This book has a fascinating premise and the story line really pulls you in to find out what will happen next. I would have liked to get to know a few of the characters a bit better, see how these clones of historical figures can adapt to newfound situations, but obviously it’s not possible to develop every character with such a cast.

This book totally sucked me in! I flew through it in two days because I needed to know what happened next.

While I understood 0% of the science, I loved the premise and the world building. This book features some of my favorite sci-fi tropes— cloning, time travel, crazy creatures—and heaping doses of moral grey areas, which always makes for a thought provoking read.

I did get a bit squeamish with the ritualistic cannibalism, but it wasn’t enough to make me stop reading altogether, I just skimmed over those parts.

I really enjoyed the character’s internal conflict over living up to their predecessor’s greatness, and the nature vs. nurture debate—can the same DNA, when introduced into a different time and place, produce the same outcomes in people, plants and animals? Maybe, maybe not ;)

4.5 rounding up to 5

Astonishing!

Fast paced, complexity of time and space, harnessing Mother Nature, and discovery of the unknown. The Twin Paradox is intelligent, suspenseful, has an intriguing storyline, and interesting twists throughout.

Charles Wachter’s vivid imagination made “The Twin Paradox” one I did not want to put down. I enjoy the authors writing style, with the storyline peaking my general curiosity on the complexity of time. I wait with bated breath for 2nd book in the series - “the Divine Paradox”!

A sincere thank you to NetGalley and Trevaney Bay for providing me a copy of “The Twin Paradox” in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this story and leave my review voluntarily.

This book is a rollercoaster ride from start to finish. You follow a group of teenagers who have been cloned from the DNA of some of the greatest minds from history like Einstein and Da Vinci. With a big legacy to live up to they are shipped of to a facility to solve humanitys greatest problems. However there is a catch - time works differently there. It's hoped that they will acomplish scientific breakthroughs but something goes terribly wrong and soon survival is all that matters.

I absolutely adored the premise of this book. It's genius! I loved the little insights into history as we went, with small snipets on various historical figures including some I'd never even heard about. The plot is fast paced and gripping, making this a very quick read as the circumstances and setting changed throughout. The atmosphere was great as well as the tension throughout the later part of the book. In terms of the sci-fi elements, they were great and I followed along with most explainations but there were a few places in the book where I got a little lost.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I would definitely recommend this to people who enjoy thrillers and want to dip their toes into some sci-fi.

(Trigger warnings for gore)

TECHNICALLY I finished this novel around 1am on the 21st, but I’m still counting it as a one day read.
I absolutely devoured this novel, and I really enjoyed it. I found the plot line intriguing, and the characters to be both interesting and multifaceted. I am looking forward to the second book in the series!

Was the science the most accurate? I’m only a chemist, not a physicist, but I think I can comfortably say no. HOWEVER, a significant part of sci-fi is suspending your disbelief, and the science was at least rooted in theory (and didn’t try to explain how it worked in detail-which helped a ton. I’d rather a sci-fi novel say “and then this happened” than try to explain the minutiae of extremely improbable or impossible situations)
I received this novel as an ARC from NetGalley.

Unfortunately this was a "did not finish" for me. I was drawn into the concept of the clones and weird time quirk but the characters did not click and the story started to get too abstract to follow. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Entertaining but really more a young teen book. I was losing interest after several pages of ‘teen talk’.

The Twin Paradox sounded really good, so I dove right in. The first few chapters were really good and then the story, for me, just stopped. I had to make myself continue to get to 10%. I’m glad others enjoyed it, but it was not for me. Thank you to Netgalley and Trevaney Bay for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

The premise of the book is good. Cloning famous people from the past (Eisenstein, Newton, DaVinci, etc.) to solve a current problem developed by an earlier clone of Newton. The first few chapters of the book are very good, but unfortunately it goes downhill from there. The characters are dull and undeveloped and the storyline stretches beyond any semblance of believability especially when the bad group of clones are introduced. All this takes place in a supposed maximum security facility that has so many holes in it that the unbelievable part is that word about it has not leaked out to the public. Other reviewers found this book to be interesting, but for me it was a struggle to get through.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.

What happens when you combine Sir Isaac Newton's tooth, the toppling of an oil rig in the Atlantic, bits and pieces of the famous stolen by a modern day graverobber, and a high school honors program? There are any number of possibilities that would provide a great reading experience. Unfortunately, THE TWIN PARADOX doesn't live up to its potential. The blurb calls the book "relentless yet deliberate…" I'm finding it relentlessly lackluster and deliberately dull. Like a hyperactive child, the chapters veer off in disparate directions without finishing a thought. There is so much occurring that it is difficult to follow just who is doing what and why.

