Touch / Claire North

Touch
by Claire North

science fiction, science thriller

copyright 2015
read in June 2015

rated 9/10: really, really good

Science fiction? Science thriller? This is another book which could be either, or both... But who cares?! It's just a very good book!

In the tradition of SF the author considers a specific ability and says, what if...? What if someone did have this ability? And builds a story round the answers.

First up... If one person has the ability -- why not others? So how do they interact? How do they interact with the rest of the world?

All the answers are built up into a story which is very, very believable. And very, very unexpected.

The hero (or heroine, mostly, I think...) has an ability which gives her effective eternal life. Great! Yet not so great... The side effects are surprising -- yet completely realistic. This book takes an interesting idea and builds it into a very good story.

And yet...

I was a bit disappointed with the ending. Okay, I accept the reasoning. It just seems a bit... Nice. Over sweet? Perhaps I was expecting something more violent?!

I was a bit disappointed by the ending. In hindsight I can accept it. But it was not at all a cop out ending... Somewhat sad, very satisfactory, and another dimension to the what if.

A really, really good book.