except from a few close friends (who perhaps may feel sufficiently obligated to write reviews ... the "five star" ratings are themselves a giveaway, since it is inconceivable that anyone could rate this pathetic book as "excellent.")

As for the story: Based on utterly half-baked knowledge of its subject matter, deriving its plot from bad Hollywood cliches.

Poorly written, a waste of time and money. It is a shame that this clown Polidoro is trying to cash in on the Ted Williams ordeal. He has from the very start exploited an unfortunate event, for his own gain. It seems that he has tried to use the media to associated himself with one of the daughters of Ted Williams as well as the guy who worked for the Arizona company who exposed what had happened while freezing the baseball hero. Polidoro has gone to great lengths to promote himself as an authority figure for all of these unfortunate events when in reality most of his information is easily found on the Internet.

Brain Freeze - 321 is an important chronicle of a controversial event, it is the fictional account of the real life drama surrounding the severed head and frozen remains of baseball great, Ted Williams. This book uses the great element of science fiction that is also the basis for fact as well --- remember, THEY DID FREEZE A BASEBALL LEGENDS BRAIN IN HOPE OF HIS FUTURE RESURRECTION. Jack Polidoro's enthusiasm for the subjects of cryogenics and baseball make him the perfect author for this story, and his background in animal science gives him a credible voice. Though the author's view of cryogenics may be critical in nature, cryogenics enthusiasts should still delight in the exploration of the subject.

When you start reading a book on cryonics, with a baseball on the cover, and you're aware the author is one of the leaders of the effort to "free Ted Williams" from the cryonics facility in Arizona where he is currently housed, you might approach the book with some trepidation.

I very much enjoyed Jack Polidoro's earlier novel, Project Samuel, which centered on the idea of cloning Ted Williams. That book was published before Williams died and the world was surprised to learn that two of Ted's three children placed his remains in what cryonics advocates call "biostasis."

In Brain Freeze, as I will call it for short, Ted Williams is very much alive, and becomes a crusader against cryonics when he learns that former Negro Leagues ballplayer Reggie Sanders has been frozen by his son Joshua.

The story involves an employee of the Arizona cryonics facility who is driven to expose what he comes to see as wrongs, a reporter, and a surprise visit of Ted Williams to the area where he meets and befriends the young couple (yes, romance blooms in the desert as the female reporter and young facility employee fall in love.) And there are the Bad Guys, too.

Without giving the plot away, suffice it to say that there is a beheading (of Sanford's body), a kidnapping, a rape, a stolen aircraft, a SWAT team, and a cleansing event that I should not mention here or I would rob readers of the element of surprise.

The back jacket of the book advises prospective readers that we have here, "a love story akin to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet." You have to read the book to understand the allusion.

The book gets a little heavy with medical terminology at some points, but that doesn't have to get in the way. There's plenty of action and, while not the happiest of endings, there are the elements of a satisfying redemption.

The book is well written. A great read and a great story based on solid science. Well worth the money. It is clear that the story is well researched.

I think that author J.P. Polidor is one of the most diverse and prolific American novelists alive today. His books deliver strong stories that always make you think. Brain Freeze is no different. He really opens a can of worms with this plot.

His narrative and dialog all work well together and the reader will find themselves totally drawn into the story. It is a page-turner that will not allow you to put it down until you read the last page.

This is a very creative and different story - one that most readers will find compelling and entertaining.

Fact or fiction, cryonics controversy involving Ted Williams is revived

By Phil Riske

Arizona Capitol Times

In Brain Freeze -321° F, author Jack Polidoro, a close friend of Ted's daughter, employs "faction" - fiction based on fact - to convey what he and other scientific critics say is the absurdity of cryonics and that which others aver are the sins committed on one of America's greatest sports performers after his death.

A living Ted Williams is skillfully woven into plots and subplots throughout the book.

