Eve's Rib

This is a book that challenged the idea of what is nurture and what is nature. Can Eve, the only surviving adult overcome what may be innate human greed and desire to control other living things? Or are this "perfect generation" of children nothing more than better at domination than those who genetically engineered them? This book made me take many second looks at the world around after I read it as a teenager.

From the back of the book: "Genesis was the perfect planet to raise a new crop of exo-children, genetically bred outside the womb to meet the needs of society. As their bountiful generations grew and matured Eve vowed never to expose them to the inhumanities and atrocities of old earth. But when exploration uncovered strange nonhuman creatures with abilities ripe for man's exploitation, she found greed and power a more potent motivator than anything she had taught the young colonists.Now that jealousies, vengeance, and betrayals rock the highest echelons of her own government, can she save her people from the subversive forces that threaten to hurl them backward down a dark, spiraling abyss of old, familiar hatreds to the self-destruction that seems man's only destiny?"The story line in a nut shell: Eve, the main character, left Earth with several other colonists and technology able to produce a colony of fast growing children to begin population of a planet. After a crash landing leaving Eve the sole parent of the new colony she faces many interesting challenges the repercussions which we see unfold with each new chapter in the book. My opinion of the story: I think the story idea was spectacular but the execution of it was less than perfect if still enjoyable. On the plus side it is interesting to see what choices she makes in starting a history and society from scratch and then have the opportunity to see what happens over the long run with the growing colony. On the negative front the main character is too perfect, too idealistic and never matures or adapts to the changing story line and plot twists. This too stagnate idealistic main character is such a common error with science fiction/fantasy writers that I have learned to live with it and still enjoy some excellent story lines. On the whole I have enjoyed reading this book several times and would recommend it any day. I would love to read his/her other books but have had difficulty getting hold of them.

I originally picked this book up in a close-out store... and had never heard of the author. That was about 15 years ago and it sat around in the bottom of a closet for a while. One day when I had nothing better to do, I picked up Eve's Rib and didn't put it down till I was finished.It's a good story, well written, and one that I've read again over the years. I haven't been able to find anything else by Bryn Chandler, but I'm very glad that I found this one.If you like a good story that is easy to read, not too heavy, and shows you how entertaining science fiction can be, get yourself a copy. If you don't like it, you haven't lost much.