Customer Reviews

Natural Selection

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I had A LOT to do this weekend: cleaning, bill-playing, clothes to the dry cleaner, you know the drill. A friend who never likes anything told me about this, said he couldn't read Natural Selection fast enough, so I picked it up on Friday, planning to read it over the next week ---

Forget it. Despite everything I had to do, I could not put this book down!! I HAD TO FINISH IT! Forget my chores, forget returning phone calls, forget everything! I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. This book just didn't lose my attention, not for a second! Every step of the way, I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

I'm not normally given to hyperbole but this is as close to a flawless book as I've ever read. I LOVED EVERYTHING: the gripping plot, the science; the characters, the vivid scenery, the cool locales ... And, fyi, I don't agree with others who suggest that Ackerman is cliched; he's perfect; I mean, I know this type of guy in real life; I work with someone like this so he was VERY, VERY REAL TO ME and I think comparing him in any way to the JP character is just flat-out wrong!!

The only slight problem I had is that because the book had so many characters -- Jason, Darryl, Monique, Lisa, Craig, Phil, Ack - I got them a little confused in the early going. But even this slight problem went away as the pages continued to rip past: Because all the characters were all so clearly delineated - with very distinct personalities and descriptions - as I continued reading, it became crystal-clear who was who. The chars are fabulous!! Unlike most books, esp thrillers, I can really see them, picture them, taste them ...

But as others have said what really makes this book GO is the plot. Gripping, mesmerizing, riveting --- every superlative applies. I'm not going to spoil anything here, not going to give it away, but, man, does the author take this out-there-concept and make it totally believable!! You really believe this is happening!! In reflection, I'm sort of amazed that no one has written a book like this before: I mean, the evolution of a new predator, it's just so obvious, so COOL!! Whatever, I'm just glad I could read this, it was just SO entertaining, SO MUCH fun. Natural Selection has blockbuster written all over it!!!

I should preface this by saying that books like this are not normally my cup of tea. But a friend who is generally "particular" absolutely loved it so I decided to give it a try ...

I could not put this book down. I read it in three sittings and every time I had to get up I did so reluctantly. To my delight (and I must admit, my amazement) I found this novel very intellectually stimulating. It just reminded me of how little I really know about nature and it got me thinking about what other species are out there that we know nothing of: whether in the sea, the rain forests, the deserts ... The author digs deep into complicated subjects I admittedly know nothing about yet he makes them readable and great fun: all about viruses, how they originate and spread, details of how a brain works, the difference between lungs and gills, what deep sea vents are, fascinating details about northern california's redwood trees and what "prescribed fires" are. Yet what's amazing is that the author does this very economically and without slowing down the plot for even a second. The pages absolutely fly!! Truly very difficult to put down!! What a page turner!

One caveat. I generally enjoy more character driven novels than this; to be candid, the characters here were not fantastic and lacked real depth; that said, for a thriller they were much better than normal, far superior to the stick figures of the Da Vinci Code for example. But this was still an enthralling, engrossing book! For reasons I don't normally state, I found it accessible, educational, and completely addictive!! So far, our 14 year old feels the same way; normally he's a video game addict but is already 100-odd pages in; needless to say generally NOT a reader!!

Dave Freedman's initial literary offering "Natural Selection" is a biologic thriller along the same lines as Crichton's incomparable "Jurassic Park", but not at that level. Freedman's premise is based on the rapid evolution of an ocean inhabiting species of giant ray into a unparalleled predator devoid of natural enemies.

The predator known as the Clarita Demonray was originally a previously unknown deep water denizen of the sea related to the more familiar manta ray. An oceanic virus known as GDV-4 was destroying the vast populations of plankton which was having disasterous effects of those species dependent on it for its food source. This forced the demonray to rise from the depths to seek alternative food supplies.

A research vessels manned by six scientists was combing the waters off the California coast working for a marine park known as Manta World. The park the brain child of dot com multi millionaire Harry Ackerman was an abyssmal failure, unable to sustain the mantas in captivity. The group led by icthyologist Jason Aldridge was seeking answers as to why the manta weren't surviving. They were drawn to Clarita Island based on reports of a sighting of thousands of little rays seen propelling themselves out of the water and attempting to fly! One actually landed on the deck of a nearby boat and shockingly appeared to be breathing.

