Reviews on The Seventh Son (2)

Curiously unemotional until it gets messy - but not bad

The Seventh Son

It's not a bad read - I certainly found it interesting enough to finish it pretty fast. All the same, I found some things about it rather incongruous. I've always said that you can judge a good author by how realistically they portray people of the opposite sex, and in this instance, I think the author didn't do a particularly good job. The concept is not unique, and although I think the author brings something new to the table and tells an interesting story, I will damn it with faint praise. Not bad. Could have been better.

Disturbing but gripping

The Seventh Son

Talissa is a young American academic who becomes a surrogate mother to raise funds for her studies in paleontology. She works through an unethical and corrupt agency who, instead of using the adoptive dad's sperm, uses something derived from a recent Neanderthal find. I found the story of her pregnancy very disturbing. The child is born and grows up in a loving family where he he develops a close affinity with the natural world. But ultimately the truth comes out and he and Talissa are targeted by the surrogacy agency who are desperate to conceal their crime. It is a sometimes scary, gripping but always thought provoking read.