Readers may wish for a more focused approach to the many provocative issues and premises here. Unfortunately, she also leads the audience down one too many garden paths, planting suspicions which she then uproots much too easily. Franklin's Island, Halam (a pseudonym for Gwyneth Jones) conjures the atmosphere so tensely that readers will be white-knuckled. Soon Tay is on the run with only the super-intelligent orangutan Uncle for company, and anguished about the fates of those in the refuge, as well as hungry, exhausted and desperate to reach safety she begins to speculate about the source of his mysterious intellect. Before Taylor can come to grips with this development, regional fighting intrudes upon the refuge and the story takes a very dark turn. Taylor's genetic 'mother' is someone she's known for years, a famous scientist. Dolphin, 2002 - Genetic engineering - 181 pages. She is an experiment in the corporate race to create a perfect being. Like her gene mother, she will grow up to have phenomenal physical and mental abilities. As the novel opens, news of the company's success in cloning has been announced to the media, although Taylor's identity has been kept secret. Officially documented as Taylor Five she is the clone child of a globally famous scientist. A year and a half ago, Taylor learned that she is actually a clone as are four other children born at the same time, to parents who worked for the same company as the Walkers. Taylor Walker seems like any ordinary 14-year-old. Books by Ann Halam include Dont Open Your Eyes ( 2000), The Shadow on the Stairs ( 2000), Dr Franklins Island ( 2001), Taylor Five ( 2002) and The Seed. Taylor Walker, 14, lives with her parents, wardens of an orangutan refuge in Kandah State, an independent nation 'squashed' between Malaysia and Indonesia. This mostly taut but ultimately disappointing sci-fi thriller opens with a complex, riveting set-up.

Taylor five by ann halam