Yellowriter

 Skinware is a novel that focuses on the moral and practical concerns of the relatively new technology of cloning. The story uses this radical science to bring the reader face to face with the foundational theme of the book, which is the basic inability of individuals to let go of the past. Jared Cross, his name describing his feelings as an adjective and the burden that he bears as a noun, is the focal character. Jared is in his mid-thirties and is a professor of literature at Cal State Northridge University near Los Angeles. His agony relates to the death of his four-year old daughter, McKenna. The joy of the man’s life perishes in a swimming pool while under the care of Madeleine, Jared’s soon to be ex-wife. The inability to forgive is the driving force that culminates in divorce proceedings. Madeleine is an aspiring clothing designer who can’t understand why her husband no longer loves her. After a brief stay in a mental hospital, she throws herself into her work. Meanwhile, the university denies tenure to the young professor and adds insult to injury by asking him to take a cut in pay. The now ex-educator decides to leave southern California and takes a job working for his uncle in Alaska at the Carlin Oil Company. In that frozen tundra Jared meets another misfit named William Posely, an ex-pilot from the Air force. Posely is a semi-militant black with all kinds of racial baggage heaped upon him while growing up as a bused black in Boston during racial de-segregation. The arrangement is for Posely to fly the two Carlin planes while Jared works as the fix-it-man. The two men make two discoveries on the day of their providential accord. One is that they like each other immediately and experience a connection that most men find difficult. The other discovery is that their new boss, Randall Cree, is indeed a creep. The foreman is mouthy, foul, rude, arrogant, abusive and a blatant racist. In short the man is a wonderful character that readers will love to hate. Other protagonists are in league with Cree. The twosome soon discover that the forbidden area of their workplace called the red zone is off limits for more reasons than Carlin Oil is giving out. Jared vows to get a look at that sanctioned room after a chance meeting with a woman who looks like a younger version of his estranged Madeleine. Enter Aslynn, the clone of the professor’s dreams. She remembers nothing of her childhood and exists as Randall Cree’s common law wife. She has felt Jared’s presence (and Madeliene’s) in her dreams, but her whole world changes when she meets the gentleman who loves poetry and classic literature. Dr.Cross knows he has to help Aslynn escape when he realizes that his suspicions are correct. Women are being cloned in Alaska. He begins a search to understand the why of the dilemma. The answer to that question may cost him his life.Another side of the protagonist equation comes personified in Joseph Daniels, a young environmentalist searching for answers of his own. He is still reeling over the death of his father, Jamison, in a freak automobile accident that he believes is murder. He hires a private investigator named Victor Perez on the recommendation of a friend of his late father’s, George Davis. Davis is the junior Senator from California and an old college friend of Dr. Jamison Daniels. The environmentalist is visiting Alaska to keep the Carlin Oil Company from drilling for crude in Denali Park. Joseph gets drawn into the cloning debacle by a chance meeting with Jared Cross. The drama unfolds as Jared and William provide Joseph with a batch of receipts that Cree is using to blackmail members of the legislature who are taking payoffs from Carlin Oil. In the midst of political corruption in the land of the midnight sun, Joseph has to fend off a dangerous, and yet alluring, liaison with a nineteen-year-old waitress named Trish, who has all kinds of issues of her own. Add to the mix, Chester Alcorn, Trish’s on again, off again good-for nothing low-life of a boyfriend. Chester has his own agenda and his evil character is revealed in a deal that puts Trish in the position of spying on Joseph. There are two other openly debase personalities named Red and Plugrath. There are some surprises at the end of the book that will keep the reader guessing as to whom will emerge on the moral side of the equation. The biggest surprise lies in the question, “why only clone women?”Can the team of Jared, William, and Joseph topple the skinware empire? The stakes are high and the risks are enormous, but the action is swift and the payoff to the reader is exhilarating. The out of control technology moves the characters in the book to deal with the pain from the past. Can the horrific reality of reproducing women (presumably as sex slaves) cause all of these bogged down souls to purge the weights that so easily beset them? For Jared it is the death of McKenna and the impending divorce of Madeleine. For Madeleine it is the choice of waiting for Jared versus that of moving on with a new romantic relationship with a sexy New York City attorney named Travis Majors. For William it is the decision not to hate on a wholesale level because of what he went through as a youth. For Joseph it is the unresolved death of his father.The word “Skinware” may evoke erotic visions for some, but the word accurately describes cloning. In our computer age of buzzwords like hardware and software, it seems only natural to call the creation of people, “Skinware.” I believe that it is a clever term that has the potential to be a generally accepted euphemism for cloning. When Joseph Heller wrote Catch 22 he probably had no thoughts of it appearing in the dictionary one day as a proper definition for a no win situation.In summary, the well-paced dialogue of the novel is brisk and intelligent. The characters are deep, well developed, and believable. The story is interesting, tight and fluid. The motivation behind the action is logical and extremely difficult to second guess. Skinware is a great read that once started, simply put, must be finished.