Review of Reckoning!
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[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Reckoning!" by David Vincent.]
Jim Saunders and Tom Galvin finally achieved a dream they’ve had since college: going to Africa to hunt an elephant. While on the adventure, discomfort sets in as Jim grows miserable from the extreme heat, the old, bumpy jeep they are traveling in, his painful back, and the long journey to where the elephants are believed to be. Their guide, Dembe, is a serious African man who knows the land very well and believes the elephants will be near some huge baobab trees.
Suddenly things start feeling strange when Dembe tells them that another guide, who is also his best friend, Dakarai, hasn’t contacted him for several days, which is unusual because Dakarai normally checks in after a successful hunting trip. Everyone becomes nervous when they see a huge number of vultures, far more than expected, flying around the baobab trees. This discovery turns the adventure into something far more disturbing as their experienced guide soon realizes that something far more sinister is unfolding.
The story expands beyond the hunting and introduces the conservation side of the conflict through Dr. Stephanie Wolff’s introduction. Dr. Stephanie Wolff is a wildlife conservationist who was also appointed head of the Department of Environmental Preservation. She is learned and has a great passion for protecting animals. Her visit to a sanctuary in Zimbabwe, where she spends time with Annabelle, a five-year-old elephant who survived an attack by poachers, shows how much love she has for animals of all kinds.
Annabelle’s entire herd was slaughtered for ivory, but she and her sister were lucky because they had not yet developed tusks. Dr. Wolff is strongly against practices such as poaching, trophy hunting, animal exploitation, superstition, greed, and the destruction of ecosystems. She believes strongly that cloning does not solve the problem and that animals, whether cloned or not, have feelings and complex social structures, so they should not be treated as disposable.
The author presents Dr. Damian Malone, the man behind AlonGen Corporation. His corporation specializes in cloning animals and sending them to Africa so hunters can hunt them instead of naturally born ones, a practice that Dr. Stephanie Wolff strongly opposes. As I read the book, I came to understand that Dr. Wolff supports killing animals under certain circumstances; her argument is against deliberate cruelty, killing animals for sport, and using cloning to justify that destruction.
Dr. Damian Malone believes in technological intervention. He presents his cloning program as a way of saving endangered animals while also allowing countries to continue making profit from hunting expeditions. Dr. Stephanie Wolff, however, worries that cloning ruins nature and throws things out of balance. Their disagreement forced me to stop and think: can technology truly resolve the problems we created, or does trying to control nature just create new problems?
David Vincent’s writing really works for me because the pace never slows down. One minute it’s intense action and mystery, and the next minute it is science and conversations that actually make you think. I also love how the story later expands beyond animal cloning into genomics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and human-like cyborgs, making the book feel much larger than a story about hunting and conservation.
The editing of this book was done professionally; I didn’t find any errors while reading. I have nothing to dislike about this book. I’d rate it 5 out of 5 stars because of how the different threads begin to connect gradually. What first appears to be a mysterious incident involving a genetically unusual elephant develops into a much larger investigation. From there, the story moves naturally toward AlonGen’s increasingly advanced creations, revealing that the company’s ambitions extend far beyond animal cloning.
Reckoning! by David Vincent is a science-fiction thriller with environmental and conservation themes. The book mixes mystery, wildlife conservation, human greed, and technology. I’d highly recommend it to readers who enjoy science-fiction thrillers that mix action and mystery, emerging technology, artificial intelligence, and ethical questions about how far humanity should go in trying to control or improve nature.
******
Reckoning!
View: on Bookshelves |
Jim Saunders and Tom Galvin finally achieved a dream they’ve had since college: going to Africa to hunt an elephant. While on the adventure, discomfort sets in as Jim grows miserable from the extreme heat, the old, bumpy jeep they are traveling in, his painful back, and the long journey to where the elephants are believed to be. Their guide, Dembe, is a serious African man who knows the land very well and believes the elephants will be near some huge baobab trees.
Suddenly things start feeling strange when Dembe tells them that another guide, who is also his best friend, Dakarai, hasn’t contacted him for several days, which is unusual because Dakarai normally checks in after a successful hunting trip. Everyone becomes nervous when they see a huge number of vultures, far more than expected, flying around the baobab trees. This discovery turns the adventure into something far more disturbing as their experienced guide soon realizes that something far more sinister is unfolding.
The story expands beyond the hunting and introduces the conservation side of the conflict through Dr. Stephanie Wolff’s introduction. Dr. Stephanie Wolff is a wildlife conservationist who was also appointed head of the Department of Environmental Preservation. She is learned and has a great passion for protecting animals. Her visit to a sanctuary in Zimbabwe, where she spends time with Annabelle, a five-year-old elephant who survived an attack by poachers, shows how much love she has for animals of all kinds.
Annabelle’s entire herd was slaughtered for ivory, but she and her sister were lucky because they had not yet developed tusks. Dr. Wolff is strongly against practices such as poaching, trophy hunting, animal exploitation, superstition, greed, and the destruction of ecosystems. She believes strongly that cloning does not solve the problem and that animals, whether cloned or not, have feelings and complex social structures, so they should not be treated as disposable.
The author presents Dr. Damian Malone, the man behind AlonGen Corporation. His corporation specializes in cloning animals and sending them to Africa so hunters can hunt them instead of naturally born ones, a practice that Dr. Stephanie Wolff strongly opposes. As I read the book, I came to understand that Dr. Wolff supports killing animals under certain circumstances; her argument is against deliberate cruelty, killing animals for sport, and using cloning to justify that destruction.
Dr. Damian Malone believes in technological intervention. He presents his cloning program as a way of saving endangered animals while also allowing countries to continue making profit from hunting expeditions. Dr. Stephanie Wolff, however, worries that cloning ruins nature and throws things out of balance. Their disagreement forced me to stop and think: can technology truly resolve the problems we created, or does trying to control nature just create new problems?
David Vincent’s writing really works for me because the pace never slows down. One minute it’s intense action and mystery, and the next minute it is science and conversations that actually make you think. I also love how the story later expands beyond animal cloning into genomics, artificial intelligence, robotics, and human-like cyborgs, making the book feel much larger than a story about hunting and conservation.
The editing of this book was done professionally; I didn’t find any errors while reading. I have nothing to dislike about this book. I’d rate it 5 out of 5 stars because of how the different threads begin to connect gradually. What first appears to be a mysterious incident involving a genetically unusual elephant develops into a much larger investigation. From there, the story moves naturally toward AlonGen’s increasingly advanced creations, revealing that the company’s ambitions extend far beyond animal cloning.
Reckoning! by David Vincent is a science-fiction thriller with environmental and conservation themes. The book mixes mystery, wildlife conservation, human greed, and technology. I’d highly recommend it to readers who enjoy science-fiction thrillers that mix action and mystery, emerging technology, artificial intelligence, and ethical questions about how far humanity should go in trying to control or improve nature.
******
Reckoning!
View: on Bookshelves |
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