Summery:
Adopted off the black market, Alexander Mitchell, has no idea his DNA is copyrighted and property of military weapons giant Texacom Defense. Nor that his DNA is being used to develop an army of clones. When the company discovers he was not properly disposed of 17 years ago, they send an assassin copy, BETA23, to terminate Xan and cover it up.
After he narrowly escapes BETA23’s first attempt, Xan teams up with Lacey, a genetically engineered genius he’s surprised to find common ground with— only they’re awkward together. Half of the time she stares at Xan like the science project he is and the other half…let’s just say Xan can’t keep his eyes off her lips.
When they manage to capture a company copy by luck and sheer stupidity on Xan’s part, Lacey is determined to see the good in their prisoner to the point she believes BETA23 can be persuade to give them the intelligence they need to keep the company forever off Xan’s back. Xan’s not sure if he can trust the darker version of himself, not when it means gambling with the lives of his family and the possibility of losing Lacey.
My review:
It amazing that I have to write review on 2 books at the same time that deal in the subject of genetics. This one - Copied that deal with human genetics and the other one "A cure to die for" which deal with plant genetics. Both of them also deal with heavy ethical issues. In both of them I intend to divide my review to 2 - one part which will deal with the plot and the other with some technical subjects ( I can't prevent this Biology is in my blood).For the plot of Copied - The book is a fast reading it is really enchanting and I couldn't stop reading it. The story makes you think a lot about the ethics of cloning and gratitude for individualism. It is presented in the voice of two main characters - Xan (Alexander Mitchell) and Betha - 23 . While Xan raised with a normal family Betha is a Texacomdefense's company property;Betha-23 was raised with other many clones like him from the same DNA template from one donor (this donor isn't alive anymore) in artificial womb. All the clones get the same treatment from their first day as embryo till the day they will sent so the recycling tank. As a company property they are not allowed to independent thought, they have to obey to their superior without any questions, some of them trained to be a perfect war machines, some will sent to study.Their life span program short from the beginning and to extend it they have to get a treatment of enzyme that will prevent the quick process of aging (In a way it ensure the dependency of the clones in the company, and their returned). In his training wasn't any place for emotions , farther then emotions and empathy considered as weakness. They had to analyzed, coldly, the situations and seek the most efficient benefits out of them.... This time Betha mission was to get rid from Xan. He orchestrate a very complex situation with burning of a building in this situation Xan had to die and also Miels his best friend which wasn't in the right place and the right time. To his advantage he use his face which were identical to Xan to lead the blame on Xan head (and now you already understand that Betha and Xan share the same DNA).Xan (Alexander Mitchell) - after this "accident" everybody, include Xan parents and his best friend Miles and his girlfriend Malinda were sure that Xan is guilty. Till this moment Xan didn't now about cloning and the other clones which has identical DNA to his. He also puzzled about his mysterious rescuer, who saved him from the fire. Xan was desperate and the only friend face was belong to Lacy (which considered as a genius nerd and never went around Xan's fellows). Lacy came with friend of her own - Jamal and Allen very smart and brilliant - Jamal has a very successful blog about conspiracy theories and he will be the one of these two who will help the most.Meanwhile Betha put a surveillance at Xan and Lacy's home and could follow each move of them. When he in his calculation he reached to conclusion that Lacy is a big risk factor he put a sophisticated bomb under the sink in her privet lab at home. It was a sheer luck that she found it with one of her old nanny camera's. Xan was amazed to find a similar face on the assassin. At the same time he discovered that he was adopted by his parents. He wanted to know about his real parent and after many inquiries , his father admitted that they know nothing about them.Xan sent to himself a message to meet with Betha knowing that Betha will track it. Lacy followed him and together they caught him, because alone he didn't has a chance against his trained clone. Now they both hoped to get some information.Love and relationship - Xan find himself feeling toward Lacy. His girlfriend, Malinda, didn't lose hope that they will return to each other. His relationship with his Best friend Miles reached to an end. Xan shaw to his adopted parents that he still love and care for them and vica versa. Betha surprised to find a soft emoticons toward Lacy. But Lacy don't know which she prefer more Betha or Xan. The staying so long out side the company compound cause a big change in Betha toward what it is important.I can't say more without taking the reader trill of finding thing all by himself so now I'll pass to the second part of my review.In terms of a relationship between cloning and genetic engineering, there is obvious overlap between the two fields- Specifically, in relation to human germ line genetic modification, cloning provides a powerful set of tools that, if certain technical improvements are forthcoming, could enable gene targeting [that disrupts or mutates a gene sequence]. A second breakthrough has been the ability to make artificial eggs or sperm from stem cells, either embryonic or adult stem cells that can develop into different cell types in the human body. The third breakthrough involves "designer" recombinant molecules that have the ability to break apart and reassemble DNA strands. Each technology could eventually help scientists make genetic modifications to a living organism's genome.The cloning idea - or why clone human embryos at all?
