Submitted by Gerti
I
read this book because it is assigned reading for my kids’ school.
Though eco-science fiction is not a genre I would usually read, it
fits in with their goal of teaching middle schoolers about ecology
and overpopulation in today’s world. Author Peter Dickinson has set
his narrative in a different world (perhaps a future earth?) in which
man has destroyed the planet, so that there are only small areas of
the globe where the surviving species can live. Not all species have
survived to this time, but among those still in existence (mainly due
to their use as experimental animals) are chimps, and this story
revolves around a chimp research scientist, his wife and their
13-year-old daughter.
The
scientist and his family (along with a few chimps) are involved in a
terrible accident before the book starts, and the tragic result is
that his daughter’s body has been destroyed. To save her “life”,
her brain is transplanted into the body of a young female chimp,
“Kelly”. So the first few chapters of the book involve the
daughter – Eva Adamson – and her brain’s merger and acceptance
of her new simian body. We meet various characters, all of whom have
different motivations for making this first-of-its-kind experiment
successful, including other doctors and researchers, as well as
television producers and a juice company who adopts Eva as their
living logo. Dickinson also makes up some new vocabulary for this
“other world,” and that’s one of the places where the book
falls flat for me.
So
Eva becomes a “shaper” celebrity, and although she tries to go
back to her earlier lifestyle of school, friends and family, it is
the chimp society that really draws her interest. Over her mother’s
objections, Eva begins to spend more and more time with the animals,
and finally begins to adopt a leadership position in their society. A
friendly producer named Grog helps a small group of chimps migrate to
an island to shot natural footage for a planned “shaper” show.
But when a storm rolls in, Eva and her group use the bad weather to
escape to another part of the island, away from cameras and people.
The book ends with Eva’s daughter and granddaughter chimps coming
to see her before she dies, having lived many years in the wild.
The
back cover calls this book “Daring! Mesmerizing! Riveting!” and
that language is a little strong. While the plot is interesting, and
the writing is sometimes clever, it is an imperfect book whose
message is more important than its medium. Dickinson would have been
just as well served leaving out words like “shaper” and just
using our current TV technology to make his point. There is no great
technological leap in his world, as people are still using cars,
boats and helicopters to get around, children are still going to
schools, and adults still have jobs, so the world is not that
different. However, “Eva” does inspire questions about the nature
of research and using animals for experiments, and for that reason,
it would be appropriate to teach a middle school audience.
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