The title and cover of this book does not do it justice. While it may seem like a love story, it goes so far past that. It is a story of humanity and what it really means to be a human, frailties and all.
In 2407, Homo sapiens are gone. They died out with the Slow Plague. Their own immune systems could no longer fight the diseases in the world. So scientists gathered together to clone themselves, hoping to preserve life. The clones were renamed Homo factus (meaning The Made Man). The dying humans were so concerned with leaving their mark on the world, they created a massive tunnel structure full of artifacts, letters, paintings, CDs and DVDs, hoping to attain immortality in leaving memorabilia behind.
However, while the humans were dying, the clones were creating a new world, one that no longer needed humanity in almost any form. They improved each successive clone generation by eradicating any diseases and frailties the human race might possess. Each new generation traveled further and further from their ancestors, until little of what made humans, human, was left.
Then one day the council decided to bring a human boy, Jack, to the new world by creating him from an older human sample. He was not genetically fixed in any way. He was a first generation clone, with all the frailties of his human ancestor.
He tried to live among the other clones. But he was too different. He was only one where they were 10. Each clone always had 9 siblings to grow up with. So each generation had 9 brothers or sisters who were identical to them. They learned how to commune with each other without speaking. If one hurt, so did the others. If one felt joy, the others rejoiced with him or her. And if one felt sad, the others gathered around their identical sibling to comfort them. But Jack could not do any of that. He was too "human" and therefore too different.
But then the world of the clones starts to fissure. Life is not as perfect as they thought and Jack could be their remaining hope. However his difference and frailties also drive a wedge between him and the clones and it may be too big of a gap to bridge.
In many ways this story reminds me of The Giver by Lois Lowry; a utopian society that starts to unravel the closer it is inspected. At the heart of The Giver was a boy named Jonas, who began to see his world in all its reality, both ugly and beautiful. In this story, it is Althea-310. A clone who started life different because of a missing hand. But this difference lets her see her world as it really is, dying. She also sees Jack different from the rest of her siblings and friends. She sees him for he truly is and slowly begins to understand why his differences are beautiful and nothing to fear.
This story goes beyond a simple boy meets girl story. This is a story of the human need to survive at all costs, and what it could mean if we save everything except our humanity.
In 2407, Homo sapiens are gone. They died out with the Slow Plague. Their own immune systems could no longer fight the diseases in the world. So scientists gathered together to clone themselves, hoping to preserve life. The clones were renamed Homo factus (meaning The Made Man). The dying humans were so concerned with leaving their mark on the world, they created a massive tunnel structure full of artifacts, letters, paintings, CDs and DVDs, hoping to attain immortality in leaving memorabilia behind.
However, while the humans were dying, the clones were creating a new world, one that no longer needed humanity in almost any form. They improved each successive clone generation by eradicating any diseases and frailties the human race might possess. Each new generation traveled further and further from their ancestors, until little of what made humans, human, was left.
Then one day the council decided to bring a human boy, Jack, to the new world by creating him from an older human sample. He was not genetically fixed in any way. He was a first generation clone, with all the frailties of his human ancestor.
He tried to live among the other clones. But he was too different. He was only one where they were 10. Each clone always had 9 siblings to grow up with. So each generation had 9 brothers or sisters who were identical to them. They learned how to commune with each other without speaking. If one hurt, so did the others. If one felt joy, the others rejoiced with him or her. And if one felt sad, the others gathered around their identical sibling to comfort them. But Jack could not do any of that. He was too "human" and therefore too different.
But then the world of the clones starts to fissure. Life is not as perfect as they thought and Jack could be their remaining hope. However his difference and frailties also drive a wedge between him and the clones and it may be too big of a gap to bridge.
In many ways this story reminds me of The Giver by Lois Lowry; a utopian society that starts to unravel the closer it is inspected. At the heart of The Giver was a boy named Jonas, who began to see his world in all its reality, both ugly and beautiful. In this story, it is Althea-310. A clone who started life different because of a missing hand. But this difference lets her see her world as it really is, dying. She also sees Jack different from the rest of her siblings and friends. She sees him for he truly is and slowly begins to understand why his differences are beautiful and nothing to fear.
This story goes beyond a simple boy meets girl story. This is a story of the human need to survive at all costs, and what it could mean if we save everything except our humanity.