GermLine download epub

GERMLINE by Dr. Nelson Erlick is a provocative medical thriller that examines the plausible future of gene therapy and genetic engineering. Briefly summarized, the "Collaborate" is a global consortium of financial and scientific corporations backing a plan for advanced gene therapy based on a technology that can introduce whole chromosomes into the developing human fetus in order to correct genetic abnormalities. The chief protagonist of the story, Dr. Kevin Kincaid, is the brilliant physician-researcher employed by a Collaborate health care and research entity, the Benjamin Franklin Healthcare Network (BFHN), to create and perfect the protein vector, HACV.V7 that inserts the new genetic material into the targeted germ cells. Fearing monopolistic abuse of the technology, two organizations oppose Collaborate and seek to acquire V7's design: the Defense Advanced Research Progects Agency (DARPA - a very real government body) and the Anti-Genetic Action Committee (AntiGen).
GERMLINE's premise is intriguing, the action is occasionally exciting, and the dialog is well done for a "debut novel". However, the book has several rough edges that allow me to award only 3 stars.
There's an excess of characters that significantly impact the storyline: Kincaid, Frederick Grayson (the head of BFHN), Eric Bertram (Chairman of Collaborate), Dixon Loring (Bertram's megalomaniacal deputy), Trent McGovern (head of AntiGen), Kristin Brocks (DARPA's security chief), Helen/Tracy Bergmann (of AntiGen), Dr. Roderick Stevenson (Chief Pathologist at the Collaborate's isolated research complex, Delphi), Marguerite Moraes (at Delphi), and Blount (a Collaborate thug). By my count, four or five of these players could have been left on the cutting room floor, thus streamlining an already complex plot.
Background information provides depth and realism to fiction. As an award-winning researcher and ex-surgeon, Dr. Erlick is well positioned to provide such. However, perhaps he went over the top. For example, when referring to the neurotransmitter glutamate, a character mentions APMA-kinate receptors, voltage-independent synaptic responses, voltage-dependent NMDA-receptors, and metabotropic-subtype receptors. Or, regarding certain custom-created genes:
"We back-coded for the genes ... (placing) them with gene regulators on the q arm of our designer chromosome, position 23q11 through 23q14 ..."
Such esoterica could be understood, I'm sure, by workers in the field. But I gather that Erlick desires a wider readership; your average reader's eyes may glaze over.
I personally was totally unsympathetic towards the "hero" of the story, Kincaid. Sure, at the very beginning his wife and two children are murdered. However, the author never established for the reader a close relationship between the four, so it was hard to care. Kevin was simply the brilliant physician robot wound up and sent on his way to engage the Bad Guys. And Kevin's relationship with Helen/Tracy was forced all the way to the end.
Lastly, I suspect that GERMLINE's specter of gene therapy going awry is the author's personal apprehension. Unfortunately, sinister global conspiracies in fiction are tricky constructs. They're only sinister if the general consensus holds them to be so, like the nuclear Armageddon brought on by KGB plotters so popular in Cold War potboilers. In GERMLINE's case, the maleficence of the conspiracy is perhaps subjective and not to be shared by all.
I think additional editing could lift this thriller to the 4-star level, and I believe Erlick has a viable career as a fiction writer ahead of him if he elects to pursue it.
(Note: This review is of an advance uncorrected proof in the publisher's binding sent to me by the author, who has since informed me that the book has undergone some editing.)

I was offered the opportunity to read a galley of this book before it went into print, and I can say without reservation that I was not disappointed. There are several concurrent plots (pun intended), and the third-person narration shifts from one to the next very smoothly. There's an Andromeda Strain quality of inexorability and gathering velocity as more pieces of the puzzle fall into place for the reader, leading to a not entirely predictable climax. As with so many things, there is no one clear solution to the moral and ethical questions posed by the book, and the ending leaves some tempting teasers lying about for the reader to sieze and worry at if so inclined. It is clearly a story of how one set of (fictional) people reacted to the dilemmas, and I found it difficult not to keep asking myself, 'How would I have reacted?' The necessary explanations of the highly-technical processes and jargon peculiar to genetic research were on the whole handled very well; there was no sense of being 'talked down to' although I think some of the explanations could have been a bit clearer than they were. On the whole, I found the topic intriguing, the treatment thought-provoking, and the style and presentation very good. I give GermLine four stars out of five, and a rating of PG due to some of the fairly graphic descriptions.

In California, Dr. Kevin Kincaid accompanied by his wife Helen and their twin children visit his Uncle Dermot, an eccentric scientist. Dermot asks Kevin to work with him on a special DNA project. Before the nephew can understand what is being offered, he receives an emergency call from the San Francisco hospital he practices medicine in. When he returns to his uncle's estate, he sees fire trucks and other emergency vehicles. Worse he sees two children baby bags as his twins and his uncle died in a fire and though her body was not found so had his spouse.
A decade later, Kevin is the leading researcher into "GermLine" gene therapy and he is close to a major breakthrough after years of experiments and failure. He believes he now has the needed vector to enable the introduction of new genes into the germ cells of an unborn fetus that will eliminate genetic disease. However, different groups compete to control who benefits from Kincaid's findings or want the research ended. All the rivals are ruthless and willing to kill to achieve their objective.
This cerebral medical thriller is so cutting edge, the story line reads more like a complex intellectual science fiction. The plot requires deep concentration to understand the nuances of germline DNA research, but author Dr. Nelson Erlick cleverly interweaves explanations inside the plot, i.e., news conference. Though the latter half of the novel turns into more of an action conspiracy thriller as competitors skirmish over control, fans of a sharp future state of the art tale will want to peruse this keen novel.
Harriet Klausner

2.5 stars-In other words a very average read. The plotline was interesting with the possibilities of genetic engineering falling into the wrong hands. The sinister corporations were a little bit unbelievable but the way they manipulated the protagonist Dr. Kincaid added a touch of plausability to the novel. If Nelson Erlick can work on his plotting (have his bad guys act a litle more human to increase conflict) and his character development a little more he does show promise as a writer. His explanations of the science involved are done well and he communicates his passion for this subject in his descriptions.The overall lack of realism of his characers actions however pull this novel down to a mediocre level -and I think he can do much better than this.