The Yamanaka Factors
Adult; Mystery/Thriller; (Market)
Fall 2028. Mickey Cooper, an elderly homeless man, receives an incredible proposition from a rogue pharmaceutical company: “Be our secret guinea pig for our new drug and we’ll pay you life-changing money, which you’ll be able to enjoy because if (cough) when the treatment works, two months from now your body will be youthened to twenty-three years old.”
When his treatment proves more difficult than expected and corporate espionage turns deadly, Mickey finds himself flanked by internal corruption and powerful external enemies, including Chinese operatives desperate to reverse their country’s aging demographics and amoral U.S. government officials who fear the new technology will upend civilization.
A nihilist at heart with a dwindling number of friends, Mickey yearns to fade into the woodwork to live in peace, struggling to remember what matters in life. An analog old-timer has no chance to win in the digital age anyway, right?
Plot/Idea: 9 out of 10
Originality: 10 out of 10
Prose: 8 out of 10
Character/Execution: 8 out of 10
Overall: 8.75 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: In this alluring speculative thriller, Septuagenarian Mickey Cooper let life get away from him, but he’s offered a second chance when an eager pharmaceutical company offers to test its new drug on him—illicitly—promising to make him 23 years old again. But the fountain of youth comes at a price that could be too high to pay.
Prose: Henson has a gripping, straightforward prose style that touches on humanity’s wildest dreams and greatest challenges.
Originality: Henson hatches a unique concept. Touching on future technology and real-life research, as well as what a person would do with a second life, The Yamanaka Factors is a book readers won’t easily put down.
Character/Execution: Mickey’s journey from a homeless person at the end of his life to the subject of scrutiny from powerful forces is fascinating, as is the scientists’ rationale for what they do to him.
Date Submitted: August 30, 2024