His son, John Henry Williams (who also was frozen at Alcor after his death last year), had his father placed in cryonic suspension in 2002 after, some allege, he forged a note from Ted indicating his wish to be frozen. Bobby-Jo Ferrell, Ted's disinherited daughter, fought to have her father removed from Alcor and cremated, but gave up when she could no longer afford an attorney.

With information and photographs from Larry Johnson ("Jonathan Bishop" in the book), a former Alcor official, Sports Illustrated reported a giant screw-up at Alcor led to Williams's decapitation and subsequent multiple fractures of his skull.

Polidoro takes readers, unfamiliar and familiar with the Williams-Alcor case, through and beyond that real life saga, beginning with the freezing of a Negro League baseball icon named Reggie "Lefty" Sanford against his will at Mizaronics, a fictional cryonics facility near Falcon Field in Mesa. (Mizar, a star, parallels the astronomical origin of the star Alcor.)

With the help of Johnson, who has been in hiding since he left Alcor, and his medical background, Polidoro, who has a doctorate in animal science, lets the reader witness a beheaded Reggie Sanford.

"The neuro-prep was placed in a square Plexiglas tank, and the severed head suspended in midair by a stereotactic device. The mouth was open, revealing teeth, in what appeared to be a macabre scene from a Spielberg or Lucas film," Polidoro writes. "The objective of the head-only maintenance was the cryonics advocates' belief that the head would someday be reattached to another body or a cloned torso of the same DNA donor."

In one scene, Bishop talks to Sanford.

"The Cubs are going to have a great year, Reggie," Bishop says to the small container with Sanford's head inside. "No one but Bishop was present to hear his `one day' conversation with the shiny Mizaronics tank of bodies," Polidoro writes. "Reggie's head... was stored separately in a smaller unit - a `lobster pot'-type device a few feet from where Sanford's headless torso was hung encapsulated in a protective sheath within the confines of the -321° F casket."

Searching for credibility

Later, Mizaronics CEO Dr. Justin Clement tells Bishop, "We need famous people here to convince others of our credibility."

In technical descriptions, the author, chiefly through a newspaper reporter who begins research on cryonics for the Arizona Chronicle after the Reggie Sanford story breaks, debunks futurists' theories about the possibility of reanimation of diseased or injured bodies that have been frozen for years. Simply put, the cryogenic process damages organs beyond repair, and preservatives used in the process could be more of a challenge to reanimation than the diseases that caused the death in the first place.

With the necessary background on cryonics, Alcor and Ted Williams and other players in the story now established in the first half of the book, things are ready to explode, and they do.

The second half of the book is pregnant with suspense, and Arizona Chronicle reporter Rachael Geary is pregnant as well, having fallen in love with her source, whistleblower Jonathan Bishop (for which Polidoro is apt to take some barbs from journalist-ethicists). As she digs up more and more dirt on Mizaronics, the newspaper becomes the target of Mizaronics attorneys.

And Reggie's head becomes the target of thieves, who not only steal it, they kidnap Rachael and her unborn child and hole up near Tucson.

Meanwhile, a distraught and inebriated Bishop is convinced Rachael has been slain: A tress of her hair, still with her scent, is delivered to the newspaper. In the end, he avenges what he thought was the death of his lover.

The last chapter will warm the organs of baseball historians and Ted Williams fans.

Polidoro and others continue their national appeal to have Williams's remains removed from Alcor, cremated and placed with the ashes of his favorite dog, "Slugger," in Florida.

Another excellent book by Polidoro. I would have given it five stars except that I don't understand all the medical terminology. The book has held my attention from the onset. I found it to be very credible and must believe that where so many people are opting for such a process that it is probably not too far from taking place somewhere in the distant future. If not, it is a hell of a money-maker for these cryonics people. I definitely recommend it!

JP Polidoro's Brain Freeze is an important and necessary book. It tells a fine story and addresses a moral dilemma in society which pits the cryogenic version of eternal life against the importance of human dignity. The fact that this well written book is out ought to make both Reggie Sanford and Ted "The Kid"

Williams rest easy.