Bookreporter.com - FRAGMENT by Warren Fahy

FRAGMENT
Warren Fahy
Dell
Thriller
Hardcover: 9780553807530
Paperback: 9780553592450

Evolutionary science, spine-tingling horror and reality television collide in Warren Fahy’s FRAGMENT, a terrific debut novel that illustrates how scientists’ dream discovery quickly devolves into their worst nightmare on the world’s most secluded island.

FRAGMENT opens in 1791, as a ship on the trail of mutineers from the HMS Bounty happens upon a forbidding walled island in the most isolated region of the vast South Pacific Ocean. What starts as a voyage of discovery on the island (which soon becomes named for the ship’s captain, Ambrose Henders) turns into a disaster, causing the sailors to beat a hasty retreat, minus one of their own, who, as one of his shipmates reports, has been “et by monsters.”

More than 200 years later, another ship, the Trident, approaches Henders Island. This time, though, the craft is manned not only by a ship’s crew and a scientific team, but also by a television crew assigned to film the scientists during their voyages to remote islands as part of a reality TV show, “Sealife.” The ship is responding to a mysterious distress call sent out by a long-abandoned sailboat. For botanist Nell Duckworth, Henders Island represents the opportunity of a lifetime, the potential chance to study botanical specimens that have evolved isolated from all other forms of life on earth, perhaps even the chance to discover and name a new species.

Show producer Cynthea Leeds is excited about Henders Island for her own reason. This might be the perfect opportunity to introduce the kind of drama --- Interpersonal conflicts! Sex! Romance! --- that she needs to boost the program’s rating. When a small party of scientists and cameramen go ashore and try to make their way into the island’s interior, however, it soon becomes apparent that Henders Island and its previously unseen inhabitants will create more than enough drama.

The creatures on Henders Island, both animals and “plants,” are entirely alien to any species previously seen on earth. They are, without exception, brutally predatory and perfectly adapted to their ultra-competitive, ultra-violent environment. It soon becomes clear, after a series of planned experiments and horrific accidents, that any one of the species on Henders would soon wipe out life on earth if they were ever removed from the controlled, isolated Henders Island.

Soon the original inhabitants of the Trident are locked in a battle of wills with politicians, producers and other scientists about the future of Henders Island. Is it a vital scientific laboratory? A cautionary tale? A source of bioweapons? A threat to human life on earth? As crises mount, various scientific theories play out and proponents of those theories have their chance to stake their claim, make their case, and see how abstract theories play out in “real life” scenarios.

Michael Crichton, author most famously of JURASSIC PARK and other scientifically-based thrillers, perfected the combination of sound scientific subject matter and compelling plotlines. First-time novelist Warren Fahy seems poised to fill Crichton’s shoes with a novel that keeps readers on the edge of their seats even as it explains provocative theories about such topics as the evolutionary role of natural lifespans and the surprising relationship between sexual reproduction and evolution. At times, some of the scientist characters seem to serve as little more than stand-ins for their preferred theoretical positions, but overall Fahy does an admirable job of integrating fact and fiction in a way that will appeal to thriller fans and amateur scientists alike. Detailed scientific drawings of the Henders Island creatures help add to the air of authenticity and further enhances the narrative.

FRAGMENT’s story seems well-positioned for a sequel. Here’s hoping that Fahy’s debut heralds the beginning of a career as long, accomplished and thrilling as Crichton’s own.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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