Sue’s Fingerprint by Andrew D. Carlson

Overall Sue's Fingerprint was quite entertaining even though the writing was fairly simplistic and the characters fairly predictable. While I didn't realize it while I was reading the story, it became very clear this story is geared towards a younger audience. Here is the description:

A gel-like substance is suddenly discovered across the country. Ted Stevens, a Director in the Department of Homeland Security, is assigned to investigate. He enlists the help of scientists at a government laboratory to analyze the ‘goo’. They discover the substance was sent to Earth and has unique properties; it can clone animals. Ted soon learns the substance can also clone humans.

Sue is the first of eleven new people cloned from the alien substance. She and the others arrive without prior knowledges (and without clothes!). They are discovered and recovered by Ted and contained on an abandoned military base. While there, the clones learn about themselves and the world around them. They also receive a message. Sue decides she must deliver it, and one morning they find she’s gone.

During the recovery of Sue, Ted learns of the clones’ message and begins to understand their true intentions. He needs to know more about the clones, so he collects samples for DNA fingerprint testing. The fate of the new people will be decided by the results from Ted’s friends at the laboratory.

I enjoyed the foreshadowing at the beginning of the story with the discovery of the animal clones and how it eventually led up to the introduction of the first human clone. I thought the build up was done pretty well, and the reveal of the first human clone, Sue, was one of the most entertaining parts of the story.

Once all the clones were gathered together in the compound, I felt the amount of security surrounding them was a little surprising. With such a fantastic discovery, I would have expected the highest security possible, but instead there was hardly any.

I appreciated the technical depth that went into the study of the "goo", its internal structure, and how it goes about synthesizing clones. While the concept is a little far fetched, the DNA explanation was quite credible and made it easy to overlook some of the less believable aspects. As a whole, I felt the characters were a little shallow. Sue is very likable with her child like wonder and excitement, but most of the characters where fairly simple and one-dimensional. With the solid plot and simplistic writing, this story definitely reads like it is intended for a younger audience. There were no major flaws and the story was entertaining, but due to the lack of depth and fairly simple writing style, I give this story 3 stars.

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