Clone

A 1970s example of what Amis called "comic inferno", though there's no indication on the paperback I have that this is not serious speculation on cloning. The clones aren't clones, by the way. They're engineered identical quadruplets. The story is really about just one, Alvin, who is that common trope in satire: a naive not all that smart babe in the woods, Alvin has been raised by humanized apes at a sort of monastery. When it appears his libido has awakened, one of the apes is charged with taking Alvin to his lesbian professor/creator. They get separated when the protest march they join to get through a traffic jam ends in a battle to the death with another protest march, which, it turns out, was chemically induced as an experiment on show more dealing with over-population. And things wander from there.

I'm late to discovering Cowper. This is not close to his White Bird of Kinship trilogy. Like other novels of its period, there's a lot of adolescent-level sex bandied about, with a cringe-worthy dismissal of an incident of group rape. The over-population issue is somehow made to be about wanting babies and that's why increasing the death rate is the only answer, not birth control. But that's all dropped by the end to have a chase-based ending.

Of SF historical interest only. show less

Four identical, illegally created clones: Alvin, Bruce, Colin, and Desmond, develop psychic powers in a fractured 2072 Earth. Raised separately, they reconnect while traversing a chaotic society, using their collective minds to challenge authority.

The clones possess innate, evolving psychic and teleportation abilities. Alvin, the main focus, is raised among intelligent ape hybrids. As the clones begin to join mentally, they realize their connection and seek their creator, Dr. Poynter, while evading a repressive bureaucracy.

This is heaps of fun!