The answer is stem cells. Stem cells are primitive, unspecialized cells. Scientists classify the natural stem cells in mammals into two broad categories: adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells are found in various tissues and replenish the cells found in those specific tissues, such as skin or blood. Embryonic stem cells are from the embryonic stage of development, and can differentiate into all the varied cells found in a complex organism, from the brain down to the toes. A 5-day-old human embryo, called a blastocyst, contains an inner cell mass composed of about 12 embryonic stem cells. Doctors have hoped to use embryonic stem cells to essentially repair damaged tissue - injecting them into a spinal cord, for example, to grow new nerve cells after paralysis. This talent that could make them the stars of regenerative medicine, the goal of which is to grow fresh cells and tissues from patients suffering from various diseases. Most of the scientist will say: "We think that it is wrong to attack some innocent human lives here and now to help others down the road,"(which is one of the subjects that Copied is dealing with). Fortunately, the great advances we are seeing in the use of adult and iPS stem cells provide promising alternative ways to heal illnesses without raising people’s temptations to engage in such attacks" - Based on this I was sundries to find the idea of recycling tank at the story, knowing that there is no need to all body to replace an organ. Also on based that even attaching the person organ itself is still problematic and given to a very narrow time window .The cloning procedure works by combining a patient's body cell with an unfertilized egg cell from a donor. Since the 1950s when researchers cloned a frog, scientists have cloned dozens of animal species, including mice, cats, sheep, pigs and cows. When it published that researchers have used cloning to make human embryos for the purpose of producing stem cells may have some people wondering if it would ever be possible to clone a person. Although it would be unethical, experts say it is likely biologically possible to clone a human being. But even putting ethics aside, the sheer amount of resources needed to do it is a significant barrier. Also, in each case, researchers encountered problems that were needed to be overcome with trial and error.With mice, researchers were able to use thousands of eggs, and conduct many experiments, to work out these problems. But with primates, eggs are a very precious resource, and it is not easy to acquire them to conduct experiments. For instance, cloning an animal requires that researchers first remove the nucleus of an egg cell. When researchers do this, they also remove proteins that are essential to help cells divide. What's more, cloned animals often have different kinds of genetic abnormalities that can prevent embryo implantation in a uterus, or cause the fetus to spontaneously abort, or the animal to die shortly after birth. These abnormalities are common because cloned embryos have just one parent rather than two, which means that a molecular process known as "imprinting" (Differentiation of cells to target tissues) the does not occur properly in cloned embryos.Growing in artificial wombs - The idea of genetically modified humans living healthier lives may not appease those who fear the "Cloud Atlas" vision of mass-manufactured clone workers. Luckily for them, the science fiction idea of growing humans in artificial wombs may take far longer to realize than human genetic modification. One of the biggest challenges comes from recreating the placenta that helps transmit nutrients and oxygen from the mother to the growing human fetus.As for genetic Enhancement: In the story we meet Lacy - she is very very smart actually she is genius. Her father is rich nan who work in analyzing economic opportunities for pharmaceutical company. In the story we had been told that her cleverness is a result of "gentle intervention" in her genes. The only problem is that genius is a result of many many genes that of them contribute in its own way to this ability. I just can't see hoe it was a "gentle intervention". The other problem is how to direct the intervention to the right places. If her indeed came from her parents it was enough that she inherit her cleverness from at list one parent.Lacy's mother has a sever Muscular dystrophy . Muscular dystrophy - characterized by progressive skeletal muscle weakness, defects in muscle proteins, and the death of muscle cells and tissue. There are more than 30 types of MD. Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies, being caused by a mutation of a gene located on the X chromosome, predominantly affect males, although females can sometimes have severe symptoms as well. Most types of MD are multi-system disorders with manifestations in body systems including the heart, gastrointestinal system, nervous system, endocrine glands, eyes and brain. Antisense therapy is a form of treatment for genetic disorders or infections. When the genetic sequence of a particular gene is known to be causative of a particular disease, it is possible to synthesize a strand of nucleic acid (DNA, RNA or a chemical analogue) that will bind to the messenger RNA (mRNA) produced by that gene and inactivate it, effectively turning that gene "off". Alternatively, the strand might be targeted to bind a splicing site on pre-mRNA and modify the exon content of an mRNA.According the story Lacy don't have the disease and don't even carry it. also according to the story her father is a carrier. So how come? One possibility is that she is not her parents daughter at list not her mother which carry two defected genes. But if her father is a carrier she had at list to carry his mutation on her chromosome X. There is other possibility is that somehow somebody fixed the mutation in the her embryo cells. To this day it is very hard to direct the right "fixing" to it's place on the DNA strand.
OK enough with technical things - the bottom line is that the story stand for itself it very fast going and very interesting and I recommend it with all my heart !!!
S. M. Anderson (Sarah Anderson) was born in Lima, Peru. She has lived in seven different countries, on five continents, and speaks a smattering of languages. As a child and even young adult, writing and reading were difficult for her, so difficult that she received extra help outside the classroom and was diagnosed with a learning disability. However, she always loved stories, especially ethnic folktales from the countries she lived in. It was the desire to create stories of her own that fueled her determination to overcome the challenges that came with writing. She has a BA in Art Education from BYU, with a minor in Russian, and a love of power tools. She has a growing family of three kids and currently lives in Springville, Utah.
Interview:
What inspired Copied?
I had sort of a Doc. Brown flux-capacitor moment. I was sitting in the passenger seat of my car on that open stretch of highway between Las Vegas and LA, when I had this scene play out in my mind of a scientist saying his last farewells to his cloned son, before representatives from a company arrived to exploit the scientist’s creation.
This scene was the premise behind Copied and at one point was part of a prologue. The prologue was eventually axed, but I hope reconstruct it as a novella length prequel sometime in the future.
What was your favorite scene to write?
The awkward kissing scene. This is a little embarrassing to admit, but some of it was based off of personal experience. I also enjoyed the final fight scene after I took the time to act it out. Before then it was just a headache.
If you could have lunch with any author or character, who would it be and where would you go?
Hmm this is a rather difficult one. I think I would prefer a character over an author, just because I’d be afraid of falling into total fan mode, my normal self is awkward enough. I’d probably want to meet Harimad sol from the Blue Sword, eat traditional Damarian food at the palace, and go for a ride on a bridle-less horse. And for course since this is fantasy, I’d be awesome at it.
What book most influenced your life?
My intention is not to go into religion here, but the book that has most influenced my life is the Book of Mormon. I struggle with dyslexia and when I was in elementary school reading was very difficult for me—almost physically painful. Now I want to pause and thank all my elementary teachers who took the time to read to me. I was so starved for stories that I savored every minute they read out loud. I would even borrow my mom’s audio books and listen to them alone in my room just to satisfy my need for stories.
In Junior high I decided to read the Book of Mormon, a severe undertaking for a kid who had never finished a book (aside from the picture ones) on her own. I was probably at a 3rd grade reading level when I started, maybe a 4th. I was that kid who would refuse to read aloud because if I did the other kids would make fun of me as I stumbled over every other word.
