Book Review: The Human Race – O.C. Heaton
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Now here is an unusual book. The author, Mr Heaton, has clearly spent many a long day researching all things Icelandic, American airline history and a great deal of quantum physics relating to the plausibility of teleportation. Then he has taken said research and built a novel around it without killing the story at all. Congratulations are in order (raises hat in salute).
I love science fiction when it is done as well as this. This is not speculative fiction but true science fiction as was written by the likes of Eric C. Williams and Arthur C. Clarke, where you take reality and insert a small portion of plausible / possible science. Then as a good author should, Mr. Heaton goes on to build a ruddy good thriller that had me constantly glancing at the next page to see if …
There is rich plot of double-crossers, cheats, liars and greedy desperate businessmen out to make a killing with a science that will change the world. The character flesh out well, they talk well, interact well, and you even get to care about them. Nothing is rushed, Mr. Heaton knows where the story is going, that is all too clear, and we, the readers, get to enjoy the voyage of discovery that is contained in both the theoretical and the true science. I have also become suspicious that the author is an ambassador for Icelandic tourism.
I particularly like the two leading characters, Ethan Rae and Uma Jakóbsdottir, the relationship that never quite reaches the surface and ends as unlikely as is befitting the story. Now we may see, perhaps, a greater use for the technology than had originally been envisioned.
The Human Race ends with the opening of a whole can of worms being thrown up in the air allowing for the story to develop along yet another twisting pathway. I look forward to reading more of tale; hopefully the balance of science fact and fiction will remain the same as it added so much credibility to the whole story.
Congratulations Mr Heaton on a well earned 9/10 (that's high for me)
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