Compelling but strange

Compelling but very odd - and didn’t see THAT coming…! Not my favourite Faulks novel (and I’m usually a big fan)

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Superb

Beautifully written and read and compelling. Within a very short while you are completely overtaken by the narrative. Extraordinarily good.

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What Ken did

Beautifully written and read. As my grandmother once said ‘there’s nothing as queer as folk’ and she appears to be correct. I would be very grateful if Seb would continue writing because he makes enjoyable reading.

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Clever idea but I did not love it

The Seventh Son is a clever concept. A departure from any other books I’ve read by the author. It is beautifully narrated. Without giving too much away, my issue with the story was that I found Talissa Adam difficult to relate to. I wished the story had been from Seth’s point of view, not Talissa’s. The ending was problematic and disappointing.

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Unusual compelling story

I liked the narrator’s voice which was emotional without sentimentality. Faulks remains one of my favourite modern authors: truly contemporary but unpretentious in his style. There is always a great sense of research into authenticity as well as a love for the past, present and future. Seth is another of his great tragic heroes. Will read again.

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I loved it!

I’ve never read one of his books before but I am now a fan. I was hooked from start to finish. A really interesting and thought provoking topic. Thoroughly recommend.

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Interesting subject and well narrated

An interesting and completely possible story line, with a fairly predictable ending. I found the scientific stuff interestung. Thought provoking. The theme reminded me of Brave New World.

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Gripping and moving

Fabulous. Beautifully written as you’d expect from this author and a gripping read about a profound subject.

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I was hooked!

The narrator is excellent and brings a great story to life: the tone of the reading is perfect and the two main characters, Talissa and Seth, are excellently portrayed and given a life with voices and accents (respectively NY and middle class English) of their own. Other characters are equally well performed from the female football player to the villain of the piece, Lukas Parn. There was a minor blip with an auto generated voice but it didn't spoil the great telling of the tale.

The novel is good scientific fiction projecting itself into 2030 and beyond to tell the tale of Talissa, an intelligent and impulsive young woman determined to follow a career in anthropology and Seth, the surrogate child she gives birth to. The world they inhabit is a twisted evolution of ours where the small changes of today have evolved into a shocking future, similar but worse: fantastically wealthy corporations are run by self-serving magnates twisting events to suit their own ends; truth is long dead and fake news rules alongside the descendents of the conspiracy theorists of our time; Brexit has failed and England is a mess. The climate has warmed and even Scotland is hotter than it used to be. its a fascinating world in which to review the unethical consequences of a corporation swapping neanderthal dna into the sperm that fertilises the egg that Talissa carries to term, giving birth to Seth.

The science is clearly explained and well written into the novel: expressed through conversation and explained in layman's terms the science is comprehensively and simply explained and becomes a theme in its own right that runs throughout the book. Why is there only one species of human? What happened to Neanderthals? How does genetics work? Intriguingly, are there different types of consciousness and do they work like operating systems in our brains? is the consequence of the brilliance of homo sapiens the delicate nature of mental health and dementia? I enjoyed the exploration of these questions.

But it works so well because the characters are so well portrayed and realistic and you find yourself caring for the central pair and the characters around them. Talissa and Seth are such clearly portrayed and seemingly realistic characters that you care about what happens to them.

I was hooked on this audiobook and its excellent telling of an enthralling story with enjoyable characters and clever telling of science.

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