By GEOFFREY SIMMONS (Berkley; 1978/79)
This one certainly sounds good, being, apparently, a “near-future thriller with the terror of ALIEN, the horror of ROSEMARY’S BABY, the suspense of COMA!” That’s from the back cover of the paperback edition of THE ADAM EXPERIMENT, and it’s a definite case of false advertising.
The author of this book was Geoffrey Simmons, a renowned physician, anti-Darwinist and occasional novelist. Simmons’ intellectual bent shines through in THE ADAM EXPERIMENT, which is quite brainy and well researched. As a “near-future thriller,” however, it fails completely.
The time is the “future” year 1991, when an experiment is conducted aboard the Space Lab V space station involving sex and conception in outer space. The experiment, proposed by an eccentric scientist, nominally involves monkeys but is actually centered on one particular human: Cortney Miles, a renowned scientific researcher whose “long blond hair and model’s figure seemed more suited to a fashion show than a row of test tubes.” She herself doesn’t find out about her involvement in this unholy gambit until around the book’s halfway point.
Cortney, unlikely enough, agrees to take part in the experiment, having taken a shine to John Hicks, a divorced doctor who, like Cortney, happens to be stationed in Space Lab V. In an extremely rushed succession of descriptions we learn that Cortney and John do the deed, resulting in the desired impregnation (for a much more inspired depiction of outer space copulation, FYI, check out the 1977 novel DIONYSUS: THE ULTIMATE EXPERIMENT by William S. Ruben).
Extraterrestrials, meanwhile, have made their presence known on Earth, and also in Space Lab V. It seems the aliens disapprove of Cortney’s pregnancy for some reason, and possess the body of a burly crewmember in an attempt to abort the baby…or perhaps make it one of their own…or something. The aliens’ precise intent is left unexplained in a narrative that never goes anywhere very interesting or unexpected.
It all concludes with a “To Be Continued…” tagline, suggesting that a sequel was in the works that might have explained the many plot points that are left unclear. To my knowledge, however, that sequel never appeared, leaving this poorly plotted and unexciting novel to stand on its own two very wobbly feet.