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4.0 out of 5 stars
Vengeance takes a futuristically medical form, Sep 23 2002
Brainchild is a well-crafted, fairly thrilling read, the story holding up very well until almost the very end; had the final chapter not have been included, I would have given this book five stars. That ultimate chapter, though--basically a postscript--changes the whole tenor of the novel and in doing so does it great harm, in my opinion. I can forgive its inclusion, though, and it takes nothing away from the engrossing read of the novel up to that point. This is a rather typical Saul plot, augmented by a technological pulse that holds together very well, despite some minor inherent problems. There is a curse of sorts involved, and yes it all started over a century ago; yes, there is a rather typically happy family that find their lives turned upside down by tragedy. These are Saul staples, yet all of this works remarkably well in Brainchild. Your typical teenaged boy does a typically teenaged thing and ends up at the bottom of a ravine inside a thoroughly wrecked automobile. His massive brain injuries should have killed him, but he survives; his father, a doctor, calls on the only brain specialist who can possible save his son--a childhood acquaintance of his wife's whom he essentially despises. Miraculously, the boy does survive; he even prospers, becoming super-smart, but the rebuilding of his brain has left him without emotion and without any memory of his life before the accident. His friends begin to avoid him eventually, and his father especially senses something very wrong, but the doctor who saved his life refuses to tell the family exactly what he did to save him. Then his mother's friends begin to be mysteriously murdered, and a tragedy that happened long ago somehow becomes an integral part of the horror that is unleashed on an unsuspecting town. The plot heats up quite satisfactorily from there, and there is enough unpredictability to the concluding events to keep you deeply involved in seeing how the story plays out.John Saul is a talented writer, and he does a great job of keeping this story moving at all times. Brainchild is one of his more original novels--the basic theme is rather typical of his work, but the narrative flows exceedingly well, the technological marvels we encounter remain sufficiently plausible throughout, and all of my questions were answered quite satisfactorily. I did not like the last chapter, but that does not mean that others won't find it compelling; it does offer a final twist to things. A futuristic medical thriller, invested heavily in horror and science fiction, Brainchild should prove itself a compelling, satisfying read for fans of several genres.
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by John Saul
by John Saul
