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.