Human Instincts

An Apocalyptic Novella

Fiction - Science Fiction
160 Pages
Reviewed on 08/21/2012
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Author Biography

Award-winning writer Ioana Visan has always dreamed about reaching the stars, but since she can't, she writes about it. She made her debut in English with a short story published by Every Day Fiction, and also has one included in Evolved Publishing's "Evolution: Vol. 2" short story collection. After fighting the apocalypse aftermath in "Human Instincts", she played with shapeshifters in “Blue Moon Café Series: Where Shifters Meet for Drinks”, and then she dealt with vampires in “The Impaler’s Revenge”, before tackling longer works like a fantasy trilogy and a science fiction series.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Lee Ashford for Readers' Favorite

“Human Instincts” by Ioana Visan is an apocalyptic novella which is entirely different from any other I have read. The premise is that a global war finally ended when the losing side released a biological agent over the enemy. However, they failed to recognize how quickly the agent would travel into their own population. Long before an antidote could be distributed, millions died. Quarantine zones were established to enable the human race to continue, but only when the survivors bore children was it learned the antidote itself had teratogenic effects. Children were born with a multitude of problems, not the least of which was their inability to learn, think progressively or continue the cultural progress enjoyed by the human race up to that time. Dr. Deanna Nichols was researching a potential cure for the antidote’s effects, when her superiors determined there was a small population of non-treated, but uninfected humans in a maximum security prison complex north of the Arctic Circle. She was dispatched to interview and evaluate the prisoners, as a potential source of unpolluted human sperm donors, to be used to fertilize undisclosed egg donors, who also were apparently unpolluted. But is sending a lone woman into a maximum security prison a good idea, even if the fate of the entire human race is at stake? Will she succeed in her mission? Will the human race be saved? Or is this last ditch effort doomed to failure?

I was very impressed with the author’s ability to develop a very interesting and logical apocalyptic scenario. I was impressed to a much greater degree when, in the author’s bio, it was disclosed that she is Romanian, and she translated the book into English herself! One would expect to find typical grammatical errors as a result of the inherent differences between languages, but this book was perfectly translated as far as I could tell. The author has a remarkable talent, and presents a compelling story. I look forward to seeing her name on future books, knowing they will be well worth the time to read.