Scales by Christopher Hinz
Dino-humans with a side of cannibalism, electrotherapy and military-corporate incompetence
I am thankful to Angry Robot and NetGalley for my review copy of Scales. Below are my honest thoughts on the same
Colin Trevorrow’s proposed follow-up to the Jurassic World movie explored ideas of human hybrid dinosaurs that could be weaponised and trained for military applications. While the franchise chose to go into the Fallen Kingdom route, Christopher Hinz’s conception of militarily engineered Dino-humans is a thrilling, exciting, action-packed novel that could have moved the Jurassic Park franchise in a completely new direction. It presents possibilities and is packed to the brim with some big ideas and isn’t afraid to take some big swings, making this the perfect airport novel
“Genius and Bizarre ideation often go hand in hand”
Eddie Boka’s first mission as a Dino-human results in success but also has unexpected side effects when Eddie chomps off an enemy combatant. With the official launch of the secret project just a few weeks away, the corporation behind Eddie and 3 other similar reptilian DNA-infused prospects decides to bring in an unorthodox therapist, Addi LaTour, to treat this cannibalism. This decision is rubber-stamped by the corporation’s military partners as well. Addi LaTour is controversial for her reliance on electrotherapy to condition behaviour, and this naturally upsets the scientists and therapists associated with the project. With the therapist on board and launch plans set in motion, complications arise as Eddie and Addi start developing feelings towards each other. The exposure of the base’s other forbidden experiments is the inciting element for non-stop mayhem with the usual hidden biases, secrets, and military and corporations’ incompetence coming into play
“Nothing is more detrimental to the cohesion of the social fabric than a human ego run amok”
Scales takes the Jurassic Park concept of the Dino DNA further into humans, and the opening of the book sets the tone for what follows. The book just plows through the plot while adding a lot of very interesting elements and big ideas. There is an AI (that is almost close to an AGI) that monitors the facility. There are hidden experiments that Eddie and the other don’t know that are also happening. Addi’s presence introduces elements of competition and jealousy among the other psychotherapists on the base. Eddie’s companions have secrets of their own, and he shares a particularly antagonistic relationship with one of the other Dino-humans. There is also a mysterious entity that seems to supply information to Eddie about happenings that the powers that be try to hide. This is a book that doesn’t have a dull moment through its run time
“Addi had imagined a host of psychological ailments she’d been recruited to treat. Cannibalism had not made the list.”
Addi, the electro-therapist is the catalyst even as Eddie gets increasingly attached to her. While relationships with Dino-humans are forbidden and have challenges, this new relationship development brings in significant challenges of its own. Even as Addi’s experiments show signs of success and Eddie prepares for a life assimilated with the society, the other experiments on the base go rogue, leading to several escalations across. At this point, the author makes an interesting choice - he chooses to go small and intimate here instead of going for a splash. This allows for the focus to lie on the lead characters and has a couple of claustrophobic action moments and choices - and it makes for an interesting read.
“They could not risk the dino-humans developing active libidos”
That said, given everything that the author had thrown in and introduced in terms of ideas, the choice to go small and limit the scope wasn’t a decision I agree with. This is a book that needed to go big and go hard. I felt there was just so much that the author could have done, but by limiting the scope, he narrows down the possibilities of some of the big ideas in the book. Some of these ideas die a rather premature death, while others are not given the impact that they possibly deserved. I found that rather frustrating - given that there was so much untapped potential. A cool idea only goes that far, but the author had built up the cool idea into several exciting possibilities only to choose a relatively safer one. For a book that swings hard almost till the mid-point of the book, it needed to swing even harder - ultimately, the absurdness dialled up further was just what this book needed and deserved
“Throughout history, those achieving the greatest financial success tend to be the most ethically and morally challenged.”
Again, I don’t want my expectations to play down what this book is - it is a fun, exciting, thrilling read that doesn’t have pages to waste nor breath to spare. It goes for the jugular directly and is pretty damn entertaining all the way. It could have been even better, even more blockbustery, if it had continued to go for swing for the fences rather than dialing down
Rating - 3.5 enhanced hybrids on 5