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A review by alassel
Imitation by Heather Hildenbrand
4.0
I picked up this whole trilogy on Cyber Monday sale, and read through the first book in a day. It both impressed and annoyed me, and overall I enjoyed it and it looks to be going somewhere interesting in the next book.
Our protagonist, Ven, is a five-year-old clone of 18yo Raven Rogen, a wealthy socialite and daughter of the guy who invented the "product" that Ven is. After some attempts on Raven's life, her Imitation Ven is pulled from the clone development location to take her place to protect the Authentic girl and hopefully draw out and catch whoever is after her. Ven must take Raven's place and act as her in all ways, with very little background, and without any feelings or desires of her own. As she slides into Raven's life, Ven starts discovering things about herself and her situation that send her on a new path beyond that of the obedience she's been taught.
From a scientific perspective, there are a few issues that I wish had been covered more deeply, though perhaps by being stated in passing as fact that works better. One, how do you grow a human facsimile at an accelerated growth rate? Or are they created as adults? Two, even though Ven and her compatriots get "observation time" where they watch their Authentic and learn about their behaviors and world, they get very little instruction on relationships and how to act beyond that. Three, the glimpses of changes to other "products" and future development sound rather far-fetched, even given the premise of the book.
Several dark and currently-appropriate themes are mentioned and explored to varying degrees, including the creation of a class of "others," voting and elections being rigged, and the control of the whole country by a few rich white men. These are concepts that do need to be explored from multiple angles especially now. Ven could've been fleshed out a bit more, but then again she's really just barely 5 and has no life experience at all - her development has been stunted by design, after all.
The writing was sound and overall I enjoyed the book and look forward to starting the next one shortly.
Our protagonist, Ven, is a five-year-old clone of 18yo Raven Rogen, a wealthy socialite and daughter of the guy who invented the "product" that Ven is. After some attempts on Raven's life, her Imitation Ven is pulled from the clone development location to take her place to protect the Authentic girl and hopefully draw out and catch whoever is after her. Ven must take Raven's place and act as her in all ways, with very little background, and without any feelings or desires of her own. As she slides into Raven's life, Ven starts discovering things about herself and her situation that send her on a new path beyond that of the obedience she's been taught.
From a scientific perspective, there are a few issues that I wish had been covered more deeply, though perhaps by being stated in passing as fact that works better. One, how do you grow a human facsimile at an accelerated growth rate? Or are they created as adults? Two, even though Ven and her compatriots get "observation time" where they watch their Authentic and learn about their behaviors and world, they get very little instruction on relationships and how to act beyond that. Three, the glimpses of changes to other "products" and future development sound rather far-fetched, even given the premise of the book.
Several dark and currently-appropriate themes are mentioned and explored to varying degrees, including the creation of a class of "others," voting and elections being rigged, and the control of the whole country by a few rich white men. These are concepts that do need to be explored from multiple angles especially now. Ven could've been fleshed out a bit more, but then again she's really just barely 5 and has no life experience at all - her development has been stunted by design, after all.
The writing was sound and overall I enjoyed the book and look forward to starting the next one shortly.