This is a terrific and hilarious send-up of what might be done if human cloning was possible. 

So, a bunch of old white men decided on their own that our beloved Republic was in sore need of some old-fashioned leadership.  They speculated that if our Founding Fathers were alive today, they’d be able to put us back on the straight-and-narrow.  Well…with the very cool cloning technology available for the right price, such a thing could be done.

The story opens on a small, secluded island where four young boys are being raised by their loving mother under very specific circumstances.  They are highly educated but only with information available up to 1750AD. They are highly trained in leadership and hunting, with techniques available in 1750. And they are four very suspicious and confused young men since neither their beloved mother nor their father-figure (real father died in War of Independence, or so they were told) will give them straight answers.  For example: what exactly is that ‘airplane’ they’ve observed and when can they see one up close?

But all the carefully crafted upbringing and the plan to carefully integrate them into modern society – but with their morals and principles carefully curated – is blown to bits when young Ben Franklin finds a peculiar device.  It’s made of black glass and a little experimentation provides him with the most amazing pictures, mostly of his mother but in such dress and with such men as to confound him.  It took him all of fourteen minutes to discover porn and it only took that long because the glorious pictures of food distracted him so.  He, of course, immediately took it to his elder brother and their leader, George Washington.  It then took only minutes to acquaint his other two brothers, Sam Adams and Thomas Jefferson, with the wonders of this black gem.  The four brothers determined that their best course of action was to say nothing and continue to explore the device to find a way to trap their mother into admitting some truth.  This might have worked had the battery not given up.

Now, to understand the next part you have to understand the protocols those rich white men put into place to protect their charges.  The woman who bore those cloned fetuses had a contract in place and she played her part.  Their father figure, Jeff Hancock, played his part as well in deflecting difficult questions and teaching the boys what the cabal had determined they should know.  To keep this illusion going, they employed people who had nowhere else to go and no one to look for them.  Everyone on the island was instructed as to how to behave and respond.  This was difficult for many, particularly the young women who were encouraged to accept young Jefferson’s advances; begging the question as to how much sexual proclivities are nature vs nurture.  In fact, quite a bit of the boys’ characteristics are implied to be nature, which was a bit of a scientific stretch but lent itself to some hilarity.

So the breaking point came when the boys finally frustrated with the lack of truthfulness combined with the frustration of the island workers causing a sort of revolution, if you will. 

It’s a quick read and a charming synopsis.  It wasn’t a deep or philosophical story; it was almost humorous.  It was certainly a satire of what could happen should human cloning ever become viable. And, of course, a satire of what rich old white men think they are entitled to because of their wealth.

There’s a bit of that Jurassic Park mythos at work here; life will find a way and mere men cannot control everything.  So, imagine if you will, these four classically educated but severely-out-of-place and -time young men loose in the world; four young men who have been groomed their entire lives to be leaders. What will they do?   ~~  Catherine Book