The Experiment

Rating:
Summary: Superior scientific thriller
Review: At first, "The Experiment" by John Darnton covers familiar medical-science thriller ground: a secret society of 'mad' scientists, possible cloning, medical experimentation gone horribly wrong, etc. What separates this thriller from the rest is the complexity of the leading characters (Jude, Skyler, and Tillie), who react -- mostly -- in realistic ways to fantastic plot points Darnton piles onto the story. The basic narrative deals with two men, Skyler and Jude, almost identical 'twins', whose quest for the truth leads them from New York to Arizona to the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia (where Skyler was raised on a small island by a mysterious group). Tillie, and expert in twins studies, is Jude's lover, but also connected indirectly to Skyler, providing a different kind of romantic tension. Although the reader can guess some plot developments well before the characters, Darnton adds enough surprises to keep you guessing. In addition, it is enjoyable to see how the characters deal with the discoveries they make, and the affect these discoveries have on the emotional triangle at the heart of the novel. One major fault is the last quarter of the book, which moves very quickly; although the major answers to the reader's questions are given, there's enough ambiguity to possibly pave the way for a sequel. A cut above the average book of this genre.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting in a Junior High Sort of Way
Review: If I'd read this book when I was in Junior High or even High School, I might have found it enthralling and a nice diversion..but as an adult who expects more, I can't recommend it.

Characters are barely sketched out and then are forced to remain incredibily dumb until other characters explain all in lengthy exposition.

The book had some ideas and a few moments but never really did anything with them.

Rating:
Summary: Something Went Haywire With This Experiment
Review: John Darnton's Pulitzer Prize credentials and industry plaudits at the top of this page duped and misled me. No prizes for this yarn. The book fails from the classic high-concept, poor-execution syndrome. The idea of an island of clones as an organ farm for the rich and famous is the fodder of good thrillers. What would happen if one of these poor clones escaped and made his way to New York City in search of his twin? Imagine the thrills and fun a reader could have turning pages to find out if this renegade fish out of water could stay one step ahead of the bad guys and foil the whole conspiracy!

No such luck. The novel's trouble begins as soon as the hapless twin manages a convenient escape from "Clone Island." From there, he quickly teams up with the "real" Jude and his girlfriend. Then they're off on a slow-witted, cross-country trek to find out -- well, we're never quite sure what they're looking for.

Our bumbling trio of hard drinkers (immune to hangovers!) prove to be amateur sleuths when it comes to unraveling conspiracies that reach all the way to -- surprise! -- Washington D.C. They could be swept up and killed at any time. Instead, they are allowed to traipse across the country, SLOOWWWLY unearthing clues to their pasts. The trio is never clever enough to figure out the big picture or who is supposedly chasing them. I ceased having fun. By the end of the story, the mad scientists finally sit our hero down and spell out the plot to him in a few pages of rushed narrative so the reader can make sense of this plodding story. Imagination, apparently, has run dry in New York.

Darnton shows off his investigative-reporting chops by expositing the science of cloning and life extension, presented here as a series of character lectures. This is more biochemistry than I needed to make this elementary plot work for me. Bombard the reader with cool science to make up for lazy plotting -- is that the formula for best sellers today? If he had worked half as hard to develop the plot and characters, we might have had some fun here.

I expected more from Darnton. His world-class wordsmithing barely stopped me from tossing this bore aside unfinished. And Darnton's shameless name-dropping in the "acknowledgements" buys him few points -- he makes sure we all know that he personally interviewed Dolly's creator so he would understand how to make clones. I would have been more impressed had he sought the counsel of Patricia Cornwell, not for the pat-on-the-back sound bite the editors snared for the cover, but rather for showing him how to craft a tasty page-turner.

Rating:
Summary: Kooky plot, forced characters
Review: SPOILERS HERE.
I was on board with this book until Tizzie & Julia were identified as clones. I then realized how far fetched this book was. To top that off with Tizzie & Jude being childhood chums was just TOO much.

I wish someone would write a book about some evil scientific topic, and then have the protagonists GO TO THE MEDIA and see what happens. This could have been pretty cool--but instead everyone was unintelligent...Tizzie was a DOCTOR and it took her forever to figure things out, Jude was a JOURNALIST for crying out loud--yet he never goes public.

Plus: Tizzie says that "significant others" of twins NEVER fall for both--and then she does! What the heck!! INCONSISTENT!

Rating:
Summary: INTRIGUING PLOT BUT DISAPPOINTING EXECUTION
Review: This is the first novel by John Darnton that I have read. It is very well plotted and well researched, has interesting characters that you care about, moves very swiftly, and clearly explains the basis of recent genetic research. In spite of all these positives it nowhere near lives up to the potential that it could have achieved for a book by an author of his proven abilities. It appears that Darnton vacillated; he has written a book that has elements of a major work of fiction that philosophically and scientifically investigates such phenomena as cloning, gentic experimentation, organ transplants, and the effect of hereditary influences on identical twins but then also attempted to create an action-filled suspense novel to be quickly read without much contemplation.

The story begins with Jude Harley, a newspaper reporter, investigating a murder where the corpse had been mutilated, apparently to conceal the victim's identity. He is concurrently assigned by his editor to research a story on identical twins, which leads him to interview a leading expert in that field, Dr. Elizabeth Hurley. Meanwhile, alternate chapters introduce us to Skyler, a young man caught up in very strange circumstances on an island off the Atlantic coast. As you may guess, the lives of these three major protogonists are interwoven in strange ways that form the basis of this story. Jude and Skyler come face to face under dangerous circumstances, and appear to be twins despite the apparent immpoosibilty of that fact. For various but connected reasons several other murders occur and despite their suspicions regarding each other Skyler, Jude and Tizzie go on the run together in an attempt to discover their buried history and to unravel a conspiracy which reaches to the highest levels of the FBI and is attempting to destroy them.

I found the plot absorbing enough to get totally hooked, and some segments are incredibly well written and absolutely riveting. Unfortunately there are also some sloppy and unbelievable sequences that seem out of character with the reality that the author is trying to create. At times it seems that Darnton didn't quite know how to keep the reader's interest while getting to the ending that he desired and so forced action that is inconsistent with human nature and the pcharacters in this story. In summary, I liked the suspense, was glad that I read the book, but disappointed that it did not live up to the potential of the plot and its best parts.