Convergence
Reviews
Robert Tulip (Australia) BookTalk
http://www.booktalk.org/post46129.html#46129
[abridged]

I have now read Convergence, and can strongly recommend it as an excellent discussion of major ethical issues.

Corruption in academic science is a serious problem. When research leaders fake their results, favour incompetency, steal each other’s knowledge, undermine others for personal motives, and demonstrate indifference regarding systems to uncover such malfeasance, the trust and collegiality on which the system relies quickly breaks down. Convergence, a novel by Christopher Paul Turner, is a detailed study of precisely such events, providing an illuminating forensic morality tale about the perverse incentives that govern success and failure in the modern competitive university.

Convergence should be required reading for anyone wanting to understand the ethical realities of the laboratory jungle. Outsiders imagine that scientists are high-minded and objective, but unscrupulous individuals can easily trade on this trust and respect to rise to career success despite being lazy, stupid, malicious, deceitful and fraudulent.

Convergence is a morality tale [and] its lesson is that broad strategic goals such as the pursuit of truth and health mean nothing when corrupt schemers can work the system for their own advantage. The lack of ethics built into the Darwinian cut-throat world of scientific grants and papers seems to be a major underlying reason for this systemic failure.

I enjoyed Convergence for its depth of insight into academic politics and morality………One line from the book that I really liked was that brain cells that can’t form networks die, with the implication that the same thing is true for people.  The widespread reliance on superficial impressions results in networking opportunities going to those who create a good social and political image, with excluded people suffering social death.  In science this behaviour can easily undermine the merit principle.  For all their high intellect, scientists and doctors still act on the basis of heirarchical and instinctive emotion.

Tony Brennan (Ireland) Library Thing

Dear Christopher,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read and review your book. Although I am an accountant by profession, I have an earlier scientific background. The book was an excellent read and a page turner. The twist in the last chapter was unexpected. I would award the book for my review 4 /4.5 stars out of 5 stars. The book intrigued me from the first chapter and the development of the plot against the medical/scientific background was expertly managed by the author. The idea of a narrator being interviewed by the reporter as a means of progressing the story was a brilliant device and the scientific analyses was not too difficult to understand. Again thanks for allowing me to read this "Tale of four Women ". Best wishes in your future writing and publishing career from Ireland.


Elizabeth Schulenberg (USA) NeedMoreShelves
http://needmoreshelves.blogspot.com/2009/03/review-convergence-by-christopher.html
[abridged]

My thoughts:
He says on his website that he has gone to great lengths to make the science easy for a lay person to understand - I agree he has simplified many of the processes that go into scientific research. I, for one, found those aspects of the novel fascinating. I spent a lot of time in college in science labs, and it brought back a whole bunch of memories.

As for the meat of the novel, it is a unique, engrossing story of 4 young researchers trying to make their way in the cutthroat, dangerous world of biomedical research. Each of the main protagonists are smart and sympathetic, and each is placed in an untenable position. Turner also includes an unnamed Narrator, as the storyteller, and a Reporter, as the "storytell-ee", to connect the intertwining tales together.  I would say it would certainly be of great interest to someone considering a career in research.