Anyway, it took two years and when I was finished I could read anything. Even adult books. I was like a person who hikes a hill after climbing a mountain. The first book I read after that was the Blue Sword. I went on to read books by; Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey, Louis L’amour, and many more.
Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Ha, no way. In college I actually avoided English like it was the plague and if I found out that professor tested via essays and another via multiple choice, I would drop the first class and switch to the second.
Plus, my first draft of Copied looks like it was written by an eighth grader and that’s being generous.
How long did it take to write Copied?
Four years to contract.
What does it take to become an author?
Work.
Excerpt:Beta opened his swollen eyes. Craning his neck sideways, he took a good look at his surroundings. Pain throbbed through his skull and down his spine. Everything blurred, but the outline of the shelves confirmed he was still in the storeroom. His mouth omitted a soft groan. The screech of a heavy wooden chair sliding across the tile floor resonated in his ears, and Beta winced. The slight flex of his facial muscles shot needles of pain through the bruises on his face.A blurry figure appeared above him. “How are you feeling?”He waited a moment for his vision to clear and ignored the burning itch of his skin as his cells started the process of regeneration.Lacey hovered over him, brow furrowed and lips pursed as she examined him. When he didn’t respond, she rested a hand on his shoulder and gave it a little shake.“Beta?”The light touch of her palm sent a wave of energy through him. He jolted upright. “Ouch!”Pain so severe that he felt like the walls of his head would collapse in on themselves riveted through his body.She winced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. Please don’t move if it hurts.”Beta scooted to the top of the bed and leaned his back against the brass headboard.“You didn’t startle me. I just…” His voice trailed off. He couldn’t think of a way of saying what he meant without sounding weak.“Never mind.” She gingerly touched the edge of his swollen eye with the tips of her fingers. “Are you in pain?”He stiffened like the reflex of a beaten animal the first time it knows the touch of a gentle hand. Why should she care? “It’s fine. We heal quickly.”Her gaze slid across his face. She probed every bruised nook and cranny. There was a hunger in her eyes as if she was the question and he the answer. He felt something else too; an emotion or feeling that he couldn’t put a name to. Something he'd never, in his short life, experienced. Beta stared past her, his eyes focused on the faint brush strokes of the wall’s dried white paint. If he could just ignore the strange new animal that had awakened inside him, he’d rally again and escape.He cleared his throat.“Sorry.” Lacey pulled back. “You must be hungry.”She disappeared from the room and returned with a tray of food in her hands. Then she unfolded two short legs from the bottom of the tray and laid it across his lap. A loose strand of her ebony hair brushed against his cheek. Beta’s fingers twitched, knocking his wrists against the handcuffs. He wanted to tangle his hands in that silky-looking hair, just to know what it felt like.She dipped a spoon into a bowl full of watery soup and pressed a mouthful to his lips. Beta slurped down soft noodles with bits of chicken. Warmth spread from his belly to the rest of his body. He glanced up at Lacey’s face, inches away from his. Large red marks ran along the side of her jaw and neck. His throat tightened, remembering he had been responsible for those bruises. The little air he could suck in with bruised ribs tasted stale and stagnant. Another new sensation breached the impenetrable hold of his heart, this one unbearable. Beta swallowed hard. He had never regretted hurting someone before.
Praised for Copied:
“A chilling tale of nature vs. nurture, the power of trusting, and the belief in the transformative power of kindness to change who we are. The underlying theme that we can choose to be whoever we want to be, despite what we’ve been taught, screams from the pages of Copied.” -Cindy M. Hogan, author of the Watched trilogy.
Copied by S. M. Anderson was a fresh, exciting novel that seamlessly wove together elements of science fiction with our everyday world. Not only was it a great read, but it got me thinking–what makes a person truly unique, and what would happen if that uniqueness was challenged? I definitely recommend it.” - Tristi Pinkston, freelance editor and author
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