Transhuman
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Six-time Hugo Award-winner Ben Bova presents Transhuman.
"Plausible twenty-first-century medical research, the bond between a grandfather and his granddaughter, and political power all serve to make this book a must-read for those who enjoyed The Fugitive. A combination of thriller, adventure, and drama will enthrall."—Booklist, starred review
Luke Abramson, a brilliant cellular biologist has one joy in life: his ten-year-old granddaughter, Angela. When he learns that Angela has an inoperable brain tumor and is given less than six months to live, Abramson wants to try an experimental new therapy that he believes will kill Angela's tumor.
Her parents object and the hospital bureaucracy blocks the experimental procedure because it has not been approved by the FDA. Knowing that Angela will die before he can get approval, Abramson abducts Angela from the hospital. He plans to take her to a private research laboratory in Oregon.
Luke has turned his old SUV into a makeshift medical facility, treating Angela as best he can while they are on the road, desperately trying to keep his granddaughter alive long enough to give her the treatment he believes will save her life.
Abramson realizes that he's too old and decrepit to flee across the country with his sick granddaughter, so he injects himself with a genetic factor that has successfully reversed aging in animal tests.
As the chase weaves across the country from one research facility to another, Luke begins to grow physically younger, stronger. He looks and feels the way he did thirty or forty years ago.
But will he be able to save Angela?
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Iconoclastic cellular biologist Luke Abramson is determined to save his dying eight-year-old granddaughter, Angela, with his cutting-edge treatment for cancer. Inconveniently, his process is not yet approved for use on humans, and he's stymied by the objections of Angela's parents. When Luke and Angela vanish, FBI special agent Jerry Hightower is assigned to recover them. While Luke's allies are manipulating him to gain control of his revolutionary treatments and the profit they promise, his enemies will go to great lengths to keep the life-extension genie in its bottle. Luke has more immediate concerns: the side effects of the treatments that he has inflicted on himself and his helpless granddaughter are progressive and potentially lethal. Characters struggle to escape clich (Angela's mother "screeched" and "bleated" upon discovering the kidnapping, and Native American Hightower is "unsmiling" and taciturn), and the Fugitive-style plot is all too familiar. This oddly archaic novel never manages to engage.
Customer Reviews
Transhuman
Ben Bova does it again. A story that keeps the pages turning. The personal part is that I'm 75 and I have prostate cancer. Now the hard part, which Ben Bova book do I select for my iPad.