#SciFiMonth Review: The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: MIRA (October 20, 2020)
Length: 352 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
How many times have you wished you could clone yourself? To have a double take over your life, just for a little while, so you can catch a quick breather? In Jane Gilmartin’s The Mirror Man, the ability to achieve this has become a reality, albeit the technology is highly illegal. The possibility of creating a perfect copy of a human being, complete with same personalities and memories, is not something the world is ready to accept, so the company behind the scientific breakthrough can only conduct their experiments under the utmost secrecy.
Now, the experts ViGen Pharmaceuticals believe they have found the perfect subject. Jeremiah Adams is a middle-aged husband and father living a disaffected life, who is also willing to be discreet. For ten million dollars, he agrees to be a part of their top-secret study, which involves being cloned. The catch? Jeremiah will need to be removed from his life for an entire year, while his clone takes over. After all, part of the experiment is “quality testing” to see if the copy is indeed indistinguishable from the original. If successful, no one should suspect Jeremiah has been replaced. Behind the scenes, a team of ViGen scientists will also be monitoring the clone’s every move to ensure adherence to expected personality and behavioral patterns.
At first, Jeremiah thought it would be easy. A year isn’t all that long, plus ten million dollars is a ridiculously large sum of money, enough to set him and his family up for life after the experiment was over. And if he’s being completely honest, he’s also been having a rough time lately, at home and at work. He figures a break will do him good, especially with ViGen setting him up in a luxury apartment where his every need will be met. He’ll finally be able to do what he wants, when he wants—though he would have to meet periodically with a company psychologist, as per his contract agreement. Through these sessions, however, Jeremiah soon realizes that watching him clone live his life from afar isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Though he’ll need the experiment to succeed in order to receive his money, he also can’t help but feel unsettled, not to mention hurt, to see someone else replace him so completely. Then, Jeremiah’s mother dies. Already angry and devastated from being forced to grieve at a distance, our protagonist receives another shock as stumbles upon the dark truth behind the real purpose of ViGen’s cloning technology.
As a fan of sci-fi stories that read like “what if” scenarios, I really enjoyed The Mirror Man and blew through it rather quickly. While it doesn’t place as much emphasis on the science aspect, the energetic pacing and thrills more than made up for it. As the reader, you’re thrown into the thick of things pretty much right away, as the author wastes no time in establishing the premise. As such, I didn’t mind the lack of background into ViGen’s cloning technology, once I realized that wasn’t the point of the novel anyway. Instead, its focus is almost entirely on Jeremiah and the internal conflict raging within him, as he watches his clone with a new perspective on himself, thinking he doesn’t really like what he sees.
Subtle as they were, there were some meaningful underlying philosophical themes at play, exploring the question of what makes us human. Observing his life from an outsider’s perspective forces Jeremiah to confront the truth of his malaise and re-examine his personal choices as he finally realizes what he’s been missing. I wish the narrative had carried this thread a little further, but the plot then swiftly adopts a thriller tone and style, taking off like a runaway train from there. Technology meets conspiracy in The Mirror Man, which I can see being a hit with readers who enjoy the intense pacing and high stakes of books like Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, The Fold by Peter Clines, or The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein.
Overall, I thought this was a great read, and in fact, my only criticism is that the conclusion could have been tweaked to pack a harder punch. In the end, the resolution might have come just a tad to easy for our protagonist, but I was nevertheless happy with how everything turned out. After all, it’s not every day I read a book about cloning! I had a blast with The Mirror Man and will most certainly be keeping an eye out for Jane Gilmartin’s future work!
The BiblioSanctum 
Great review. 🙂 Good premise, I can already imagine how the story would go. Glad to know it’s thrilling. Thanks for sharing!
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You’re very welcome!
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Ooo, this sounds very cool. I am definitely up for clone stories, and this sounds exciting. 😃
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Right?! There needs to be more clone stories 😀
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There really does! 😃
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I’ve actually never wished I could clone myself, but then I’ve seen too many movies and read too many books—and it never seems to turn out well, y’know? 😁 Thanks for the rec, I’ll definitely keep my eye out for this one! One question though: you said the resolution might’ve come too easy for Jeremiah, but how was he as a protagonist?
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You are correct, lol! I doubt I would get along with my clones well enough to coordinate anything let alone trust each other to divvy up the responsibilities 😀
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That does sound intriguing!
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It really was!
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I liked the sounds of this, until you mentioned all those other books at the end. 2/3rds of them didn’t work for me, so suddenly I’m wondering if this won’t either.
Conundrum, conundrum, conundrum…..
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I made the comparison because of the similarity in momentum and energy levels, not the plot or any of the story elements, if that helps 😀
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That’s true that it’s rare to have a book about cloning. It’s an interesting topic.
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Seriously, I think there should be more!
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This is one of my NetGalley requests that was never approved or declined, its just hanging there. So I guess I won’t be reading it, unfortunately 🤣
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Aw, that’s too bad! I so hate those requests that hang in purgatory forever!
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Fascinating concept – and intriguing review! 🙂
How many times, swamped by life’s many demands, have we wished we had a clone to take on part of the burden? I can imagine how this story might cure us of this wish…
Thanks for sharing!
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Yep, as they say, be careful what you wish for!
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If your only neg is packing a harder punch then it sounds good enough for me lol
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Haha yep, definitely a good one on the whole, very minor critiques.
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I do like the different ideas and problems stories of cloning can explore. Some of the description actually reminds me of a short story I read a few years back in a magazine or anthology. I won’t mention how that ended just in case it’s too close to this one, but it made for an enteraining, though short, read. This at least has more room to run.
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Ooh, if you remember the name of the story, I would really like to look it up!
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It took some rummaging around, but I found it. Turns out I read it earlier this year. And it wasn’t actually about clones, but robots called marionettes, though they fill the role about the same. The story was called “Marionettes, Inc.” by Ray Bradbury. I found it in his anthology, “The Illustrated Man.” It’s a really short story, but very Bradbury. I hope you enjoy it if you read it.
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Thank you! That sounds fascinating. And “very Bradbury” is actually very good! 😀
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This one indeed has a fantastic premise to work with, and as you’ve clearly stated, it’s nice that you’re not thrown off by the lack of hard sci-fi to accompany the idea of cloning humans and instead was really sucked into the whole thrill and adventure of the character’s journey. Fantastic review as always! 😀
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Thank you, I’m so glad you liked my review! And as much as I love hard sci-fi, most of the time it’s the story-oriented ones that I enjoy the most, not the ones with the most science-y lingo 🙂
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I like the sound of this one – and your review reminds me I still haven’t read Blake Crouch – perhaps I should try to read that first.
Lynn 😀
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You’ll have a lot of fun with that one, methinks 🙂
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