Review by zeldasideas -- Homecoming by Jude Austin
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Review by zeldasideas -- Homecoming by Jude Austin
[Following is a volunteer review of "Homecoming" by Jude Austin.]
It is the 34th century. Human populations have spread throughout the entire solar system, occupying places as far off as Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, and Sedna, a planetoid delimiting the outer reaches of Neptune. Even so, the solar system lacks sufficient residents to fill the void. Can humans mass produce enough people?
As the pages of Homecoming open, we face a real problem: a multi-global corporation known as GenTech unleashes a brutal genetic engineering program. People lose their identities disguised as "Projects" so that GenTech can modify their DNA, a fact they can use to produce a race of subhumans who can be controlled with an array of microchip programs.
At the onset, the program reproduces clones at their laboratory facility. Project Tau is a reproductive clone who is viewed as an animal, although his heart and mind have developed human speech and have adopted human laws. The program turns to further abuse when it kidnaps Kalin Taylor, a brilliant student who is tricked into trespassing on GenTech property as part of a fraternity hate crime. Taylor is cloned and his clone is murdered; while he goes on existing as a "Project" at GenTech, the disorganized medical world goes on regarding him as a murder victim.
Homecoming is the tale of how Tau and Kalin refashion themselves into human beings, Kalin seeking to recover his status as a living being in his homeworld of Trandellia, Tau aspiring to emerge from his animal substrate into a fully literate, human person. These two steal a GenTech vessel and flee the corporation, making their way back to Trandellia, Kalin's home, only to encounter further tribulations. At dusty Sedna, Kalin is forced to choose between contradictory terms: he can either oppose Alex Noll, the leader of a gang of bounty hunters who is attracted to muscle-bound Kalin's genetically modified body, or become a torturer of other servants. Is Kalin really to blame for the failure of the GenTech program? How can Tau free himself from literal entrapment by bounty hunters when interplanetary laws state he is no more than a slave?
Homecoming is the second book in the Project Tau series. The first book, Project Tau, provides the background to the history of GenTech, describing how the genetic research space station developed a program of torture around cloning. The author concentrated primarily on the horrors of that approach. In the second book, Austin enlightens us further: he demonstrates how the emotional growth of the characters is preempted when they must endure torture in order to survive their captivity. The two captives develop a will to endure.
The book displays a unique gift for handling character development. The two main characters, Kalin and Tau, are simple men who face great danger together. Kalin shows faith and determination in his desire to develop away from the cruelty portrayed in the slaveholder mentality of his captors. Tau becomes less of a brute captive and more of a human as he assimilates the language of his captors and surpasses them in remaking their world of money. The story is told in the third person, yet the lively internal monologues of the characters help to create realistic actors who adopt new personas in relation to their changing environments. I particularly enjoyed the scene where the naive Tau debates the idea that his psychotic captor is friendly yet foresees how they will develop antipathy toward each other when he is brought to the doorstep of GenTech to face more abuse.
The story is filled with exciting, dense, action-packed scenes which make the book a constant challenge to read. At points, the dialogue seems to slow the pace. For instance, in the scene where Kalin and Tau are followed into a hotel by a bounty hunter, the dramatic tension in the scene centers on the exchange of maps and survival skills when the outcome really pits the two friends against the bounty hunter. Here it would be helpful to see more foreshadowing of the fight that erupts between the three men in the next scene.
This cyberpunk novel will appeal to a large group of science fiction fans. Homecoming shows how genetic modification of human beings can be opposed by placing better internal controls on medicine. Many readers will enjoy the book's emphasis on such current economic trends as hotels, parking lots, and the continued circulation of the dollar, all of which go far to repopulate worlds. The servants of corporate manipulation later become its masters. I rate the book 4 out of 4 stars for its strong character development and humanistic core.
******
Homecoming
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
It is the 34th century. Human populations have spread throughout the entire solar system, occupying places as far off as Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, and Sedna, a planetoid delimiting the outer reaches of Neptune. Even so, the solar system lacks sufficient residents to fill the void. Can humans mass produce enough people?
As the pages of Homecoming open, we face a real problem: a multi-global corporation known as GenTech unleashes a brutal genetic engineering program. People lose their identities disguised as "Projects" so that GenTech can modify their DNA, a fact they can use to produce a race of subhumans who can be controlled with an array of microchip programs.
At the onset, the program reproduces clones at their laboratory facility. Project Tau is a reproductive clone who is viewed as an animal, although his heart and mind have developed human speech and have adopted human laws. The program turns to further abuse when it kidnaps Kalin Taylor, a brilliant student who is tricked into trespassing on GenTech property as part of a fraternity hate crime. Taylor is cloned and his clone is murdered; while he goes on existing as a "Project" at GenTech, the disorganized medical world goes on regarding him as a murder victim.
Homecoming is the tale of how Tau and Kalin refashion themselves into human beings, Kalin seeking to recover his status as a living being in his homeworld of Trandellia, Tau aspiring to emerge from his animal substrate into a fully literate, human person. These two steal a GenTech vessel and flee the corporation, making their way back to Trandellia, Kalin's home, only to encounter further tribulations. At dusty Sedna, Kalin is forced to choose between contradictory terms: he can either oppose Alex Noll, the leader of a gang of bounty hunters who is attracted to muscle-bound Kalin's genetically modified body, or become a torturer of other servants. Is Kalin really to blame for the failure of the GenTech program? How can Tau free himself from literal entrapment by bounty hunters when interplanetary laws state he is no more than a slave?
Homecoming is the second book in the Project Tau series. The first book, Project Tau, provides the background to the history of GenTech, describing how the genetic research space station developed a program of torture around cloning. The author concentrated primarily on the horrors of that approach. In the second book, Austin enlightens us further: he demonstrates how the emotional growth of the characters is preempted when they must endure torture in order to survive their captivity. The two captives develop a will to endure.
The book displays a unique gift for handling character development. The two main characters, Kalin and Tau, are simple men who face great danger together. Kalin shows faith and determination in his desire to develop away from the cruelty portrayed in the slaveholder mentality of his captors. Tau becomes less of a brute captive and more of a human as he assimilates the language of his captors and surpasses them in remaking their world of money. The story is told in the third person, yet the lively internal monologues of the characters help to create realistic actors who adopt new personas in relation to their changing environments. I particularly enjoyed the scene where the naive Tau debates the idea that his psychotic captor is friendly yet foresees how they will develop antipathy toward each other when he is brought to the doorstep of GenTech to face more abuse.
The story is filled with exciting, dense, action-packed scenes which make the book a constant challenge to read. At points, the dialogue seems to slow the pace. For instance, in the scene where Kalin and Tau are followed into a hotel by a bounty hunter, the dramatic tension in the scene centers on the exchange of maps and survival skills when the outcome really pits the two friends against the bounty hunter. Here it would be helpful to see more foreshadowing of the fight that erupts between the three men in the next scene.
This cyberpunk novel will appeal to a large group of science fiction fans. Homecoming shows how genetic modification of human beings can be opposed by placing better internal controls on medicine. Many readers will enjoy the book's emphasis on such current economic trends as hotels, parking lots, and the continued circulation of the dollar, all of which go far to repopulate worlds. The servants of corporate manipulation later become its masters. I rate the book 4 out of 4 stars for its strong character development and humanistic core.
******
Homecoming
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Worldlines by Adam Guest
