I was really looking forward to this book because I thought I was getting into some kind of technological horror-thriller version of Weekend at Bernie’s and that was one of the most interesting ideas for a book I had heard in a long time. 

And sure, it was a little bit that, but unlike Weekend at Bernie’s, this was boring. Boring enough that I resent myself for making me finish it. 

It’s books like these that make me wish we reviewers could read a page or two sample before we request a title, because I likely would’ve skipped this title once I heard the very first reference to The Big Lebowski (a movie I hate and is quoted and referenced repeatedly in this book). 

It wasn’t just the lack of humor and the prevalent use of The Dude that had me disliking this book. The dual POV felt repetitive, even if the two characters were operating on two different planes of existence. “Bernie’s” plane was supposed to be terrifying and mind-melting, but it was just a total miss in that area for me. 

I know there was suppose to be some philosophical and emotional weight to this book besides “AI BAD”, but all I got was hot air. 2⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for granted me early access to this title. 

If given the means by science, how far would conservatives go to keep steering this country exactly the way they want to? Would they settle for cloning Ronald Reagan? Or would they want to go all the way back? 

Foundling Fathers is an absurdist piece of speculative fiction that asks the question of if you clone some (not all) of our founding fathers, raise them to their majority in surroundings identical to those their primes were raised in, and then they find out their lives are complete lies…what happens then? 

The answers aren’t pretty. Whenever people talk about “the good ol’ days”, or, “I wish we could go back to that time”, what they’re really longing for is the power structure at that time and how it made their lives easier. Nostalgia screws with your mind: it lets you remember the good as so very good but also fogs over all the bad just outside your purview. It’s what makes so many people want to only remember Thomas Jefferson as a great statesman and academic without remembering he was an unrepentant rapist and slaver. Or remember Ben Franklin as a great inventor and thinker without thinking of him as a slovenly, lecherous drunkard. 

So it’s no wonder that nothing goes to plan in this story for anyone. No one gets the answers they want. No one’s plans go the way they wanted or needed them to. As always, the only way through is to adapt. 4⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this title.