cover image Children of the End

Children of the End

Mark Clements. Dutton Books, $20 (311pp) ISBN 978-1-55611-342-0

The plot of this B-grade shocker--Clements's second novel, after 6:02 --might easily have come from some low-budget '50s sci-fi movie. In a gory and unlikely scheme to save the world, Dr. George Pendergast genetically engineers a superpowerful, shape-changing race of carnivorous ``Loners'' to hunt humans and so reduce the world's population to a more sustainable level. When Deborah Kosarek, a curious employee of Pendergast's company, and helpful security guard Tony Garwood poke their noses too far into Pendergast's business, he sends his psychopathic assistant to eliminate them. Meanwhile, the Loners have acquired a Bible and developed a patchwork religion that defines their destiny: to kill all humans and take over the world. The novel's absurd premises--e.g., that Pendergast decoded the entire human genome in five years with a computer based on brain-like neurochips--are no better than its plot. With predictable characters, action advanced by coincidence and the not very frightening Loners--who speak in an unreadable patois of Bible bits and TV phrases (``So the ArrrrrrrK of the Fatherrrrrrr. Accept no imitationsssss'')--Clements's novel fails as surely as Pendergast's world-saving plans. (Feb.)