Gargoyles (Hardcover)

by Alan Nayes (Author) "Amoreena Daniels gazed at the woman retching into the plastic emesis basin and struggled to visualize her mom as she once was, her mom prior..." (more)
Key Phrases: Las Canas, Ronald Godinez, Women's Clinic (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Navigating the turbulent waters of genetic manipulation, this first novel tells a grisly what-if tale, speculating about the possible outcome of human gene research gone bad. Amoreena Daniels, a young Julia Roberts look-alike, is a bright but impoverished premed student who chooses to become a surrogate mother in order to pay for her uninsured mother's cancer treatment. She believes she is gestating a child for private adoption, but a series of suspicious incidents at the clinic lead her to wonder whether something different is in the works. The other surrogate mothers seem to be mostly illegal aliens, and some of them are badly frightened. Then a former medical intern with a drug problem gets in touch with her and tries to convince her that the clinic is fronting a scheme to produce subhuman clones for organ harvesting and scientific experimentation. Amoreena refuses to believe him, but a disk he sends her after he mysteriously disappears proves he is right. Unwittingly, she has allowed her body to be used as an incubator for "drones," mostly human but also part pig and part baboon. The novel culminates in a long episode set in Guatemala, where Amoreena is taken against her will to give birth. Nayes doesn't indulge in gory detail, focusing instead on the clinic intrigue and a Guatemala subplot involving two young crusaders out to foil the clinic's plans. The frisson the novel supplies is meager when weighed against the wordy buildup, but those who prefer their thrills mild may be satisfied.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
"The mix of breezy science and lab-smock sadism makes for breathless page-turning." -- Kirkus Reviews

"This gripping, thought-provoking tale of mounting distrust, betrayal, brutality, and greed is Nayes' first novel." -- Booklist

...Gargoyles is a tense complex medical thriller. -- Scribes World Reviews

...intense, psychologically driven read that will thrill and horrify readers with the possibility of science overpowering and defining humanity. -- Myshelf.com

A gripping, thought--provoking tale of mounting distrust, betrayal, brutality, and greed....Booklist August,2001 -- Booklist August, 2001

Slickly suspenseful debut medical thriller finds nasty variations of Rosemary's Baby....makes for breathless page-turning. -- Kirkus Reviews, July, 2001

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (August 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765300109
• ISBN-13: 978-0765300102
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,179,022 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars well-written medical research thriller, August 15, 2001

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amoreena Daniels is a brilliant pre-med student needing a scholarship to attend med school so she works extraordinarily hard towards that goal. However, her idyllic world collapses when she learns her beloved mother Geneva suffers from cancer. Worse, Geneva used her small available cash to pay for Amoreena's education, leaving her without health insurance and little hope for the high cost treatment that might save her life.

However, to the rescue is Meechum Corporation's Women's Clinic who pays Amoreena fifty grand to serve as a surrogate mother. Soon her saviors come under suspicion GARGOYLES for illegal medical practices by the once naive Amoreena. Whatever is inside her womb is growing at a humanly impossible rate and feels like it is ripping her up. When she complains, the clinic staff insists nothing is wrong and this is normal. Amoreena rejects the explanations even as she begins to receive weird warnings from female strangers. She vows to learn the truth not yet knowing how dangerous that endeavor is.

GARGOYLES is a well-written medical research thriller that, though it adds nothing new to the genre, will excite readers. The story line is loaded with action as even a person with Amoreena's background is caught up in the questionable activities of Meechum, leaving the audience to wonder about the average individual who gives God-like trust to the profession. There will be no naysayers to Alan Nayes' strong look at the ethics of modern day genetics claiming the betterment of humanity justifies the means.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scary and engrossing medical thriller., March 1, 2006

By	E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Gargoyles (Mass Market Paperback)

Alan Nayes's "Gargoyles" features spunky and beautiful Amoreena Daniels, a twenty-one year old premed student in California whose mother, Geneva, is dying of cancer. Unfortunately, Geneva's health insurance policy has lapsed. Amoreena cannot afford to pay for the expensive treatment that her mother desperately needs if she is to have any chance of survival. The young woman makes a fateful decision to sign herself up as a surrogate mother at a place called the Women's Clinic. The money that Amoreena stands to earn will help defray Geneva's astronomical medical costs.

Meechum Medical Corporation, which owns the Women's Clinic, is a pharmaceutical firm run by (you guessed it) unscrupulous and ruthless individuals who are willing to take ethical shortcuts in the name of big profits. Only after Amoreena becomes pregnant does she get wind of the fact that the clinic personnel are hiding some very unpleasant details from her. As her pregnancy progresses, Amoreena finds out that Meechum is involved in a much more nefarious business than mere surrogate motherhood.

Although the plot is familiar, Nayes diverges from the paint-by-numbers formula in enough ways to capture the reader's interest. Amoreena is not your typical Teflon heroine. She makes mistakes, acts impulsively, shows poor judgment, and has unbelievably bad luck. In addition, she has no love interest or any hint of one. The villains, alas, are stock characters, a few of whom rationalize their actions in the name of medical research. Some of the other bad guys are your standard sadists.

The writing is, for the most part, fairly literate and fast-paced, and most readers will find themselves anxiously turning pages late into the night to learn Amoreena's fate. The author provides enough medical details to lend the novel verisimilitude, and the obligatory chase scenes, some of which take place in the jungles of Guatemala, are suspenseful and exciting. Nayes wisely avoids tying up all of the loose ends, leaving the reader with the disturbing idea that there could be scientists who would engage in grotesque medical experimentation if they thought that they could get away with it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gargoyles,Timely Book, January 8, 2002

By	Jo Proferes (Lewiston, Idaho) - See all my reviews

Gargoyles, by Alan Nayes, his first book (two more on the way). I loved it! Good, short prologue, he grabs the reader's interest immediately. Sympathetic characters in desperate situations with real problems. Their stories grab you by the heart and you are on a runaway train. It's a fast, edge of the seat, heart in the mouth ride with a satisfying conclusion.
This is about surrogate mothers, bioengineering, cloning and a greedy pharmaceutical corporation. Plenty of ambiance, the setting is southern California, south, through Mexico to Guatemala.
You know what's so scary about all this? It is just too possible, it is no longer in the realm of science fiction! Think about it. Fish genes in tomatoes, human genes in both pigs and cattle. I clipped all that from the newspapers and saved it. Only God knows what else they are doing - with humans and cloning.
Fiction writers have always led the pack when it comes to informing the public of something they need to become aware of, and Nayes has done a good job.
Alan Nayes is a gifted new writer of medical thrillers. Like Robin Cook, he writes what he knows, and he, too, is in medicine.
With Nayes' expertise in the field in which he writes, and his writing ability, Gargoyles should be a best seller the first time out.