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A review by buildhergender
Fragment by Warren Fahy
4.0
An island where animals developed from plants? That is basically the premise of this book. It is an interesting read but seems to go on for a lot longer than you would expect. Going through three cycles introducing new characters, putting them on the island and then killing them off until there are not enough characters to support the story so more are introduced, four times if you include the prologue. It had a pretty interesting idea and the creature development was well thought, but it felt like this book went on way too long and that the characters were just eh. At one point a character had been thought dead and when he was found alive again I had to go back to even remember who he was, which I guess you could argue was a good writing job because his base description was being unrememberable.
Characters
Nell Duckworth: The daughter of a biologist who was very popular on TV until she was killed on camera. Hold on let me check something….Okay Steve Irwin died in 2006, this book was published in 2009, considering how everyone reacts to learning she is the daughter of the TV star I am pretty sure she’s modeled after Steve Irwin’s daughter. (Too Soon)
Geoffrey Binswanger: Yes he has a funny last name, just like the other main protagonist. Yes the author points it out. Yes this makes it less humourous. He is a professor who’s shit doesn’t stink. It seems like everything he says is right. Even including the idea that having sex makes things die young, which is pretty odd considering how he tries to get in Nell’s pants.
Thatcher Redmon: He’s the evil scientist who pretends to be liberal, for capitalist reasons. He killed his son for insurance reasons and wrote a book saying that intelligent beings can not exist without destroying their environment. That humanity will not be able to save itself. He is also deeply in debt from gambling.
Henders: A plant based intelligent animal who is probably thousands if not millions of years old (because he doesn’t have sex.) He refutes the philosophy of Thatcher by just existing, something that will really hurt Thatcher’s book sales.
Plot
People go to the island, people die, people blow up the island.
Henders island is an island in the middle of the ocean with cliff walls that make it almost impenetrable. A reality show of scientists, who thought that was a good idea, are going by it when they receive a distress beacon. As the island has only had one documented landing, which ended in people dying, they decide it might be a good stop. They send the scientists to the shore, one of them being Nell, and soon find a deserted boat that had been declared missing years ago.
It appears as recent erosion has made an entrance into the island so the group goes forward towards the jungle while the expedition is shown on live t.v. When the hell is an unscripted reality show given live t.v. slots and what is the coincidence that the time they arrive matches exactly with the time they are supposed to be on? The show gets a really big boost in it’s ratings as everyone but two of the party are quickly slaughtered by grotesque monsters.
The US Government works with the production company and puts out a statement that it was a publicity stunt and that everyone is fine. The truth is the government has decided to research the island, to make sure it isn’t a threat. They drop off a new group of characters, Nell included, with a habitat designed to survive space and mars. It lasts for probably a week before the plants grow over and consume it, killing scientists. But before then the scientists get a lot of research in and come to one conclusion. If specimens escape from this island it could be disastrous to the world's ecosystem.
Apparently the island has been left undisturbed for millions of years and evolution has evolved some fierce predators all based around plants. Besides literally having eyes on the back of their head, they have eyes that see vastly better than ours. They also are born pregnant and will consume their parents alive if they do not get enough food.
In the meantime the other surviving member of the first party, a camera man named Zero, sneaks onto the island and is almost killed again by animals and again while showing his video stream live.
The military steps in and decides that they are going to handle things. Thanks to Zero’s involvement they learn that due to the animals unique biology they are afraid of seawater. It acts like a sleeping pill for them and that is a deadly thing on this island. They drop new habitats and cars equipped to spay a covering of sea water. They also bring in Thatcher and Geoffrey. As they are both famous scientists, Thatcher more so, they are asked to evaluate the island and let the government know if it should be allowed to survive.
Both are against the idea of destruction at first. Geoffrey because he doesn’t think it’s possible for there to be an island where everything is predatory and something can be saved, Thatcher because he says it’s another instance of intelligent life destroying and maybe it would be better if the plantimals got loose on the planet. While the argument is going on a s.o.s. Signals from a mirror are spotted. The military heads out taking long Thatcher, Geoffrey, and Nell.
The jeep carrying the scientists and one military driver get separated but do find the signal’s origin. There is a man, named Andy, who was a scientist from the second group. He has survived in the jungle but it was only because of an animal he named Henders.
Henders has some intelligence as he is shown to be using tools, have a house and able to fight off the local wildlife. As the group begins to interact with them it learns English and how to read, within a few hours.
Now Thatcher wants the Island destroyed because he says that two intelligent species will destroy the world faster, but his real reason is that the species that Henders belongs to has lived in harmony for millions of years without destroying the small island. He convinces the driver to order the destruction of the island and tries to leave the other behind, but eventually has to return the group. Henders and about 5 other of his species escape the island onto a boat.
