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353 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 7, 2023
When American palaeoanthropologist Talissa Adams runs out of money to fund a post-doctoral fellowship, she offers to become a surrogate to a childless couple in England, for a price. It's the year 2030, and the Parn Institute is at the cutting edge of research into IVF. Its billionaire founder is interested in doing something that's never been done before: creating a hybrid human species combining Homo Sapiens and a newly discovered humanoid ancestor related to the Neanderthals.
And so, Talissa unknowingly becomes the vessel of something that will change the way people look at themselves and at humankind. Seth is given to the loving Mary and Alaric, who have no idea they will raise anyone other than a little boy who deserves to be loved and protected.
'The Seventh Son' asks the basic question we have been asking for decades if not centuries: what does it mean to be human? Is it consciousness, something animals don't have? And did our distant ancestors have this? At what point in our evolution did we develop the ability to self-examine and dream about the future?
This literary sci-fi takes a deep dive into an area of much interest right now, with the rise of artificial intelligence and the discovery of ancient animals in melting permafrost. Readers are confronted with a dilemma: is it ethical to resurrect such beings in a world that is hostile to their existence? How far should we go in trying to answer questions about humanity's past and future?
The themes raised in this book are fascinating and one cannot help but empathise with Seth. What brought my rating down on this book was the sex scenes. I'm not sure if the author was trying to make a point about our connection to other species by making them so awfully animalistic (at one point Talissa compares herself to an ape while having sex), but I found it strange and a bit off-putting.
An interesting read that will stay on my mind.