Frameshift - Softcover

Sawyer, Robert J.

3.75

1,475 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812571088 ISBN 13: 9780812571080

Publisher: Tor Books, 1998

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Pierre Tardivel is a scientist working on the Human Genome Project with the Nobel Prize winner Dr. Burian Klimus. A driven man, Pierre works with the awareness that he may not have long to live: he has a fifty-fifty chance of dying from Huntington's disease, an incurable hereditary disorder of the central nervous system. While he still has his health, Pierre and his wife decide to have a child, and they search for a sperm donor. When Pierre informs Dr. Klimus of their plan, Klimus makes an odd but generous offer: to be the sperm donor as well as to pay for the expensive in vitro fertilization. Shortly thereafter it transpires that Klimus may be hiding a grim past: he may be Ivan Marchenko, the notorious Treblinka death-camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible. While digging into Klimus's past with the help of Nazi hunter Avi Meyer, Pierre and his wife discover that Pierre's insurance company has been illegally screening clients for genetic defects. The two lines of investigation begin to converge in a sinister manner, while they worry about the possibility of bearing the child of an evil, sadistic killer...

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Review:

In the guise of a mainstream biomedical thriller akin to Ira Levin's The Boys From Brazil, or the novels of Robin Coma Cook, Nebula Award-winner Robert Sawyer has crafted a most ambitious tale.

As a teenager, Pierre Tardivel discovers that he has a 50 per cent chance of developing the hereditary Huntington's disease. The knowledge drives him to become a scientist working on the Human Genome Project at Berkley University, where he falls in love with Molly, a psychologist with the genetic "frameshift" for telepathy. A series of murders are traced to local neo-Nazis, someone is conducting an illegal experiment with Neanderthal DNA, and Department of Justice Agent Avi Meyer is hunting Ivan Marchenko, the concentration camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible, The Butcher of Treblinka.

What makes Frameshift remarkable is the sympathetic and realistic portrayal of a progressively disabled hero, together with the interweaving into the story of the hunt for a real Nazi war criminal. Here Sawyer skilfully draws on the scandalous persecution of John Demjanjuk, a man mistakenly tried as Marchenko in the 1980's, a case documented in Yoram Sheftel's powerful Show Trial.

Robert J. Sawyer has woven a labyrinthine novel encompassing sufficient themes and plots for a handful of ordinary thrillers. He offers complex and imaginative scientific speculation, a thoughtful examination of the ethical implications of genetic testing, a slow-burning but dramatic thriller with a blockbuster climax, and a touching love story with a genuinely moving ending. Frameshift is a griping, and ultimately inspiring novel.--Gary S. Dalkin

Review:

"Filled to bursting with ideas, characters, and incidents."--"The New York Times" "A finely crafted novel with a riveting plot and complex characters that one can care about deeply."--"Calgary Herald" "Robert Sawyer's science fiction is always ambitious, well-written, and imaginative. With each novel he keeps getting better."--Kevin J. Anderson

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