Soon a carcass of a huge adult demonray was found beached along the coast. An autopsy was performed and the teeth and brains of the ray were accompanied by the research team to various experts in those fields. The astounding analysis revealed a highly intelligent predatory machine with an almost lack of ability to feel pain.

The research team, all but one Phd. icthyologists also included a military based husband and wife team Darryl and Monique Hollis, Lisa Barton, Aldridges love interest and researchers Craig Summers and Phil Martino. Together they followed the group of ray via a trail of kelp they'd been teething on.

Moving forward, the demonrays rapidly became so highly evolved that they were able to fly as well as birds and also respire. The leader of the group and the most accomplished flyer, abandoned it's watery habitant and knowingly set out to establish itself as a terrestrially based species. Using a conduit from the sea it instituted itself in a redwood forest within a desolate California state park slaughtering local prey including a jogger.


With the demonray firmly entrenched the research team felt compelled to root it out of its lair and destroy it before it became a bane to mankind, no easy task considering its high levels of intelligence.

Freedman's imaginative tale fell short in the biologic background he presented. His seques between the interpersonal relationships of the research crew and the scientific aspects of the tale were at times awkward. He also fumbled while detailing the budding relationship between team leader Jason and Lisa Barton. As a first novel however, "Natural Selection" was a solid and creative effort.

Dave Freedman's Natural Selection is just plain fun. It is pop-Darwinism carried to its ultimate extreme, but it stresses your mind, gets you to wonder about the species that could be in the ocean deep and reminds you that things aren't always the way they seem. While this book is fantasy rather than science, it brings just enough science and high technology in to make you pay constant attention. The intelligence of the dangerous new species makes this a cross between Jaws and Michael Crichton's description of intelligent nano-biology. I recommend it for pure fun and for getting you to think a little differently about the possibilities on our planet.

Natural Selection absolutely knocked my socks off!! Truly an incredible combination of ingenious intellectual research and pure, unadulterated bubble-gum fun!! The combination is MESMERIZING!!

We have ANOTHER DAVINCI CODE here!! Natural Selection is THAT GOOD. It will be around for a VERY, VERY LONG TIME!!

In his debut, Dave Freedman's Natural Selection scores big with a very entertaining, exciting, edge-of-the-seat thriller. It is the perfect beach read. Natural Selection weaves science and suspense to introduce an extremely dangerous new species of predator that can no longer survive in its natural environment and must seek to survive in man's world. It is one of those books that makes you forget about everything else in order to race through the pages to find out what happens next. While Freedman succeeds in generating and maintaining suspense, his writing style has lots of room for improvement. He needs to learn that in order to create a sense of urgency you don't need to repeat the term "...right now!" ad nauseum (e.g., 'We better get out of here. We better get out of here right now!") or to repeat a term three times (e.g., "Get out! Get out! Get out!"). In addition, Freedman needs to use a thesaurus to come up with an alternative for the word "phenomenal", which he uses over and over. Finally, Freedman's characters, while interesting and fun, would have been more credible in the hands of a more experienced writer. Natural Selection is not the book to read when you're in the mood for great literature. It is, however, a very entertaining and highly recommended book when you're looking for pure escapism. Enjoy!

I am not a fan of the genre. Typically, I find these books awful with a capital A. I've been suckered in by a few good reviews from time to time but almost always, the concepts are horrific, there's no research of any kind, the characters are poor, the plot has holes in it big enough to drive a truck through ... I am delighted to report that Natural Selection is a vastly entertaining exception to this ...

This book was cleary written by a very, VERY smart author. I understand he attended some Ivy schools and it shows! The research that went into this book was first rate. The scientific facts are fascinating - particularly the bits about the evolution of the brain and the lung and the work on vents - but what makes it even better is how well it's intertwined with the fiction; it's done so well that you can't tell which is which. By digging into it a little yourself - as I did frequently - the reader becomes even more hooked into this fascinating story. I encourage everyone to Google away!!

The book doesn't talk down to you in any way. But what it does do is explain highly complex science in an easy-to-understand way while simultaneously making it breathtaking fun. While the book wasn't perfect - what book is? - I won't bother to highlight the minor plot inconsistencies because it's quibbling and they really don't matter. Natural Selection is a stand-out within the genre and a standout for thrillers in general. While it's completely different in content, I agree with others: the combination of brilliant research with sheer page-turning reminds me of a little book called the DaVinci Code.

What a treat this was! What a tremendously talented new author! Freedman takes all the standards of the thriller genre and lifts them up several levels. I agree with the others who have said this book has BLOCKBUSTER written all over it. I just finished this amazing debut novel; in two sittings no less! - and I am still stunned at just how good it was. This book entertained me in ways I haven't been entertained in a very long time. I almost literally tore through the pages ...

What makes this book so special is that it combines the best aspect of books AND movies. This is very, very rare. Incredibly, it does this even better than Jurassic Park, and I am a HUGE fan of that by the way. Natural Selection's science is extraordinary and brilliant; the characters, all of them, are fantastic, especially for the genre, with great, crisp dialogue; the vivid imagery is dynamite; but what is truly astonishing in this book are the raw action scenes!! Wow, are they fun!! I have never seen this combination of action and supporting science done so well before, not in a book, not in a movie, not anywhere.

Movies take a while to get up on the screen but DO NOT WAIT FOR THIS ONE TO ARRIVE AT THE MULTIPLEX - at least not without reading this amazing book first. You'll be thrilled you did! It's all on the page!! I feel like a kid in the candy store on this one! I cannot wait for the sequel!!

This was such a fun, such an incredibly fast read! I heard about it in USA Today a month ago; they had named one of their top-10 beach reads so I thought I'd give it a try. What a rocket!! The opening pages are very creepy, very mysterious. You read it and you want to know: What are these creatures? Where are they from? What are they doing? It just sucked me right in!!

From there the book takes off! An aside: I was surprised to enjoy the characters as much as I did. Some are quite funny, very likeable; they actually felt like real people with real human issues, not the typical cardboard cut-out stuff. I also read chick-lit but thought the characters here were very strong. Especially Lisa Barton. And Monique? You go girl!! The other aspects - the creatures' physical descriptions, the spooky imagery, the settings - are all very well done; and the places this book takes you - to the depths of the ocean - so awe inspiring! - to a spooky, fog-enshrouded redwood forest - genuinely fascinating; surprisingly, this was a great little travelogue just at a breakneck pace!!

But the science here is what makes this book truly special. Natural Selection's depth and breadth of science is EXTRAORDINARY. The author clearly did a lot of research!! I work in a related field - otalaryngology/ENT - and let me tell you, he knows his stuff: the commentary on the evolution of the brain, evolution of the lung, the fluid dynamics discourse and many, many other facets were just so well done. He got a few details on some of the brain stuff wrong but it didn't really matter. I could not read the pages fast enough!! And the ending!! The ending is so scary, so unexpected, so great --- I'm talking Sixth Sense great!! People will be talking about this ending!!

I liked this book so much I actually started re-reading it immediately just to see what I had missed. Then my 13 year old ripped it out of my hands. (He is a voracious reader himself and already 50 pages in.) Natural Selection is just FANTASTICALLY ENTERTAINING: You will be hooked, believe me!!!

This reminded me of my favorite page-turners DaVinci Code and Jurassic Park. I haven't been so engaged in a book in years. Was the writing fantastic? Or the characters? No, neither were, just like they weren't fantastic in DaVinci and Jurassic. But just like DaVinci and Jurassic (and for that matter, Angels and Demons too) Natural Selection has an absolutely gripping, breathtaking plot, edge-of-the-seat cliff hangers in every chapter and super-smart science that's not really "sciencey" at all but just cool. The imagery here is also spectacular. Everything is so visual, so easy to see. The author takes us - or at least takes me - to super-cool places I've never been to before: to the mysterious, wondrous depths of the ocean, to a fog-enshrouded redwood forest, to a brilliant neurologist's lab, just to name a few.

I read every page of Natural Selection in less a week on my commute into work. Every time it was time to stop reading, I didn't want to put it down. You know those sad people you see still sitting on the train after it's pulled into the station? That was me: I just had to turn the page to see what happens next. The ending was spectacular, clearly open to numerous sequels, which I sincerely hope the author is working on. Read this one. It's a ton of fun!