Carbon Copy: Alpha Man by Gary Turcotte
Publisher: Outskirts, 2008
Genre: Science Fiction
Sub-genre: Alien encounter
Rating: 2 pints of blood
Upon seeing the cover, my husband said "...that's pretty creepy." And, well, yeah. I like the unusual textures, and it's pretty clear from first glance this is aimed at the science fiction crowd. The half and half face freaks me out, but I'll freely admit this could be my OCD poking its head in and whining at the different proportions between the gorilla face and the alien head.
That being said, having read the book, I actually do understand why they went with this cover, which is more than I can say for most books out there.
Derek, a highly trained secret agent, has just come off a controversial and incredibly challenging mission. He's returned to headquarters to prepare for his next mission, which includes having his face changed to render him unrecognizable. While he's unconscious, he's connected to the brain of an alien his superiors have secretly been keeping and studying for years. When Derek wakes up, he has all sorts of alien knowledge in his brain, and isn't quite sure who he can trust with all the information he's been given.
Fortunately, Derek has three friends, all of who are also agents, who he routinely contacts in between missions. They aren't supposed to speak with other agents outside of mission necessities, but Derek has made a pact with these friends, and they always keep tabs on each other. When he manages to catch up with two of them, he discovers he isn't the only one who's been connected to the alien; one of the others has, and the third has been assigned to keep an eye on both of them. The fourth member of their group was the first to be hooked up to the alien brain, but it made him go insane and he's now been locked away.
To make matters worse, Derek can feel the alien infuence on him, changing the way he thinks and perceives the world, and the other man who was connected shows even more drastic changes. They aren't exactly secret agents anymore, but trying to get out could be almost as dangerous as staying in.
First things first. There are some compelling ideas in Carbon Copy, but it takes some wading to get to them. I think my biggest issue with the book is that in its excitement to share all its concepts, it missed out on exploring most of them fully. A number of ideas were sort of brought up and then glossed over, and in general the passages with secret agent action were written with more enthusiasm than the science fiction bits. I like spy thrillers, but the heart of the book is with the aliens and the origin of man and life on Earth, so the glossing over made things feel a little unbalanced.
Turcotte seems very fond of short sentences. In moments of drama, this can be a really effective tool, heightening the suspense, but when it's used throughout the entire book, it starts to feel like a reader about Dick, Jane, and Spot. A few conjunctions would have turned the halting prose into something far more readable and sophisticated.
The other issue I had was with the long blocks of exposition. Since Derek had the alien information shoved into his head and others hadn't, he spent a lot of time explaining things, and while these ideas were kind of neat in their own right, it quickly grew tiresome to be told everything in big chunks. Had the mysteries of the aliens and their knowledge about the genesis of the human race been unfolded slowly, it could have been something I raced through, but the execution here ultimately just failed for me. Which is sad, really, because presented in another manner, some of the ideas are thought-provoking ones that might have stuck with me.
Genre: Science Fiction
Sub-genre: Alien encounter
Rating: 2 pints of blood
Upon seeing the cover, my husband said "...that's pretty creepy." And, well, yeah. I like the unusual textures, and it's pretty clear from first glance this is aimed at the science fiction crowd. The half and half face freaks me out, but I'll freely admit this could be my OCD poking its head in and whining at the different proportions between the gorilla face and the alien head.
That being said, having read the book, I actually do understand why they went with this cover, which is more than I can say for most books out there.
Derek, a highly trained secret agent, has just come off a controversial and incredibly challenging mission. He's returned to headquarters to prepare for his next mission, which includes having his face changed to render him unrecognizable. While he's unconscious, he's connected to the brain of an alien his superiors have secretly been keeping and studying for years. When Derek wakes up, he has all sorts of alien knowledge in his brain, and isn't quite sure who he can trust with all the information he's been given.
Fortunately, Derek has three friends, all of who are also agents, who he routinely contacts in between missions. They aren't supposed to speak with other agents outside of mission necessities, but Derek has made a pact with these friends, and they always keep tabs on each other. When he manages to catch up with two of them, he discovers he isn't the only one who's been connected to the alien; one of the others has, and the third has been assigned to keep an eye on both of them. The fourth member of their group was the first to be hooked up to the alien brain, but it made him go insane and he's now been locked away.
To make matters worse, Derek can feel the alien infuence on him, changing the way he thinks and perceives the world, and the other man who was connected shows even more drastic changes. They aren't exactly secret agents anymore, but trying to get out could be almost as dangerous as staying in.
First things first. There are some compelling ideas in Carbon Copy, but it takes some wading to get to them. I think my biggest issue with the book is that in its excitement to share all its concepts, it missed out on exploring most of them fully. A number of ideas were sort of brought up and then glossed over, and in general the passages with secret agent action were written with more enthusiasm than the science fiction bits. I like spy thrillers, but the heart of the book is with the aliens and the origin of man and life on Earth, so the glossing over made things feel a little unbalanced.
Turcotte seems very fond of short sentences. In moments of drama, this can be a really effective tool, heightening the suspense, but when it's used throughout the entire book, it starts to feel like a reader about Dick, Jane, and Spot. A few conjunctions would have turned the halting prose into something far more readable and sophisticated.
The other issue I had was with the long blocks of exposition. Since Derek had the alien information shoved into his head and others hadn't, he spent a lot of time explaining things, and while these ideas were kind of neat in their own right, it quickly grew tiresome to be told everything in big chunks. Had the mysteries of the aliens and their knowledge about the genesis of the human race been unfolded slowly, it could have been something I raced through, but the execution here ultimately just failed for me. Which is sad, really, because presented in another manner, some of the ideas are thought-provoking ones that might have stuck with me.