The Human Race [Kindle Edition]

The Human Race is part science fiction, part adventure thriller, and a wholly enjoyable read.
Once upon a time, a man named Michael Crichton told us that we could recreate the world of dinosaurs from DNA extracted from amber. The success of Jurassic Park tells us that we believed it, too, or wanted to believe it. O. C. Heaton through his heroine, Uma Jakobsdóttir, tells us that we now have access to another holy grail of science fiction. I won't tell you what it is, as it might spoil the surprise, but he then proceeds, in a very readable fashion, to make it sound much more like currently available science than fiction. And after that, the action just does not stop.
None of the main characters is one you might admire or wish to be like. They are all motivated by greed, some more altruistically so than others, but all are nonetheless driven by self-interest: the businessman desperate to keep his family's empire alive; the entrepreneur who seems unable not to make money; the scientist driven by her green agenda. However, they all get your attention if not your admiration.
I know that it is a cliché, but this is an exciting, fast-paced read. The Human Race is a book that is very easy to forget to put down. Bring on `Part Two'. I very much look forward to seeing what O. C. Heaton has in store for Ethan and Uma - and for us.

The Human Race story is about a teleporter developed in Iceland, which has the ability to transport an individual from one country to another. Scientist Uma Jakobsdóttir, the daughter of a famous geothermal engineer, is the product champion. She approaches Ethan Rae, a billionaire venture capitalist from England, to help bring it to market. (I had a wry chuckle at the Ethan plus Uma teaming - was the author a Gattaca fan perhaps?). At the same time, the owner of an airline in America gets wind of the invention and tries to steal it, perceiving correctly that this invention could severely impact on the airline industry. There is also a strong environmental message running through the story.

Don't be put off by the cover: The Human Race has the bones of a very good thriller. Its got an intriguing and original storyline with some great characters. The first half of the book is particularly good - Joseph Finder fans should enjoy. Unfortunately it's over-written and gets bogged down with too much detail. It gets hard to follow the main story because there are so many strings and sub-plots and ultimately I think it would have benefited from a more ruthless edit. It's not a bad book by any stretch, but it had the potential to be even better.

Be warned that this is the first in a planned series and it ends very abruptly: just stopping in the middle of the story, blatantly setting the reader up for the next installment.

This review is based on a copy provided for reviewing purposes, but the opinions above are genuine and based on having read the book.

Recommended by a friend, I recently read this author's debut thriller on holiday, and can report that I'm now officially in the O.C.Heaton fan club, and consequently more open minded about reading first time author's work. (Holidays previously being too precious to risk valuable time reading anything other than established, best-seller-writing stalwarts of the literary world.)

"The Human Race" has pretty much everything I expect from a thriller: a good story, told from the multiple points of view of interesting characters, at great pace. Each chapter and scene reveals something new to the plot. The strong narrative thrust, using active verbs rather than the passive voice, helps get the reader inside the heads of the three main protagonists, adds depth and builds dramatic tension. The "big secret" is convincingly revealed, and credibly explained, so that you fully believe (or want to believe) that the technology necessary is current, and not science fiction. The depth of research is impressive, not just behind the locations etc, but particularly behind the new technology and it's environmental and ethical consequences.

Congratulations, then, to O.C.Heaton on a fine debut, for opening my mind to first-timers, and for inventing the fantastic new word "Thrillogy" which is now firmly implanted in my vocabulary! I look forward to the next instalment.