Book Review- Sue's Fingerprint by Andrew D Carlson

Title: Sue’s Fingerprint

 Author: Andrew D Carlson

Series:  N/A

Published:  23^rd April 2011 via Smashwords

Warnings: none

Source: Author

Summary : A gel-like substance is suddenly discovered across the country. Ted Stevens, a Director in the Department of Homeland Security, is assigned to investigate. He enlists the help of scientists at a government laboratory to analyze the ‘goo’. They discover the substance was sent to Earth and has unique properties; it can clone animals. Ted soon learns the substance can also clone humans.
Sue is the first of eleven new people cloned from the alien substance. She and the others are contained by Ted on an abandoned military base. While there, the clones receive a message. Sue decides she must deliver it, and one morning they find she’s gone.
During the recovery of Sue, Ted learns of the clones’ message and begins to understand their true intentions. He needs to know more about the clones, so he collects samples for DNA fingerprint testing. The fate of the new people will be decided by the results from Ted’s friends at the laboratory

Review: One day, a gel-ly thing is found everywhere. After observing it, they realise that it clones any living thing it comes into contact with. This includes humans. Eleven humans are made from this, along with mice and squirrels. Believe it or not, we care mainly about the “humans”.  Titular Sue is one of these, and they are all taken to a military base to live, overseen by Ted Stevens and some more staff. Then Sue realises she has a message to deliver and therefore she leaves. Ted and the others need to get her back, and also know what she wants to say. On the way, Ted realises he needs a bit more information about these things, and so tries his luck with DNA. The whole mission really depends on the test results. All these things add up to a kind of sci-fi adventurey book.

The whole going missing thing only happens about halfway through the book. That’s not to say that the first half is a waste of time reading. It was great to read. It starts with a little kid seeing a clone, and then somewhere else they find the gel, and so on. We meet the scientists ,and the human clones. We get a lot of detail of the military base. We get a  lot of detail as to their lives, and a lot more detail in general.

These people became very real. Its interesting how they had to be taught everything, such as how to make coffee and little things like that we do everyday. (well not me.  I make tea. But you get my drift). I found watching them learning cooking skills and surfing the internet very sweet, and it gave me an interesting look on how our lives work. Seeing everyday processes broken down like that actually gives a completely different perspective to life. Thanks for that, Andrew.

The characters were all well developed. All the clones were obviously very similar as they all had zero knowledge of earth before, but they all seemed too get a bit more depth to them, and individuality, such as Sue being an excellent cook, and someone else being a great coffee maker.  The normal people, aside from Ted, all seemed to merge into one. Probably because they all seemed to do the same things.

The writing was easy to get through, written in a style that flows and easy to understand what’s going on. This is an easy read for bedtimes and times when you just want to settle down with a good book.

The ending seemed a little too happy ending and neat to wield a sequel, even though I would like to see more of Sue, and how they get on in their new lives.

Overall:  Strength 5 tea to a little known book that is better than the summary(at least the summary that came on the back of my copy) lets on.

 Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |