Official Review: Lost Souls by Penny de Byl
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Official Review: Lost Souls by Penny de Byl
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Lost Souls" by Penny de Byl.]
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“Lost Souls” was a very interesting book. The author made good use of fiction in dealing with the current questions our society faces regarding reproductive science.
The main theme of the book is an Australian company that is beginning an experiment where a group of people are locked into a biodome type environment for 5 years. The objective of the experiment is to demonstrate that the colonization of one of Saturn’s moons is possible. Part of the program is using IVF and gene selection to impregnate surrogates with the hope of creating a model society.
The second theme is a police investigation that is going on following the mysterious deaths of over 100 people. As the investigation heats up the police find links to a company called Everjein, which is the same company that is conducting the biodome experiment.
Dr. Kian Barrett is heading up the experiment and is locked in the dome with the others. The experiment encounters difficulties from the very beginning when the president of Everjein is killed in a freak accident. Once inside the dome other “accidents” begin to occur, one of which nearly results in the death of Marcela Warrick, one of the scientists in the dome. Marcela later becomes pregnant by Dr. Barrett with whom she has developed a relationship. Then another of the scientists starts to experience psychotic episodes.
On the outside the police are beginning to make linkages between Dr. Barrett's IVF trials and the deaths. Fathers are dying at the same moment that their children are born. As the investigators continue to dig into medical records events are coming to a head inside the dome. The ending of this story was quite clever and not entirely what I was expecting.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and the author's take on the questions that were raised. The types of experimentation could easily take place if they are not already taking place somewhere in the world and the ethics can be quite concerning. I understand this is the author’s first work of fiction and I think there is a lot of potential here with this author.
I did have two issues with this book however. First, there were a lot of typos and grammar problems. In a couple of places sentences seemed to have be cut off without being finished or two sentences were jumbled together. These errors did not prevent the story from moving forward but were distracting for me as a reader. This could probably have been reduced by having another set of eyes read through before publishing. My other issue I would like to be more of an encouragement to the author. I felt like the writing was a little stiff at times but I have had this sense with the first book of other authors also. I would advise the author to just relax a little more with her writing style in future books.
I would give this book a 3 out of 4 stars overall though personally I’d probably go to 3.5.
***
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The main theme of the book is an Australian company that is beginning an experiment where a group of people are locked into a biodome type environment for 5 years. The objective of the experiment is to demonstrate that the colonization of one of Saturn’s moons is possible. Part of the program is using IVF and gene selection to impregnate surrogates with the hope of creating a model society.
The second theme is a police investigation that is going on following the mysterious deaths of over 100 people. As the investigation heats up the police find links to a company called Everjein, which is the same company that is conducting the biodome experiment.
Dr. Kian Barrett is heading up the experiment and is locked in the dome with the others. The experiment encounters difficulties from the very beginning when the president of Everjein is killed in a freak accident. Once inside the dome other “accidents” begin to occur, one of which nearly results in the death of Marcela Warrick, one of the scientists in the dome. Marcela later becomes pregnant by Dr. Barrett with whom she has developed a relationship. Then another of the scientists starts to experience psychotic episodes.
On the outside the police are beginning to make linkages between Dr. Barrett's IVF trials and the deaths. Fathers are dying at the same moment that their children are born. As the investigators continue to dig into medical records events are coming to a head inside the dome. The ending of this story was quite clever and not entirely what I was expecting.
Overall, I enjoyed the story and the author's take on the questions that were raised. The types of experimentation could easily take place if they are not already taking place somewhere in the world and the ethics can be quite concerning. I understand this is the author’s first work of fiction and I think there is a lot of potential here with this author.
I did have two issues with this book however. First, there were a lot of typos and grammar problems. In a couple of places sentences seemed to have be cut off without being finished or two sentences were jumbled together. These errors did not prevent the story from moving forward but were distracting for me as a reader. This could probably have been reduced by having another set of eyes read through before publishing. My other issue I would like to be more of an encouragement to the author. I felt like the writing was a little stiff at times but I have had this sense with the first book of other authors also. I would advise the author to just relax a little more with her writing style in future books.
I would give this book a 3 out of 4 stars overall though personally I’d probably go to 3.5.
***
Buy "Lost Souls" on Amazon
Buy "Lost Souls" on Barnes and Noble
Latest Review: "Consent to Unleash" by Kevin Allen
