I read this as a book club read and, despite Birdsong being one of my all time favourite novels, Faulks isn't an author I automatically pick up.

This one had an interesting premise - at the centre is a story about a morally dubious science experiment to create a hybrid being. The setting is both familiar and slightly dystopian, starting not too far into the future and ending 25 years after that.

Sadly, the execution just didn't do it. The plot was slow and meandering, the pacing all over the place. The focus was misplaced - half of what I read wasn't interesting. There were several paragraphs dotted around that were just info dumping.

The ideas that were batted about - genetics, and evolution and a world apparently beyond race but not, really should have been interesting. But somehow this book made that dull. The characters were all flat and blank, no nuance. And the ending was absurd. I skimmed most of it because I could see where it was going and almost couldn't believe it.

So yeah, pretty much a complete failure for me. Two stars for the ideas only.