Cassian Brown

I won this on Goodreads from the First Reads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.

There are very good things about this book. The world Cassian Brown has set up for his characters is fascinating and innovative. The ideas are also very interesting-- the quintessential question of clones and if they are the same "people" and the whole argument of whether nature or nurture determines who a person is or who a person will become was explored in this novel. Ever since the movie Gattaca came out, this is a question I definitely find to be worth exploring. I thought the plot twists were enough to keep me reading to the end.

However, there were also issues with this book. I felt that the prose was stilted and many times confusing. I would frequently have to read a batch of sentences over again because it was not clear who was doing the action or what the current sentence was referring to. The author also has an odd way of using words, and I know some of them were "created" for the book, but some I believe were just used incorrectly. In addition, there were odd jumps in time when Owen, the main character, would think about his past-- again, not very clearly done and many times, I was very confused as to what time period the author was referring to and how old the characters were and how it furthered the plot. Furthermore, the way the chapters were separated seemed very strange to me. Sometimes when the characters would be in the exact same place and time, the author seemed to use it as a paragraph indent, which really broke up the action in the wrong places. Lastly, it seemed he wanted to use the omniscient narrator, but used a tight third person with multiple characters, although it was Owen that we were with for most of the journey. I believe that he should have just stayed with a tight third person narration through Owen. The brief segueways to his brother's viewpoint and random people in the Church detracted from the story. Some of the plot points didn't make sense to me-- where Owen was thrown into prison for a made up story so he would be "driven mad" and not become Judas, didn't ring true for me. And also, the juxtaposition of a very old world order with the present technology while likely deliberate, didn't work for me. I would visualize an old Roman time with people in the dirt wearing electronic watches... I couldn't reconcile that image.

I think overall, this novel worked hard to establish a new world and bring the conflicted relationship of two brothers to the forefront while addressing some ethical issues. While a good effort, for the above reasons, I didn't feel like it completely succeeded.… (más)

It is the year of our Lord 2449. The Pope believes he has just forty-four days to avert a galactic Armageddon by discrediting anew the most reviled man in history ...
Owen Stonehaven is leading the strangest of lives. As a child, his mother gives him to a huge and fierce rat kangaroo; as an adult, the Church has him shut into a derelict and lightless spaceship. Freed, he returns to his home planet, a surreal place that is roamed by lizards of barely imaginable size, towering thunderbirds and ferocious marsupial lions - for on New Yamba a master cloner has been at work re-creating the megafauna of Australia's past.
Owen's plan is to find the mysterious coin his mother stole on the day she died, a well-worn piece of silver he hopes will help reveal his true identity, and to await a visit by the brother he loves, Henry, a priest.
Extremists detonate a bomb and Henry is hurt. Owen realises he is the subject of a conspiracy engineered by an all-powerful and ruthless man. As he begins to understand his origins, he finds he cannot shake the darkness at his core. Is betrayal in his genes?… (más)

"Goodnight, Baxter. Sleep tight. Hope the bunyips don't bite ..."
Yet Baxter Mariah, fighter pilot, has more to contend with than beasts that are part human, part troll, and which, in this blighted Australia steadily sliding under the sea, might not be so mythical after all. He believes he is destined to rescue his people ... if he only knew how.
Among those thwarting him is Toby Ellameine, cricketer and militia captain, whose spirit is also under siege - he fears an atrocity he commits during a war shows that a monster lurks within. Another threat is Zinzan Evangeline, ace pilot and sociopath. He comes to see great danger in Baxter, and takes action.… (más)