A light and fluffy read with no mention of sex, just a faint whiff of drugs (but certainly not for recreational purposes) and a complete absence of rock 'n' roll.I once read that the books of Charles Dickens are characterised by having happy endings (ok, I might have generalised a little too much there), and Taylor Five sufferes, IMO, from the same syndrome.But actually, that annoys me less than the trend in Horror Movies (probably something to do with sequels) that sees the Hero banish the Beast to the Underworld, only to see, in the last seconds of the movie, the Beast chuckling away as it plans its next foray into the world. Grr; why can't horror movies ever have happy ending? But I guess, when I think about it, that that's part of The Horror. Hmm.But I digress (surely that's not like me (well, maybe on occasion (ok, all the time dammit!))). For me to complain that a book suffers from a happy ending is just trite. But still, it rankles, it sticks in my craw, it goes against the grain, it rubs me up the wrong way, it.. it's silly. Life's just not like that. Anybody'd think this was a work of fiction designed to extract a few key events from a life and portray them in an arc: peaceful - wham! - run - escape - grow - resolve - return - happy. Hmm.But still, it kept me from thinking about my own miserable little life for a few short hours - so what more can you ask?
I read Ann Halam's amazing _Siberia_ last year, and I think that's what motivated me to pick this one out of the YA section of my local library. Ann Halam writes science fiction that's very science-y, but also immensely nuanced and human. And, at least in this book, she does it all in slightly less than 200 pages. Every character felt vivid and multi-dimensional to me, and she has an interesting (and very shades-of-grey) take on human cloning. I love big, labyrinthine, multi-volume fantasies when they're well done, but it's so refreshing to read a book that does it all in one (slim) volume. This author writes for adults as Gwyneth Jones, and I think I might need to check out her non-YA stuff at some point.
What do You think about Taylor Five (2004)?
We find out immediately that Taylor is a clone of a famous scientist, but the focus quickly shifts to her life at a primate research station in Borneo. When rebels destroy the station Tay, her brother, and an orangutun who lives at the station must make a long and dangerous journey through the jungle to get help. The plot synopsis makes this sound much more science-fictiony than it is. The fact that Tay is a clone is really only significant in terms of her mental and emotional state: she is not altered to be abnormal in any way (the experiment was about finding an arthritis treatment) and she does not get captured by evil scientists/government agents/terrorists as often goes in these stories. It is basically a story of a young person trying to survive under extremely adverse and painful conditions, and her internal processes. I actually liked this approach because too many books especially YA take one trait that makes the protagonist different (cyborg, gay, psychic, artist, minority, whatever) and really reduces their experience and identity to being all about that one trait, as if something that makes a person "different" must completely define them.
—Miriam
