I don't often read Sci-Fi, but 5 Clones is a fantastic read even if that isn't your genre! The story is well-crafted with almost a mystery feel to it at times, the characters are intriguing and will leave you eager to see what happens next.
The setting is what was once the United States that has turned authoritarian, cracking down on "illegal immigrants" (read people of color) under the dictatorship of a rogue president and his "red hat" supporters (guess who). In response California has seceded and established itself as an independent nation. Prior to this, the story's protagonist, Dan, has seemingly escaped a troubled past when his idyllic world is shattered by tragedy. Left with nothing save his five clones, dumbed-down copies of himself created solely to perform menial labor, and little sense of purpose, Dan sets out to return to his hometown of Stockton, California when a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger ensnares him in a mission whose outcome holds the fate of California and possibly the world in the balance. Meanwhile, Dan's clones begin to exhibit signs of sentience--something supposed to be impossible--leaving Dan (and the reader) to grapple with that most fundamental of questions: where does humanity begin?
Bravo Ed! Can't wait for the sequel!
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5 Clones: 100 Reviews: 8 Billion Possible Futures
The oldest prophecy in English-language science fiction is the manufacture of life, dating back to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” in 1818. Shelley, heavily influenced by socialist thinking, undoubtedly understood the connection between her nightmarish vision and the industrialized capitalist society into which she had been born. Cloning is the ultimate progression in our industrialization. The first clones were printed books spreading ideas in a uniform manner. Prior, individually hand-copied books had value added by scribes who annotated and artists who embellished upon the text. After, the value came from the fact that each book was identical in every way. The printing press was the first machine capable of mass production. It would take over a hundred years for the idea to sink in, until the creation of the spinning jenny, the water wheel, the steam engine, and electric motors. In “Modern Times”, Charlie Chaplin depicted us inside of the machines. With cloning, birth is machinated, as we humans become another product to be assembled. But what if the manufactured people start to have ideas of their own? In 5 Clones, in an America split apart by civil war, Edward Bonilla explores these very possibilities. These 5 clones, along with their human matrix, Dan, find adventure along the highway as they encounter a woman named Mary. Using experimental forms—changes in font style and text size, snippets of diaries, transcripts of electronic exchanges—Bonilla kicks at the boundaries of his novel’s pages. Chapters are accompanied by a playlist to move the reader farther from a standard experience. The book itself fights to be unique in a world that values conformity. In Bonilla’s writing we find one answer to what it means to be human: we are created by the stories we tell. I am my story and you are yours. Through our individualized narration we stave off submission to a system that sees us all as a mass of products to be bought and sold. Is life a commodity? Are we more than digits in a database, bits to be bundled and shipped off to the highest bidder? Are we doomed as an age to give birth to the kinds of monstrosities that Mary Shelley envisioned? 5 Clones reminds us that the fate of our planet can play out about 8 billion possible ways.
Top reviews from other countries
Pete Peru
A futuristic angle on an age-old question
Reviewed in Spain on March 15, 2021