Mindscan

by Robert J. Sawyer

Reviewed by Coral

Jake Sullivan has a rare genetic condition that will most likely kill him before he’s forty. Being the heir to a small fortune, Jake uses his money to undergo the new mindscan procedure, where a copy of his consciousness is copied into an artificial body that will live forever.

Now there are two versions of Jake: the biological one who confined to a retirement community on the moon and the artificial Jake who finds that the people in his life have trouble accepting his new body. He befriends Karen, an older woman who has also undergone the procedure and whose life is reinvigorated by a younger, stronger body.

When Karen’s son sues her, claiming that this artificial construct is not his mother, Jake and Karen find themselves in the middle of a legal battle defining personhood. Worse, the biological Jake is demanding to reclaim his place on Earth.

This book had some interesting concepts, but I didn’t completely love how it ended.

I was happy that we followed both instances of Jake throughout the story. For the biological Jake, I thought there were two likely ways the story would go and it did go one of the directions I predicted. This story ended in a way I wouldn’t have expected at all and I am still not sure if I am more disappointed or confused about why it ended how it did.

The artificial Jake story line was a little weird. He was a backseat to most of the legal drama, seeing as it was Karen being sued and not him. Another story line seemed to come out of nowhere to counter this, one which I found a little disturbing – although I think that’s what we were supposed to think.

The end of the book was a little bit of a letdown, in my opinion.

Grade: C