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David Chance has been raised in an orphanage and, now an adult, finds that he is the child of a man genetically modified before birth by a group of scientists experimenting in increasing human intelligence and creativity. But his father is dead.
He pursues the search for the true nature of his father and, through it, the true nature of the experiments and the survivors of the final disaster that ended them. Chance exposes his roots and finds them entangled in horror, deceit, vengeance and perverse scientific illumination. Peace and self knowledge are achieved only at great risk and terrible cost.
I can pay [Brain Child] no greater compliment than by saying that it is a worthy successor to Odd John; indeed, there are several subtle references to that earlier masterpiece. But Turner is a better story-teller than Olaf Stapledon, and also has another half-century of science to play with. His book is not only a mind-stretcher; it is a breathlessly exciting adventure
Brain Child does a marvelous job of pulling us into its fast and absorbing plot. But the novel is more than a good read. As a powerful cautionary tale about the potential of science to alter the very stuff of our being, it deserves to be ranked with Theodore Sturgeon's More Than human
George Turner (1916-1997)
George Reginald Turner was an Australian writer and critic, best known for the science fiction novels written in the later part of his career. His mainstream novel, The Cupboard Under the Stairs won the Miles Franklin Award, Australia's highest literary honour. His best-known SF novel, The Drowning Towers, was published in the UK under the title The Sea and Summer, and won the second Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1988. George Turner was named as a Guest of Honour for the 1999 World Science Fiction Convention held in his home town of Melbourne, but died before the event.