Customer Reviews

Cloned Love

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I started reading this book when I got home from work and just finished it here in the middle of the night. And the best thing is that I can wake up and start it again and spend the whole weekend immersed in this wondrous book. No matter what book you read, you'll see reviews that scald it or exalt it. How anyone could find a reason to pan this book is beyond me. I hate to use this word, but it is PERFECT. The characters are done with great care and the time frame never wanders or leaves you wondering where you are. The book spans the hippies from 1966-2006 and the clones from 2062-2106. The author does a great job of keeping things simple. Like when they go to Golden Gate Park for the tri-centennial, it's the same as it is now. The setting is always recognizable. The characters ride motorcycles not fly in space suits. The story is about the couples not the technology. The author makes some interesting points about the cloning situation, but he does it within the flow of the story so it's not digression. In fact it is very interesting considering that everyone is talking clones these days. This is in no way science fiction--it's among the most beautiful love stories ever told. The poetry used to begin the chapters are all masterpieces. They are stunning. Great care was taken to bring this book to life and you can feel it. It is more like a work of art than a work of lierature. I'm so tired and yet I wanted to revel in this feeling a while longer so I trapsed downstairs to my computer to sum up my day spent with Flare and Sunny as well as their clones, Morgan and Peggy. I can't wait to spend the weekend with them and neither will you.

A deeply moving novel. It's so beautifully written and can honestly be called "unique." The poetry is so touching and the story will sweep you away. It isn't just a simple romance novel, there are some great passages about what it will be like for clones. There are some about to be born now and how will they be viewed by society? Many religions are teaching that clones will have no soul. There's a great line in the book about how science has learned how to preserve and prolong life, even how to simulate the Immaculate Conception and now science is going to bring about resurrecting life thru cloning. But it isn't one of those creepy sci-fi books about clones....not even...The love story is all that it should be and more, but that is just one part of it, because the clones of the hippie couple go there own way when they get back together in the 2060s and that's what provides a great rub. This book will touch you and get you thinking, but I have to say again that the poetry is to die for.

I love to read, so I read all the time. More often than not I am disappointed by the style and content of what I read and my mind wanders. I find myself skipping around to get past the digression and end up losing the plot looking for something to sink my teeth into. Today's authors can best be described as formulaic. They knock off themselves and everyone else in their genre. I've read it all and have no where to go.
But this novel really took me places and touched me. An original concept for a love story; a new wrinkle--imagine that. I'm as surprised as I am elated.

I'm also surprised to see the reviews of his other books harp on the perverted erotica that he writes of, but there was none in this book---just lovemaking amd romance between two people--or four people (that's what you have to decide.) I'm in love with my man for 8 years and I know we'll make it and I would definitely want to be cloned so we could try again in 100 years. When you read this book, you'll want to try it with someone you love too.

Maybe 5 stars is exuberant for a fiction romance novel, but I love it too much to take away a star. I didn't see anything wrong with this book and the edit was great, so I voted with my heart. The parts about what it will be like for clones was relevant, so this wasn't just tripe. The poetry is so loving and so romantic and I was deeply moved by the passages and impressed by the talent of this writer. It has to be pretty difficult to write great poetry and write great prose, because I'm not aware of many who do it this well.

Since this book will make my next book that much tougher to read,I'll read this book cover to cover again before I move on. It's really that good.

A tender touching love story with a unique twist. I guess in many ways what makes or breaks a love story is the part of how they get together. It has to be extraordinary but plausible. The hippy lovers have no complications and live a lifetime of love after one glance. Nothing new there, so the best this could be is a well told story and it is. The tension between them doesn't manifest itself until they are cloned and that is the needed wrinkle to keep it from just being a book about exhalting each other for their love and beauty. The book is written from a very interesting perspective. The female clone feels no connection to her past life, while the male clone believes he's picking right up where he left off in the last lifetime so naturally he feels it's their destiny to love as before. She has other ideas however and now we get to see the perfect love of a lifetime go wrong. This was an excellent book, cover to cover, with great poetry and pictures throughout and a great setting in both times and places. You'll really love both sets of characters, but probably the hippies more so.

When I saw the gorgeous ad for this book in the L.A Times I knew that I was going to love it and I couldn't wait for it to get here. The story of the 1960s Haight Ashbury hippy culture is a great backdrop and the way that the past is told thru Sunny's diary and Flare's book is great. This enables the author to stay in one timeline yet tell of two different time periods. The book is very artistically done with poetry and drawings and also the way the diary entries are constructed. This was a brilliant concept for a love story absolutely unique. You get very involved with the characters---at least I certainly did.

