The Pygmalion Effect

The Pygmalion Effect
Jeremy Blanchette
Lulu Press
ISBN: 1-84728-335-1
Fiction, Futuristic Science Fiction
Reviewed by Eugen M. Bacon

Simplistic cover graphics achieve a less is more effect. Written in first person, the tale has a personalized touch that is easy to identify with. 2104 CE finds Corbin, an unfortunate, in a monastery. His fate is worse than that of a slave, for, like the rest of his kind, he lacks the pale blue eye color of the genetically enhanced beings. Corbin belongs to the world of the lessers, one that persuades cold-blooded acts of depravation performed against them from the very top of the Enlightened chain, a malevolence that is shared by the very priesthood that is meant to shelter and protect the unfortunates.
Fascinatingly named chapters from Maxim to Conformity to Reminiscence to Entitlement- each open with a moving little anecdote or poem, as the story shifts between past and present, casting glimpses of The Brick Ladder and The Badlands. Modest use of technology enables the escape of Corbin and his mates from the monastery of their enslavement, away from degradation and possible murder in the manner of pitiless annihilation of their parents before them. With sunglasses to hide the wildness in their eyes, the lack of enlightenment in them, the boys flee to the outskirts of the Inner City to the Dark Asylum, where they easily integrate and inch to positions of leadership. Empowered, the rebels are able to infiltrate houses of Catholic Dogma, converting more unfortunates to their cause. They find their way to Brittany Peninsula, where they encounter Jacque, the nemesis, inventor of the Genetic issue.
Jeremy Blanchette has, in The Pygmalion Effect, come up with a curious concept that reinforces the dangers of Puritanism, how the very instruments of justice can be the perpetrators of atrocities of a magnanimous scale. With the Galatean Effect, the Enlightened believe in their privileged status, and make their own destiny. Conflict, conflict- can Corbin and his people save their world before masterminds of the Unfortunates Question execute the final solution? An entertaining read that paves way for this new author.