Customer Reviews

Infinity's Child

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

 

 

This book has a good basic plotline. I don't know enough about genetics to comment on whether the science behind it is plausible, but that didn't matter so much to me. The story was good, built up some suspense to the end and included a couple of twists at the end. The plot is not overly involved or complicated, making it a fairly easy read. If the plot had been more complex it would have gotten a 5 star rating from me. This is just a plain good read, nothing spectacular, but very entertaining.

I bought this book for .50¢ at my local library sale. It wasn't worth the money I paid for it. The idea was worth writing about, but perhaps someone else should have taken a stab at it. I couldn't keep up with who the characters were and why they were even in the story. The story was boring and it was a drag to finish. I am the kind of reader that has to finish a book, but this book really tested me.

I'll admit that I only picked up "Infinity's Child" because it was on the bargain books pile, but when it came time to sit down and read the book, I was quite enraptured.

First off, Stein has written a strong heroine in Sally Benedict. Finally pregnant after a very long time trying, Sally is the editor of a local newspaper in a small town. When graves start to turn up violated - and Sally tracks down that all those graves belong to one family line - her own - things go for a macabre spin pretty quickly. The plot isn't trite - nor are you left totally in the dark. It's a delicate balance to teeter on the edge of having no clue and having just enough clues to jack up the tension, but Stein does it right. This is not a deep novel, but it's full of good thrills.

Sally's husband, Sally herself, and the villains of this book make it a very worthwhile read. It's a "turn the lights on and cover yourself with a blanket," sort of read, and if you enjoyed Ann Werner's "The People Next Door," (or another thriller with a fantastic heroine) you'll definately like this one!

'Nathan

Pretty bad, just sort of stupid, not that compelling, and no interesting field of knowledge that goes with it.

In the past several years, many novels have been written about the manipulation of human genes. Unfortunately, most of the stories have similar plot lines. "Infinity's Child" is different. The plot is strongly personalized as it revolves around the heroine's pregnency. The author creates a readable, if not compelling, story. I didn't find myself staying up until the middle of the night turning pages. On the positive side, Stein creates a series of bad guys that crosses almost every job description. There are bad cops, bad journalists, bad medical personnel, mad scientists, and of course, the obligatory hit man. About the only career that escapes is the law. Furthermore, not until the last few pages do we find out who the bad guys really are. There are a couple of characters that you think are bad, then good, then bad, etc. This is a nice touch. And up until the final few pages, I couldn't speculate how the heroine was going to pull off the figurative escape. I! t wasn't easily predictable, but it was also slightly unsatisfying. The biggest fault I can find with the story, is that the author doesn't clearly connect the heroine's child with the scientists' research. But then again, we are dealing with a whole new area.

INFINITY'S CHILD Harry Stein Delacorte, Feb 1997, $23.95, 369 pp.