The Hauntings of Playing God is the third (and
probably) last novel in the end of humanity series which began with The Man Who
Watched The World End.
The novels are set in the final years of the human race,
which is dying out because of a genetic mutation babies start to be born with. In
the space of a few years, all babies are born with the condition. Known as
Blocks they cannot physically move on their own or even think. Skip to decades
later and the last normal humans are all in the last years of their lives
caring for the Blocks.
The Hauntings of Playing God focuses on the
individual story of Morgan, a ninety-three-year-old who becomes the last living
carer in the block home she works at. Not only that, she may well be the last
normal person in the world: the last human. Not long after the death of fellow
carer Elaine, Morgan starts imagining the Blocks having conversations with her:
charting the beginning of her mental deterioration from loneliness.
But Morgan’s imaginings start taking a far sinister
turn when she starts killing off Blocks so that she can better care for the
others (needs outweighing the needs of the few is you will). Being an old woman
herself Morgan finds it increasingly difficult to look after so many on her own
so is forced to make the very difficult decision. Her conscience will not leave
her alone though and her decent into madness then truly begins.
That’s all I can really say without giving the game
away. As far as components of the story goes Morgan’s character has a lot of
back story which is conveyed well at different points when she is looking back
on her life. The story does pull you in as she goes through the motions.
Unfortunately The Hauntings of Playing God brings
nothing new to the series in terms of ideas. If you’ve read the previous books
you’ll know that a lot of the big questions this one asks are pretty much
identical.
Despite retreading old ground though, this is a good
science fiction tale with an interesting protagonist.
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