The Experiment- Cristian A. Solari

This is wonderfully inventive speculative fiction. Philosophical 'science' shines through from page one to the last word. Solari's first book certainly isn't one of the all too predictable adrenal hormone blasts that so many readers are addicted to. Rather, tension builds through the intelligence of the plot. There is plenty of excitement for those prepared to get involved in the story, in the well constructed characters, in the concept of looking at humanity from outside of the box. And yes, there are climatic moments to raise one's blood pressure, just not enough to maintain the constant interest of a gastropod.
There are sentence constructions that will unsettle pedantic grammarians, though I don't think many of those reading for pleasure will be the least bit troubled. Anyway, much of the language is emanating from the minds of beings more advanced than mere 'preintelloids'. Solari uses some really gorgeous invented words. This is, after all, speculative writing. I enjoyed reading so much that I happily danced through the pages unaware of any linguistic tortures. I had to reread sections before I could see that the language criticisms of some reviewers were actually quite valid.
I loved this book. So what can I find to really criticise. Um- well, the cover is a bit 1950s, B movie-ish. Um- no actually that's just perfect. We have to see that we really are an advancing species, an experiment in the making.

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