Natural Selection (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The sea monster "Demonray," who makes landfall in Freedman's far-fetched but entertaining debut, possesses all the predatory features to provide maximum chills. It's got a big brain, big wings, big teeth and a big purpose: to devour anything in its path, including humans. Harry Ackerman, a jaded millionaire whose Manta World (think Jurassic Park) failed when all his captive manta rays died, learns about the sighting of a mysterious flying ray and dispatches a staff of young scientists led by ichthyologist Jason Aldridge, "the next Jacques Cousteau," to investigate. What they find is no ordinary airborne ray, but an amphibious "new order" that has the potential to wipe out mankind. The exciting, science-packed hunt moves quickly but slows down once the crew encounters the Demonray in Northern California's Redwood National Park. Culminating in a cartoonish showdown, this Michael Crichton adventure wanna-be suffers from other odd plot elements, unconvincing romance and pedestrian prose, but it might make an awesome beach read. (June)
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From The Washington Post

Dave Freedman opens Natural Selection with a transparent Hollywood tagline: "Monsters aren't real . . . Are they?" He moves through a dry outline of his speculative conceits concerning evolution. And he concludes: "Soon a small group of men and women will come face-to-face with a living nightmare. And then, even the skeptics among them will realize not only that monsters are real, but that evolution has just made the most horrifying one of them all."

As a dramatic introduction to the story waiting in the wings, this is an utter misstep, emblematic of several subsequent amateur gaffes in this debut novel.

Still, readers who persist past this awkward introduction and overlook intermittent wince-worthy sentences will find an earnest Michael Crichton-style thriller that respects science and its audience's intellect, while delivering a modest number of chills.

Six scientists -- Phil, Jason, Lisa, Darryl, Craig and Monique -- aboard a well-equipped research vessel, funded by a dot-com millionaire named Harry Ackerman, are conducting commercial investigations into the deep-sea lives of various species of manta rays. Several anomalies lead them to believe that a new type of ray has begun to emerge. And the giant unprecedented beastie soon proves itself to be a master predator. So far, so bad, for life in the sea. But when this critter exhibits the ability to fly and breathe air, humanity itself is threatened. As the mutant rays colonize a state park along California's coast, gobbling bears, deer and the occasional jogger, our team finds its mission changing from documentation to defensive survival.

Freedman introduces his protagonists economically, sketching them in bold bright colors that substitute for depth. Ackerman is capitalism personified, in both its good and bad aspects. Jason, the leader of the scientists, is an anal perfectionist loner. Darryl is a mystical Afro-Amerindian "former ROTC member," his wife, Monique, a supportive helpmeet yearning to start a family. Craig is Darryl's best buddy. Lisa is career-motivated but caring. Whiny, insecure Phil, who looks at first to be an obvious "redshirt" -- the guy fated to die early, as in the old Star Trek episodes -- proves to have facets of both selfishness and selflessness. Relations among the cast involve a lot of nickname usage -- "Hoss," "Soccer Mom," "Big Dog" -- while a budding love affair between Jason and Lisa provides the requisite romance. Jumps in point-of-view among the characters -- sometimes disconcertingly between adjacent paragraphs -- frustrate our identification with any single hero.

The intelligent mantas also let us into their thought process, and Freedman generally manages to avoid the trap of anthropomorphism, providing insights into the environmental pressures the critters face and their natural urges.

In fact, Freedman's portrayal of the scientific process and of natural forces is the best thing about this book. In a day and age when "intelligent design" is touted as a respectable credo, a piece of pop entertainment that takes the time to uphold Darwin's thesis in readable fashion is to be heartily endorsed, even if the book speeds up evolution to a ridiculous rate.

Freedman's prose is serviceable, and he has a knack for using common objects to make the uncanny believable. For instance: "The closed mouth [of the ray] was the size of a snow shovel, with horns like stumpy soda cans sticking out on either side." But now and then his reach exceeds his grasp. Darryl is "the size of a professional athlete." Now is that a jockey, a golfer, a bowler or a quarterback?

The climax of Freedman's book is small-scale: one manta ray against six humans. Although he speculates on larger scenarios, he resolutely avoids depicting the global implications of his monsters, as John Wyndham did in The Day of the Triffids (1951), or even as Alfred Hitchcock did in "The Birds" (1963). Too bad.

For boldness of global scope, Freedman might have emulated an episode of "The Simpsons" in which humanity is deposed from its throne atop all creation and driven into an aquatic niche by vengeful, super-intelligent dolphins led by "King Snorky." In that one vignette, Freedman's entire thesis and plot are encapsulated with unforgettable humor. And you got to see Homer sock a bottlenose in the snout.

Reviewed by Paul Di Filippo
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (June 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401302092
• ISBN-13: 978-1401302092
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #914,174 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SKIPPED MY WEEKEND CHORES TO READ THIS DAMN THING!!, June 25, 2006

By	Ike (Cape May, NJ) - See all my reviews

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!!!

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW, WOW, WOW! LITERALLY READ IT IN 24 HOURS!, June 17, 2006

By	Anne (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

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!!!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars High Concept trumps good writing, December 13, 2007

By	J. D. Best, author "The Shopkeeper & Leadville" (Arizona) - See all my reviews

Negative Amazon reviewers have criticized the scientific inaccuracies and poor craft of Natural Selection. Positive reviewers emphasize the gripping story. This has been a relatively successful book and it proves that plot counts for more than good writing to the mass market. Good writing is an art. Good storytelling is also an art. Combine the two and you have William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, or Nathaniel Hawthorne. Natural Selection will not be read in a hundred years, but its popularity demonstrates the power of storytelling.

Even a good story has to be written well enough so the reader isn't jerked away from the plot because the writing is poor, the science obviously bad, or the characters do something grossly implausible. Dave Freedman has shown the knack for storytelling and his writing will undoubtedly improve on his second novel. The question that comes to mind, however, is where were the editors on his first book?
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