“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”
–William Shakespeare
Every so often my writing life collides with my day job in happy ways. The opportunity to read and recommend The Midnight Project, the debut novel by Canadian diplomat, PAFSO member, personal friend and fellow news-junkie Christy Climenhage was one of those times. Reading a novel by someone you know can be a nerve-racking experience, and I’m happy to report that this engaging near-future story manages to be both speculative and plausible (without requiring you to keep track of a gazillion different types of aliens or pretend to understand particle physics). It’s the characters and their relationships that will keep you reading.
Raina and Cedric are two down-on-their-luck genetic engineers running a boutique reproduction assistance clinic when billionaire Burton Sykes asks them to genetically engineer a way for humanity to survive the impending ecological collapse. Pollinators are dying, agriculture is falling apart, and they know their earlier research was partly responsible. Although they worry about how their work will be used, they take the job.
The scientists’ world parallels ours in unnerving ways: extreme weather, major shortages of goods, and a crisis in biodiversity. Entire species are going extinct on a regular basis, tracked in the “holo-headlines” as breaking news. The pace of scientific change has accelerated to the point that Sykes muses that “we have accelerated our learning and our technology to a point where we are creating new conditions for our own downfall.”
In this well-written and propulsive novel, Christy has captured both the thrill of scientific research and discovery and the danger of obsession and unethical behaviour. Ultimately, Raina and Cedric need to decide if they are going to hold on to their old ways, including their petty resentments and dissatisfaction with corporate politics,or embrace an alternative path that could redefine humanity itself.
If you would like to learn more about this author, her publishing journey, and the ways her writing and diplomatic career intersect (or don’t), you can watch my breakfast chat with Christy on PAFSO’s YouTube channel.