- I really loved Sebastian Faulks's two previous novels Paris Echo and Snow Country. Faulks's gift is to write love stories set in fractious times, and to bring the personal, political and social brilliantly alive.
- In The Seventh Son, his new novel, he attempts the same portrayal, but unfortunately fails dismally.
- Talissa is a young post-grad seeking a permanent academic position. She needs money and seizes an opportunity to be a surrogate mother. A clinic owned by a billionaire philanthropist swaps the donor's semen for a manufactured one with genes harnessed from a neanderthal specimen.
- The baby Seth is born. He grows up a pretty strange kid with some intellectual limitations and some unusual talents. He's a homo sapiens and homo neanderthal hybrid. But as a person he's nothing extraordinary.
- Faulks is asking whether human limitations can be overcome or are we stuck with them. As his main character in Snow Country reflects We are obsessive. We appear to have bigger brains than other creatures, but we behave in a way that's contrary to our own interests. These harmful passions that drive us mad with love or with the need to slaughter one another. We don't seem very well...evolved. Can we rise to a higher level of humanity, and one without dementia, schizophrenia, depression, and other mental ailments for example?
- Obviously this is an intriguing premise, but is it realistic, or just a fantasy? At one point a bunch of scientists are debating these issues in very scientific jargon. As ordinary readers we simply don't know whether they are talking real science. What we do know is that Faulks is enjoying the conversation and teasing and challenging us.- I was way more attracted to the group of friends caught up in this evolutionary drama. They are loving, affectionate, intelligent, kind and passionate humans, with worthwhile jobs. Humanity’s best. What’s to improve?
- So I found the main plot line boring and pointless.
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