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Post by Robert CarnegiePost by D B DavisPost by Steve DoddsPost by Lynn McGuire"19 Best Genetic Engineering Science Fiction Books" by Dan Livingston
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/19-best-genetic-engineering-science-fiction-books/
I have read five of the nineteen.? The Kress, Crichton, Bujold, Morgan,
and the Huxley.
That's a pretty good list, I have read most of them. But there is one
book that belongs at the top of the list, The changeling plague by Syne
Mitchell.
The Huxley is the only story on that list read by me. _Hellstrom's Hive_
(Herbert) is an apropos story not on the list that was read by me. If
clones count, _Cloud Atlas_ (Mitchell), _The World of Null-A_
(van Vogt), and _Coma_ (Cook), were also read by me. There's probably
other stories that will be remembered after someone else mentions them.
I've read _Brave New World_ and _Accelerando_.
I haven't read _Never Let Me Go_ but I think it
uses vanilla clones, twin sibling duplicates of
the original people. In the circumstances, the
clones would reasonably have genetic diseases
edited away if that's possible.
_Brave New World_ has embryos split multiply -
I think the number is 30 or 50 - as how this
culture makes new citizens. They are tested and
then treated during artificial gestation to
alter their characteristics; their DNA isn't
changed but they come out adapted e.g. for
hot or for cold climate. And neither dumber
nor smarter than required. This is biological
"engineering", but is it "genetic engineering"?
Real "cloning" up to now, as I understand it -
for mammals anyway - involves taking all the
chromosomes from an ordinary cell and inserting
them in an egg cell, which then grows as a clone
of the chromosome donor - except for mitochondrial
DNA. So that is "genetic wrangling", at least.
In retrospect, it was a mistake for me to include the Cook because it's
just an "organ wrangler" story. _Mindbend_ (Cook) is a "fetal wrangler"
story.
How to atone for my _Coma_ error? ... Hmmm ... What's this? ...
Score! _The Eyes of Heisenberg_ (Herbert).
Addendum:
_Mortal Fear_ (Cook) was recently read by me. Whereas _Eyes_ pertains to
morula genetic modification that takes place during embryogenesis,
_Fear_ focuses on recombinant plasmidal engineering in adults. This
paper introduces the idea:
TRANSFORMATION OF E. coli WITH PLASMID DNA
http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~jhendrix/bio3300/transformationlab.pdf
God willing, a review of the Cook will be published on my website in the
near future.
☮
Thank you,
--
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