From the author of Outbreak:
He sought to create the son of his dreams-and invented a nightmare. Robin
Cook's new techno-medical thriller probes every father's greatest fear.
Drawing on a horror theme as old as Frankenstein, as fresh as tomorrow's
headlines, Mutation is a chilling cautionary tale of the perils of genetic
engineering.
When o.b.g.y.n. and biomolecular researcher Dr. Victor Frank learns of his
wife's infertility, he initiates a bold-and dangerous-experiment.
Unbeknownst to everyone, including her, Dr. Frank has adapted the methods of
animal husbandry and molecular genetics to human reproduction. Fusing his
wife's egg and his own sperm, he sets in motion the production of a superior
being, his child.
The result of this experiment, a son, VJ, is born to a surrogate mother and
legally adopted by the Franks. To their delight, their son is physically
perfect, and, by the age of three, displays the complex problem-solving
abilities- of a prodigy. Victor Frank is a happy man. He has produced a
flawless human being, and that success-plus the subsequently healthy child,
bodes for a dazzling future.
Then, without warning, VJ's intelligence level plunges to a point
appropriate to his age, but stabilizes. For the moment, Frank can breathe a
sigh of relief: Even if VJ is no longer the genius he was, at least he will
be normal.
But that relief is tragically short-lived, for all too soon VJ begins to
change again. And this time, there is no cause for comfort-only terror.
Mutation is both the spellbinding chronicle of a father pitted against his
son in mythic battle and a timely warning to us all. Here is blue-chip Robin
Cook, destined to be as controversial as it is compulsively readable.
