I was really impressed by Mary G. Thompson’s dystopic science fiction novel last year, One Level Down. Her new SF novel, Precious Children, shows that she is full of interesting ideas and can explore and execute them really well. I look forward to seeing more from her in the future!
From the publisher’s description: A wealthy family trying to cheat death is overmatched—by a stubborn teenager hiding in a body that looks like their son. In this taut tale of genetics and entitlement, nature vs. nurture goes horrifyingly wrong.
The book opens with a small, quick funeral for Geoff (Preston Geoffrey Blake Jr.), 14, who died in an accident. His mother, Dina, and father, Preston, try to comfort Geoff’s 12-year old sister, Di, by reminding her that Geoff was backed up and will return soon, but Di argues that he won’t be the same, and further contends that Geoff never really came back from his original death at 5.
In this near future, most people are sterile, and many children die young from various health difficulties. Scientists are working on that, but it’s not so urgent, because rich people can clone their children as insurance (but not clone themselves, of course, since that’s illegal and immoral), and middle-class people can license certified healthy copies of those originals. I say license instead of buy or adopt, because there’s a clause that if the original parents’ child dies, they get to pick the best copy, reclaim it from the host-parents who raised it, and upload their own child’s memories/consciousness into that body, overwriting the personality of the one who had been inhabiting it (although there’s usually a dominance struggle that takes several days to complete, with drugs to help the favorite win).
The company that controls this process assures everyone that the re-uploaded child doesn’t remember being in limbo during the interval, and convoluted arguments of quantum physics and religion convince most people, at least the participating parents, that they’re not doing anything wrong in overwriting the children whose replacement bodies they’re repossessing. That’s apparently a pretty easy argument to make, at least for the rich people who want to believe that they’re just getting their own children back, as contractually agreed. In fact, one of the most chilling scenes is at the end, when Dina and Preston are carrying on with their lives, serene in their convictions that their money will continue to fix any problems that may arise.
I believe Thompson is still better known for her YA and Middle Grade books than her SF, and both of her science fiction novels so far have used child protagonists. In this one, the most sympathetic character is Di, although we also see a lot from Geoff, her brother (whom she claims is actually Jeff, the clone-replacement that she thinks defeated the Geoff overlay), and hear a little bit from Nathan, who becomes the third Geoff-body.
There are also intermittent chapters from Dina’s perspective; for most of the book, she doesn’t actually do a lot except try to reassure her daughter, but she eventually shows she’s capable of ruthless action to protect Geoff. In flashbacks, we see that she was actually pretty smart, when she met Preston at Harvard Business School, but now she just runs the household and raises the children (with the help of nanny/cook Alicia). She is content, with the help of a stim device that resets/reduces her anxieties and other emotions.
There is very little socialization outside the house, but everyone visits the Square, a virtual world with private meeting spaces. Di is a smart child who reads up a lot on cloning, science, and laws, but she also frequently mingles in the Square with her thousands of Di-clones (without revealing her status as the original), enjoying such activities as riding horses together (her family can afford real horses, but the middle-class families who adopt the clones can’t). As the plot progresses, this virtual gathering place becomes relevant to the real world, beyond just a pleasant/enervating distraction. (This reminded me a little bit of the episode of the show E.R., when Dr. Archie Morris finds out that the sperm donations he made to pay for med school have borne fruit, and those bright children are finding and meeting up with their half-siblings.)
Now, to the meat of the plot. As seen in the publisher’s description, Jeff DID win in the dominance struggle against uploaded original Geoff, but he had hidden it, pretending that Geoff won as expected. His victory was due to his parents (hosts/fosters) having raised him from birth to be a strong fighter mentally, in a sort of substitution plot, but their methods had been harsh. So beyond protecting himself, his only real concern is for his sister, Carmen (a Di-clone being raised in the same harsh way). The method he chose to help Carmen shocked me, but made sense given everything else.
(Jeff’s and Carmen’s harsh childhoods remind me slightly of Mark Pierre Vorkosigan in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Brothers in Arms, where readers learn that he was constantly admonished to be more like his clone-brother Miles, so he could replace him, and punished when he fell short.)
Although Di is also surprised by Jeff’s actions, she had seen some of the writing on the wall, and taken some precautions. So the ending is not nearly as bleak as it might have been. There’s some chance that the clone-community will take collective actions in the future of this world, too, pushing back against the Blake parents’ assumption that their money will continue to insulate them from the consequences of their choices and ensure that their perfect children will continue their legacy, exactly as desired.
Precious Children is a little longer than One Level Down, but it actually feels a little shorter to me, because it’s a little easier to understand the setup (near future as opposed to far) and because the horrific elements here are more bearable for me (killings/erasures rather than ongoing child abuse). It didn’t blow me away like One Level Down did, but Precious Children is a thoroughly engaging and interesting book, with an ending that was somehow both satisfying and chilling.
Precious Children by Mary G. Thompson will be released Sept. 1 by Tachyon Publications. 224 pages.
Content warnings: Illness, accidental death, violence, murders, erasures, mood-altering (and mind-altering) technology, economic privilege.
Disclaimer: I received a free eARC for review from the publisher via NetGalley.