Thatcher releases some species he smuggled aboard and abandons the ship in a life raft. As he is the only one who knows of the intelligent species if the boat is destroyed he will not lose his reputation. He radios the military that the boat is trying to snuggle creatures off the island. They approach the boat ready to fire, but Zero once again goes live with his camera to show the intelligent animals that are with them. They are spared and Thatcher is eaten by a bug that was on the life raft. Oh and Thacher and Nell fall in love for...reasons.
Characters
Nell Duckworth: The daughter of a biologist who was very popular on TV until she was killed on camera. Hold on let me check something….Okay Steve Irwin died in 2006, this book was published in 2009, considering how everyone reacts to learning she is the daughter of the TV star I am pretty sure she’s modeled after Steve Irwin’s daughter. (Too Soon)
Geoffrey Binswanger: Yes he has a funny last name, just like the other main protagonist. Yes the author points it out. Yes this makes it less humourous. He is a professor who’s shit doesn’t stink. It seems like everything he says is right. Even including the idea that having sex makes things die young, which is pretty odd considering how he tries to get in Nell’s pants.
Thatcher Redmon: He’s the evil scientist who pretends to be liberal, for capitalist reasons. He killed his son for insurance reasons and wrote a book saying that intelligent beings can not exist without destroying their environment. That humanity will not be able to save itself. He is also deeply in debt from gambling.
Henders: A plant based intelligent animal who is probably thousands if not millions of years old (because he doesn’t have sex.) He refutes the philosophy of Thatcher by just existing, something that will really hurt Thatcher’s book sales.
Plot
People go to the island, people die, people blow up the island.
Henders island is an island in the middle of the ocean with cliff walls that make it almost impenetrable. A reality show of scientists, who thought that was a good idea, are going by it when they receive a distress beacon. As the island has only had one documented landing, which ended in people dying, they decide it might be a good stop. They send the scientists to the shore, one of them being Nell, and soon find a deserted boat that had been declared missing years ago.
It appears as recent erosion has made an entrance into the island so the group goes forward towards the jungle while the expedition is shown on live t.v. When the hell is an unscripted reality show given live t.v. slots and what is the coincidence that the time they arrive matches exactly with the time they are supposed to be on? The show gets a really big boost in it’s ratings as everyone but two of the party are quickly slaughtered by grotesque monsters.
The US Government works with the production company and puts out a statement that it was a publicity stunt and that everyone is fine. The truth is the government has decided to research the island, to make sure it isn’t a threat. They drop off a new group of characters, Nell included, with a habitat designed to survive space and mars. It lasts for probably a week before the plants grow over and consume it, killing scientists. But before then the scientists get a lot of research in and come to one conclusion. If specimens escape from this island it could be disastrous to the world's ecosystem.
Apparently the island has been left undisturbed for millions of years and evolution has evolved some fierce predators all based around plants. Besides literally having eyes on the back of their head, they have eyes that see vastly better than ours. They also are born pregnant and will consume their parents alive if they do not get enough food.
In the meantime the other surviving member of the first party, a camera man named Zero, sneaks onto the island and is almost killed again by animals and again while showing his video stream live.
The military steps in and decides that they are going to handle things. Thanks to Zero’s involvement they learn that due to the animals unique biology they are afraid of seawater. It acts like a sleeping pill for them and that is a deadly thing on this island. They drop new habitats and cars equipped to spay a covering of sea water. They also bring in Thatcher and Geoffrey. As they are both famous scientists, Thatcher more so, they are asked to evaluate the island and let the government know if it should be allowed to survive.
Both are against the idea of destruction at first. Geoffrey because he doesn’t think it’s possible for there to be an island where everything is predatory and something can be saved, Thatcher because he says it’s another instance of intelligent life destroying and maybe it would be better if the plantimals got loose on the planet. While the argument is going on a s.o.s. Signals from a mirror are spotted. The military heads out taking long Thatcher, Geoffrey, and Nell.
The jeep carrying the scientists and one military driver get separated but do find the signal’s origin. There is a man, named Andy, who was a scientist from the second group. He has survived in the jungle but it was only because of an animal he named Henders.
Henders has some intelligence as he is shown to be using tools, have a house and able to fight off the local wildlife. As the group begins to interact with them it learns English and how to read, within a few hours.
Now Thatcher wants the Island destroyed because he says that two intelligent species will destroy the world faster, but his real reason is that the species that Henders belongs to has lived in harmony for millions of years without destroying the small island. He convinces the driver to order the destruction of the island and tries to leave the other behind, but eventually has to return the group. Henders and about 5 other of his species escape the island onto a boat.
Thatcher releases some species he smuggled aboard and abandons the ship in a life raft. As he is the only one who knows of the intelligent species if the boat is destroyed he will not lose his reputation. He radios the military that the boat is trying to snuggle creatures off the island. They approach the boat ready to fire, but Zero once again goes live with his camera to show the intelligent animals that are with them. They are spared and Thatcher is eaten by a bug that was on the life raft. Oh and Thacher and Nell fall in love for...reasons.