That's right. For the first time a couple lives happily ever after till death do them part and yet also struggle and quarrel and stay apart till death do them part. That poem here in the editorial section shows you what this book is all about. ROMANCE at its best. It's not corny and predictable and it isn't run of the mill. The love of Flare & Sunny is a unique love story for a change. The author of this book is a real artist and his writing style is fantastic. The book doesn't wander at all even though it is unfolding in two eras. I loved reading Sunny's diary entries, it makes you get close to her character and the drawings bring her to life. She is the one that grows from a primping teen to an earth mother and actually continues on growing when she becomes a clone. The problem for Flare's clone is that she has outgrown him when they come back; though not totally. It's two love stories in one about one couple and it is so beautiful.

There is so much to this book that you could extrapolate several different short stories that could stand on their own. It all begins with Flare& Sunny, the teen runaways that live thru an endless summer of love for forty years. They're total Dead Heads and commune workers that drift around the scene and engage the Avant-Gard masters of the late '60s Haight Ashbury crowd and attend the great concerts and protests of their time. The author does a terrific job creating the scenery of that time and place so it's authentic. You have their us against the world love story expressed by gushing diary entries from the girl and declarative poetry by the guy. Then there is the issue of cloning and what it will mean individually and societally told from the perspective of the reanimated cells that Flare & Sunny hoped to live and love thru again. You see the book takes place in the last half of the 21st century and focuses on the life of the clones. Rather than jump back and forth across two timelines, Peters resurrects the dead hippies thru the words of love they wrote in the previous century and weaves it in so that it is relevant. There's great human interest stuff and emotional upheavals, but at 250 pages the author doesn't bog the story down in its telling. The book does an excellent job keeping the timeline straight and has a clever method for using fonts to let you know who is speaking, so the dialogue flows and gets to the point without preamble or postscript. Style-Content-Execution-Characters and Resolution all 5***** stuff. The poetry is absolutely off the scale and out of this world.

For this couple, a lifetime loving each other wasn't enough and they put their faith in science to remix their cells into a love potion and reincarnate them. Of course the book would be no fun if these two fell in love at first sight again and so through the process of cloning we have one couple living out two completely different lifetime relationships...... or does it just seem like one couple---that's what is fun to decide. If twins have such a strong mental tie to their sibling, imagine what it would be for a Clone and his gene donor. Shared memories through Telepathic connection from beyond the grave.....
I also enjoyed the life and times of the hippies; their adventure made for a great story and it was great to take a 150 year trip with the Grateful Dead.
Kudos for the fantastic poetry--- it was not only beautifully written, but it lent to their story by setting the mood for each chapter. The entries from Sunny's diaries is what gives this book a heartbeat; it is especially touching.
The author does a wonderful job telling the love story. He has made the characters down to earth enough to make the loftiness of their love believable and bearable for the reader. As you get caught up in the love the hippies share, you'll feel for the struggle the Clones--- particularly the male Clone--- goes thru. But they find their own way once they leave the old ways behind and by book's end there are new beginnings on the horizon for all..... Including a sequel.......
Like a fine piece of machinery, all the parts of this book work. The author has command of the direction of the story so you are always in the flow with the wind at your back.
Favorite Part- When Flare and Sunny get hitched on the pot farm while the State Troopers are raiding the place.
Why 4 Stars? Because Das Kapital is a 5 Star book....

I thot I was getting a book about clones and cloning---I hate mushy love stories--- but I was pleasantly surprised to find a love story--- a well told love story I must admit and yes it was a mushy one, you got me. If this was a "chick lit beach read" book then it was the best kind, because there was a very relevant story told, but the author only uses the issue of cloning to give the characters depth and not to take any in-depth look into the world of cloning. The story is as much about the 1960s as anything and he really has created cool characters to lead this book. I totally dug all the stuff about the Grateful Dead--- it was far out man.....

I didn't realize it while I was reading it, but when I was listening to the people on the news talking about the birth of the first clone and I was listening to the protests and supporters, I realized just how powerful the social commentary in this novel is. It's an epic love story to be sure and that's what keeps your interest. The beautiful poetry and the fantastic characters almost obscure the political aspects surrounding the clones. It is a well developed subliminal backdrop that you're aware of but not focused on. That's why I abandoned my current book to re-read this book again, with the social and political tribulations in mind. What really gave me a chill was that the female clone in this book has the same birthday as the female clone just allegedly born. Does Mr. Peters have some inside info he'd like to share about the date of birth of the next clone?