False Hearts

LoveReading Says

This is an intensely personal and affecting SF novel. Set in San Francisco in the near future there is much to recognise here and little in the way of outlandish science to alienate the reader. But at its core is a relationship that will initially feel very alien to most readers, yet Lam deals with it with such honesty and sensitivity that we are soon drawn in.

Taema and Tila were born as conjoined twins. Bought up in reclusive a Californian cult that eschewed modern medicine and all technology it is not until they leave at sixteen that they are able to be surgically separated. It is an operation that give them renewed freedom but ten years later they are still, in some ways, and despite an intimate knowledge of each other, coming to terms with independence and separation. Their lives have gone different ways but there is still a bond.

When Tila is accused of murder (this in a society where surveillance and brain implants have all but banished crime) her sister Taema can barely believe it but when the authorities ask her to impersonate her twin in order to investigate a crime syndicate she seemed to have been involved in she soon learns much about her sister and herself.

Taema and Tila are amazingly vivid characters and their unique relationship is explored with great grace. Lam explores their bond and the ramifications of scientific developments that are already breaking down boundaries of identity to make a gripping and caring SF thriller.

Simon Spanton

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