Anna To The Infinite Power (1987) - Plot & Excerpts
Childhood favorite. Or not favorite really; it gave me the creeps. Eerie book about cloning and government manipulation, precursor in some ways to my most adored Cyteen. Has strong incestuous undertones between non-blood-related siblings forced to rely on each other because everyone else is untrustworthy (also much like Cyteen, now that I think of it). I reread it a few years ago and was surprised that a character I'd remembered as an older Anna determined to disrupt the government's plans was never explicitly identified as such in the text.Surprisingly dark.Reread 04/01/2012. I focused this time most on Michaela Dupont as a shifting and untrustworthy element; the (clearly deliberate) ambiguity about her is almost as unsettling as the government conspiracy. I am also astonished at how very close to textual the incest subtext gets: not just that Anna is brought to humanity by empathizing with Rowan's pain and shame, but that Rowan notices she's looking more "womanly" and "prettier" and the music theme they identify with each other is the "Love Theme to Romeo and Juliet." The reason for the Annas' differentiation from original form never actually does get any explanation, either (pseudo-)scientific or mystical. I like how the imagined voice, at first threatening and finally supportive, is both the original Anna and the girl her clone becomes; it mixes the boundaries between self and other, the threat of something growing inside that is alien, the threat of something growing inside that is the pure expression of self.
A dystopic science fiction version of the United States, complete with cloning experiments, as imagined in the late 1970s and set in the 1990s (this was originally published in 1981), and with an awkward connection to the Holocaust. The "science" is laughable and the world-building is barely existent - the reader learns that the world's resources are running out, but is given no explanatory information beyond that, and little context on general conditions. There are "people movers" and "electrobuses" and "hydrofoils" for transportation, but we never get descriptions of any of these things. And when bits of info about the world do get incorporated, such as that it isn't safe to go to the beaches because gangs of thugs frequent them, the info doesn't serve any world-building purpose other than that the author needs a reason that the kids can't go to the beach. I did derive some humor from reading about the author's imagined version of something like the internet - the "Information and Facsimile Transmittal computer".The story is stilted and uneven and the characters are not believable or likeable. There was an opportunity to do something interesting with one of the characters in particular, but it never went anywhere and the character just disappeared, so that was a disappointment. There was, however, an unexpected and dark twist at the very end - I didn't see it coming and I appreciated that.
What do You think about Anna To The Infinite Power (1987)?
Oh, my God, this book. I re-read it last year and it was just as amazing as it was the first time I read it, a hundred years ago. Unlike any other children's novel I've ever read -- the main character is a sociopathic child genius who discovers that she was cloned from a German scientist and Auschwitz survivor. Absolutely incredible.
—Emily
I was amazed at the quality of science fiction in this simple YA novel. It is set in a near-future world, where resources have grown thin, and the elite live in secured enclaves. They have access to the latest computer technology, where everyone can connect to information networks and output stuff on their own printer!OK, it does date itself quite a bit, but it was a projection into the 1990s. Even Asimov makes some pretty hilarious mispredictions. FWIW, the technology described was pretty accurate for the 90s.The main storyline explores cloning and its impact on one family. As typical with YA fiction, the central character is coming of age, and discovering that she is awesome. (view spoiler)[She is the clone, copied from someone with extraordinary talent.She struggles with her own identity. Is she herself, or someone else? The core of the story is her journey from merely a copy of someone else into her own person.Of course, the evil government that made the clones doesn't like that. They plan to exterminate her, and all the others. Thanks to the love of the most important man in her life, she escapes. (hide spoiler)]
—Fred Rothganger
1. This book belongs to the junior science fiction genre. 2. Anna knew she was different. She never quite fit in with her family. Surprisingly, she find out that she is part of a secret experiment. Her bonds with her brother strengthen as they rally to discover the truth about Anna.3. The are for critique is plot. This plot is intricate. It has many plot twists and the end is a shocker! This turns this book into a page turner. This plot is exciting and lends itself to the science fiction realm. 4. This book can be integrated into the curriculum in the following ways. Reading/Writing: science fiction, plotScience: scientific ethics. Mathematics: exponential growth.
—Allison Webster
