Jane Rogers

It is 2045 and science has arrived at a place where it can take advantage of "new developments in digital memory transfer from cryogenically frozen subjects' (via a cloning technique) into host bodies. The first transfers were done using "synths," but there was much debate over the legal status of the creature. One talented scientist, Luke Butler, with private funding from an his ultra-rich aunt, embarks on secret transfers of the digital material from the old to the bodies of young, healthy show more volunteers. Paid £10,000, the volunteers lose two weeks of their conscious life, while the downloaded people get to live once again, but for only those two weeks (meant to be spent on a secluded, tropical island, which happens to be where the wealthy aunt lives).

If one starts to think about this basic idea, all manner of fascinating questions arise and Rogers takes that trip with us: how are the people involved chosen? what are the moral implications of the process? what is the role of money in the process? what about the mind/body connection? and so on. The people paying for their deceased relative to be downloaded do not get a say in whose body their loved one is downloaded to, which opens up interesting conundrums: an old white man is downloaded into a young black man’s body or a woman into a man’s body. Then we can swing around and take interesting look at the people who are requesting this service, many of whomhave unresolved issues with the dead person, and let’s just say that their hopes and expectations aren’t always gratified.

This is a deceptively easy book to read, and it’s short, just a little over two hundred pages, and Rogers does more showing than telling, leaving her questions open. Any one of these questions could be a book in themselves, and probably has been somewhere in science fiction history (and I’ve probably read some of them), but more than anything, this author, like most of us, has observed both benefits and detriments to our advancements, is reminding us it's about the people. show less

Excellent book. For one thing, just the sort of thing I go for - post-apocalypse or apocalypse-in-the-making, with plenty of questions about how humans can/should/would adapt and react. (For comparison: a frequent re-read of mine is George Stewart's [b:Earth Abides|93269|Earth Abides|George R. Stewart|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320505234s/93269.jpg|1650913].) I though the teenage protagonist was very well drawn, and the direct conflict between her and her parents made it into show more something quite out of the usual way of teenage protagonists, which would more normally have written the parents out of the story and had the conflict with friends or with society in general.

What I also really loved was the fact that as I put the book down for a breather, or in response to the outside world, I could still see a lingering image of the scene I had just finished. Rogers is not someone who deals in overblown description and her world is very much our own world with the one key difference, which all makes it easier to imagine, but regardless, that is a really good indicator of how deeply I was immersed in the reality of the story right from the beginning. show less

At age 28, bitter but very funny Nikki Black decides to find her birth mother and kill her for the difficult childhood she left her to bear. Nikki does succeed in tracking down her mother, as well-as a slow-witted half-brother, Calum, on an island in Scotland. Renting a room in their home, she watches her mother's patterns, befriending Calum and pumping him for information. At first derisive of Calum's innocence and interests, she begins to appreciate him, all the while trying to decide if show more she should murder their mother or kill her more slowly by luring Calum off the island. Both her and Calum's emotions bring about a a crisis that is a complete shock but a wonderful ending for the reader. Gorgeous characterization, especially of the siblings, and an evocative exploration of many feelings, particularly those produced by abandonment and anxiety attacks. Just wonderful. show less

This is unquestionably the worst Booker longlisted book I've ever read. It's a dystopic novel supposedly set a few months in the future, in which millions of women are dying from Maternal Death Syndrome, a mysterious infection that turns women's brains to cottage cheese after they become pregnant. The narrator is a 16 year old girl who is appalled by what is taking place, and by the relative indifference of those in power toward the plight of the women. She becomes active in several futile show more youth movements whose goals were unclear to me (or to them, I suspect), and then makes a brave (or incredibly foolish) personal decision, in order to make a statement in support of her beliefs. The characters were wooden, the dialogue sunk to the level of poorly written YA lit, and the story as a whole was implausible and thoroughly unenjoyable. Fortunately it was a quick read, in keeping with several of the other "Booker Lite" novels on this year's longlist. It gets a well earned 1 star from me; however, other LT reviewers liked it far better than I did, so I would encourage you to take my comments with a grain of salt. show less