Customer Reviews

Double Helix

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I can't speak for those looking for ethics or sound medicine, but as a voracious reader looking for good, clean stories, this is my best find of 2003. On par with the best secular thrillers, yet showing dignity of life without a single scripture, Brouwer is a master writer and thinker. His characterization is great too. I could spot Zuwaan a mile away (and I'd be running in the other direction!)

Double Helix takes its title from the strand of DNA responsible for life. Seemingly taken right out of the headlines, this novel revolves around science experiments with DNA.

Slater Ellis is driving home one night when he almost runs into a naked boy. Page Stevens hears her husband commit suicide in the guest bathroom. When both start to investigate these events, they begin to uncover a big conspiracy neither would have dreamed that reaches from New Mexico to Florida to DC to New York. But will they find out the truth and stop the plan, or will they be killed trying?

Sigmund Brouwer is one of the best writers around. Here he spins a well crafted tale with believable characters. Almost no one is what they seem. An interesting devise is having each chapter represent a day. My only disappointment was the low spiritual level of the book. Having read many of his other works, I was expecting more of a spiritual aspect. This is not to say that he there wasn't a good moral. On the whole, however, I loved this book and would highly recommend it to anyone.

A very enjoyable and informative book on the social delima facing us today with the scientific advancements in Cloning.

I read this book with a little bit of trepidation after reading one of the previous reviews. Contrary to that review, the book isn't anti-science at all.

What I found it to be, is a fast paced story with an exciting plot. The author does an excellent job weaving in important issues (i.e. Human cloning) with the action. These are issues we are going to face whether we like it or not.

Great job by the author.

What begins as a mystery the plot in this book unravels an underground mad-science project using human DNA. This book can keep you up real late, page after page, just trying to figure out what's going to happen next. An excellent read if you like X-Files related material.

I was thoroughly enthralled with this book. It's written in an entertaining and intelligent way. This was my first experience with Sigmund Brouwer and I found him to be very creative. As I was reading I kept thinking to which of my friends I would first recommend it. I did not however, give this book five stars; as I finished the last page I was left with a sour taste in my mouth. Considering the topic of this novel I feel more morality & ethics needed to be included. The end had very little closure and unfortunately left me feeling disgraced to be part of the human race. I don't know anyone who would enjoy this feeling so I can only surmise that this was not Mr. Brouwer's intention. I gather from the other reviews that this "lack of ethics" aspect is not customary of this author so I'll be sure to give him another try. Afterall, he is a creative, fascinating storyteller.

This is a review of the unabridged audiobook. The reader was 3-4 stars. I'd give the book itself 1.5 stars if I could split them.

The story had many interesting aspects, but as someone else said, it has the feeling of a bad sci-fi movie. Poor dialog, plot rather forced, unpolished writing style, ending and pre-ending very stilted, made worse by preachy opinions poorly supported. Hard to believe I finished listening to this thing, but I spend a lot of boring time in my car.

Slater Ellis gets involved when a mysterious naked child with a number tattooed on his forehead assaults him in the desert. Paige Stephens gets involved after her husband's suicide when she begins unravelling cryptic suggestions that his company is involved with a sinister business of some kind. Their paths converge as they uncover the horrifying plans of Dr. Josef Van Klees, who operates the "Institute", a secret clinic for genetic experimentation and cloning that exploits fetal tissue from abortion clinics and refugees from third world countries. The story is fiction, but the evil behind the characters is very real, and the scientific possibilities Brouwer explores are closer to reality than speculation - making the story even more chilling.

One thing is clear: Sigmund Brouwer knows how to write a suspense thriller. While there are no obviously Christian themes evident anywhere in the book (Brouwer is a Christian), this is a very clean and riveting thriller story. It equals the very best of Robin Cook and other secular thriller writers, minus the moral garbage. If Brouwer can produce more books like this, I'll welcome seeing many more of his books on my shelves! Thumbs way up! -GODLY GADFLY

Overview:

Not an overwhelmingly good story, but it doesn't suck, either. At the very end of the book, religious aspects that had previously been subdued start to become more and more prevalent, and more and more gratingly annoying. THe

The most appropriate genre to niche this book into is that of Medical Thriller. For a medical thriller, its not all that bad. The plot is fairly boilerplate and doesn't have anything particularly to recommend it, but there aren't any glaring problems, either. Pretty much an average medical thriller.

A. Plot

This book centers on the attempts of a megalomaniacal psychopath and a psychotic giant to perform genetics research on human beings and the efforts of several other people, including Slater Ellis, a mysterious wanderer, Paige, a recent widow of one of the program's participants, and three triplets who have escaped the program.

The conflict between the two groups is fairly obvious, and the conclusion, foreseeable a long way off, is blindingly stupid. An organization that begins more powerful than the US president, somehow is controlled by two individuals and a single gun-toting crazy mother. The climax is a deus ex machina that seems appropriate, considering the increasingly religious aspects of this medical thriller.

B. Characters

The characters in the story are probably the most redeeming part. This is not necessarily an advertisement of the depth and quality of the characters in this book; rather it is an indictment of the characters in most biomedical thrillers.

This is particularly true of, for example, novels written by Robin Cook or Michael Crichton. Unlike those novels, the characters in this novel are two-dimensional, rather than one dimensional. They are on their way toward a realistic character, but not quite there yet.

C. Setting

The story is predominantly set in the Southwestern US, where a military base houses the secretive Institute where the genetics research described is being performed.

D. Theme

The major theme of this work is Crichtonesque. Fear technology, fear scientific progress, and fear the godless people who are willing to play with the technology and to assume God's work. A secondary subtheme is that God loves all humans, even if they are clones.

E. Point of View

The point of view in the book is third-person limited omniscience, which doesn't add or detract anything from the book.

F. Aesthetics

The aesthetics of the novel are nothing special. There are numerous annoyingly repetitive and oft-repeated phrases in the book that detract from the novel, but not fatally so. More like mosquitoes or fleas, nibbling at the edges of your tolerance.

Conclusion:

If you are a big fan of biomedical thrillers, and you have read your way through the standard canon, and are working your way through the rest, this may be something that you would be interested in reading. If you are a Christian looking for a biomedical thriller that holds your point of view, this could be exactly what you are looking for. Otherwise, probably this is something that you should skip.

C-

Harkius

This is one of the best Sigmund Brouwer books that I have read. Once I started it I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this book.