This book was not written to be read… it was written to be optioned as a movie. My suspicions were confirmed today when I received an email telling me that THE TWIN PARADOX was "Soon to be a Major Motion Picture!" As a decades long avid reader, I can tell you from personal experience that the best books, the five-star plus reads, don't need to be turned into film for me to see the action, feel the emotion, or laugh out loud at the hilarity in the story. I believe the age old complaint about movies made from books - 'the book was better than the movie' - comes from great writing setting an expectation the movie will elicit the same sense of action, emotion, or humor felt while reading the original. I don't go to the movies with that presupposition. I try to see the book as one art form and film as another. On occasion, I find that 'the movie was better than the book.' I can only hope that this will prove true for THE TWIN PARADOX.

The only reason that THE TWIN PARADOX didn't end up on my DNF (did not finish) pile is that I wanted to see if anything would come of the fact that Kat was not really a clone of Catherine the Great but of a little girl named Catherine who was a ward of the graverobber. It is a thread not followed.

This is the first book in a series. The second book, DIVINE PARADOX, is available for pre-order. I won't be reading it.

Review of eBook

Sometimes it can be difficult being in the Honors core curriculum classes at Union High School, but smart is smart. Only Alistair has plans . . . and they don’t include spending his senior year in the Honors track; he wants to play football.

Imagine his surprise when the sudden scheduling of the private Honors Graduation for his class finds him graduating a year early. And it is there that the graduates will finally learn the truth . . . that they are identical genetic clones of some of the greatest minds in history including Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles Darwin, Sakichi Toyoda, Thomas Edison, Emilie Chatelet, Lucien Freud, Leonardo da Vinci, Catherine the Great, and Albert Einstein.

And in two days, seven graduates will head to North Dakota while Alastair, Leo, Kat, Milk, and Zack will be on a plane, headed for Corpus Christi, Texas and a summer internship with Gene-E Corporation.

What lies ahead for these teens who bear the burdens of being some of the greatest minds in the world?

“The Twin Paradox” is part “Jurassic Park,” part “Lost World,” part “Dark Matter” and all science fiction-techno-thriller. The world-building is complex, effective, and exciting. The characters aren’t too well-defined but are believable; readers are likely to find themselves cheering for the teens as they face a plethora of death-defying situations.

Divided into six sections, the story puts the teens inside the Cornerstone Project, where the powers-that-be hope they will help solve the problem of planes falling out of the sky. From here, the plot twists and turns, moving in unexpected directions as the narrative becomes more and more convoluted. And, while parts of the narrative require excessive suspension of disbelief, the captivating concept and the non-stop action keep the pages turning.

There are some cringe-worthy, gruesome moments in the telling of this tale. But the weaving together of time compression, strange biospheres, and strong friendships makes for a memorable story. Although this book works as a standalone, it is part of a series; “Divine Paradox” continues the story.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Trevaney Bay and NetGalley
#TheTwinParadox #NetGalley

Looking for a speculative science fi thriller for Summer? This novel explores various sci fi tropes, including cloning. However in a twist on Jurassic Park, the clones are of famous historical figures. This was a fun nerdy ride, although at times I found it hard to follow. Not sure I’ll pick up the sequel but this was worth a read.

I may have accidentally kept calling this 'The Gemini Paradox' when trying to explain what I was reading to my friends, but do not mistake my inability to remember book names as a reflection on how much I enjoyed it. While not an advance review, I'm a little upset that I haven't heard more about this book! I got the JURASSIC PARK vibes with the mix of action and sci-fi. I look forward to the possible movie/TV show adaptations of this novel and the coming sequel DIVINE PARADOX (Jan 2022).

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.)

Overall, I think the best way to summarize is that I am looking forward to the sequel next year, and I will be purchasing it!

I had a little trouble getting into the story, It jumped around and made it hard to get settled into the story. That said, once I came back to it, I kept reading, wanting to see where it would go next. The plot twists and turns kept me engaged, but I did find it hard to get attached to the characters - they could have been fleshed out more. Overall the story hits a number of science fiction themes, including some I wouldn't have predicted before reading the story, and it does a good job weaving together a story with lots of ups and downs. I am definitely in seeing where the story continues in the next book.

“The Twin Paradox” by Charles Wachter is a different take on the storyline of “Jurassic Park.” In this case there are not dinosaur’s DND being trapped in amber and extracted but the DNA of past “great” men and women has been collected through various nefarious means and through various methods by the Soviet/Russians’ financing.

Once this DNA has been collected and used to create embryos of maybe the next Einstein, Da Vinci, Catherine the Great, and just about anyone where there were DNS strands to work with. Now in this science, I’d call fantasy rather than fiction, you have to suspend credulity to think that DNA would remain that long.
Enter the military-industrial complex that has financed the education of the budding geniuses and then throw in some time-bending ideas—put together and mix. The voila you have a story.

The story gets a bit more complicated when it is discovered that the US is not alone in creating these youngsters now out of time. The old nature vs. nurture is in full bloom and it is interesting to watch. While you are there you may as well throw in some quantum time physics and time-dilation.

The story builds until its climax – who will win the battle of not only time-benders but also of competing people out of time. It is sort of interesting, but it just too far fetched for this reader but I can see how some would really love it. This is the reason for the 3 stars.

