The Prospect of My Arrival

Prospect, so named, he tells us, because %E2%80%9Cpeople have high hopes for me,%E2%80%9D has a lot on his young shoulders. As the embryonic star of the %E2%80%9CPre-born Project,%E2%80%9D a scientific venture funded by %E2%80%9CBig Farm Technologies,%E2%80%9D he has three weeks to preview the world before deciding if he wants to be born. To help in his decision, Prospect gets to meet five people: his mother; a happy person; someone who wishes he were never born; etc. Despite his in-embryo tutoring from the %E2%80%9CCyberSavant,%E2%80%9D Prospect (incarnated on Earth in a borrowed 20-year-old body) is a na%C3%AFf, and much of the book consists of people explaining things to him: the project, adoption, empathy, the wonder that is coffee, the wonder that is sex, the complexities of love. For real-world readers, many of these narratives are less than new. Meanwhile, everyone Prospect meets has an agenda%E2%80%94and Okita, busily planting all kinds of improbable scenarios and life lessons in Prospect%E2%80%99s path, is, unfortunately, no exception. At the end, when Prospect makes his decision, it%E2%80%99s hard to care; he%E2%80%99s sweet, but his pre-born experience seems a little too prefab.