The Twin Paradox
by Charles Wachter
Trevaney Bay

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this book. It's a bit science fiction bordering on fantasy and parts are just fanciful. It reminds me a bit of some of Preston and Child books where there is some science fiction but then there is creepy monsters.

This has cloning of historical personalities, 'evil' persons, geniuses, and thinkers. There is also a way to slow down time and speed it up! Need a wormhole to China? Got one of those too! It's a wild ride through time with characters in the past, good and bad, along with creatures never before seen.

I found it a fun novel. It started out as a science fiction but it slowly turned into a creature feature. I think it was a bit over the top but okay.

If you are into science fiction with a little bit of political intrigue thrown in, you will enjoy this book. Scientists have discovered how to clone some of the greatest minds in history and have put them to work on controlling the passage of time. A new world is grown in what is thought to be a controlled environment, only to realize something has gone terribly wrong.

I was disappointed in the ending, but overall found the book intriguing. #netgalley #goodreads #thetwinparadox

The essence of speculative fiction is a premise of a future event or technical change that’s the central element of the work. The reader must do their part in accepting the premise while the author must do their part in keeping the story consistent with the premise and how the premise alters society. For example, a novel may be about astronauts traveling to Titan because some drive is invented (the technical change) that shortens the one way travel time to six months, but you then can’t have the astronauts existing the entire round trip in zero gravity because that would cripple them with bone density loss. There’s an instance of fiction trying to invalidate reality.

Here we’re asked to suspend disbelief while given two breakthroughs. One is biological and one physical. Some future tech can resurrect, using recovered DNA, historical figures. Meanwhile, another tech can create side by side relativistic differentials in time passage. Thus a person in location A can subjectively experience three minutes while another 3 meters way can subjectively experience a decade.

Both the time and cloning are in the control of a single corporation run by a fictional mashup of Trump and Musk as portrayed by an author who dislikes both. While a terrific setup, the execution worked out as a major letdown due to the novel being untrue to the tenets of fiction.

I’ll try to avoid spoilers in explaining. The time differential exists in a supposedly top secret facility having state of the art security. However, foreign spies have no problem not only getting in but becoming staff and then inviting in their team. Since Jurassic Park, people have been enjoying speculating about cloning from ancient recovered DNA but you need viable DNA. One can’t clone most past figures because such genetic material isn’t available but magically, it becomes so here.

As to the top secret facility, it endangers itself in a Jurassic Park plot clone for no reason not only creating a dangerous condition but pointlessly and needlessly maintaining it. More laughable given the top security, job seekers sneaking into the USA from Mexico accidentally wander into the highly secured facility. This would be like a family taking a road trip to Disneyland accidentally winding up in Washington, D.C. only to be discovered having a picnic in the Oval Office.

The stage is set for any number of terrific novels, but the one emerging here is idiotic, puts the reader beyond belief suspension and is often grossly cruel. It’s a real letdown.

Loved loved, loved this book. Can’t wait to see the movie. I was given a chance to read this book for a review, I can actually say, that I couldn’t put this book down., with all the plot twists. Since this Covid thing and all the conspiracies theories I read, this fit right in. Just think what you could do with a clone of Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King and Katherine the Great. I recommend this book to all my friends already. Can’t wait to see what else this author has up his sleeve....

Let me reel this in a bit. *deep breath*
So, the “Twin Paradox” is an actual thought experiment relating to Einstein’s theory of relativity. I find quantum physics to be fascinating and this novel was incredibly satisfying for my inner nerd.

I haven’t had these sci fi feels since Jurassic Park or Blake Crouch’s Wayward Pines series. This was a fun science thriller to escape into and provoked plenty of deep thinking and consideration of ethics. Also, reading about teenage clone versions of some of the most brilliant minds in history was thoroughly amusing.

Although at moments I found it to be cheesy, it was fun and checked a lot of boxes. Was it totally out there? YES
Is that often how I like my fiction? YES

This book read like a Young Adult novel and had some silliness mixed in with some scaries, which was mostly fine. I did feel disappointed at the abrupt shift in a story that began with so much promise (I mean, what a cool plot concept) and shifted from Crichton into more of a Ready Player 1 type of narrative with the theatrics.

The two halves of the book just didn’t align, but even though it went off the rails at the end, it was still entertaining and I was in for the ride. This creative story has murder, ambition + greed, intrigue, politics, time acceleration, cloning, mutated creatures, and is a perfect pace. Overall, despite the incongruences, it was a compelling read.

To fully explain the story, I’m going to let the plot summary in the comments section do the heavy lifting, I’m just here to say it was fun.

Did I just encounter the next Michael Crichton with a side of science fueled Willy Wonka?! 🤯 IDK I think I’ll need to read the sequel that’s set to come out and find out. Thank you @netgalley for giving me something new with this one.
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🎬 THIS HAS BEEN PICKED UP TO BECOME A FILM ADAPTATION