This was a pretty decent short story.

This 46-page short story is an exploration of the potential for creating designer babies by genetic engineering, allowing potential parents to choose the physical and intellectual attributes which will potentially lead to different futures for this child over the years. Their future success and personality depending on the choices made by the parents. Choices which are made by viewing videos made by this fertility lab, Vitek, showing the outcomes of various potential choices, the potential succe...

You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles is the first book I have read from the The Forward Collection series. This collection I stumbled across, quite by accident, it is the brainchild of American Author and Screenwriter Blake Crouch. He asks the question “How does anyone know at the moment of a scientific discovery where their work will ultimately lead?”. Brilliant question hey? He also asks, “Should we let that uncertainty stop forward momentum, or do we roll the dice and let the c...

3 StarsBook five of the six title Forward series for me. This one by the author of A Gentleman In Moscow - which I read earlier this year and enjoyed - so I had high hopes going in.But, overall it was just okay.I thought the first part - half to three-fourths or so - we're very good and built up my expectations for the ending. The idea basically being could you predict the life of your future child in the same way your credit score predicts how good you are with money. The scenarios presented we...

It asks more questions than it answers and ends on a somewhat unresolved note, but from a literary point of view I think this story is head and shoulders above the others I’ve read so far in this FORWARD collection of SF novellas (4 down, 2 to go). It’s about genetic engineering gone too far, but it’s also about relationships and self-knowledge.Now excuse me while I go off and think about this some more. Full review to come.

This addition to the Forward collection was such an interesting idea. And it was one of the more compelling stories of the bunch, I think. It's essentially about genetic engineering, which is, of course, nothing new, but the way Towles tells this story was very exciting. And a little bit scary. Sam and his wife want to have a child, but being wealthy modern parents, they also want to give said child the best chance possible. To have a good life. To be happy. To be successful. That's what leads t...

Another creepy, futuristic, nail biter, mind bender, brain cell fryer and mouth gaper book from the Forward series!I think I’m about to hide under the curtains and act like a voicemail keep saying: “Sorry, the good reviewer you write comments cannot be reached at this moment. After this tone, please pray for her not to get more rejections from Netgalley and get extra credit from banks to buy more books online. Bippp!” You may see that without starting my nighttime Chardonnay and book appointment...

I've loved every story in the FORWARD collection from Prime Reading, but this one left me cold in the third act. The idea is so interesting, the world is so well crafted, and the characters are all clear and specific, but the story never really escaped the high concept for me.

I’m not really a big fan of sci-fi so I doubt whether I’ll read all five of the novella/short stories in Amazon’s Forward Series, but I could not pass this one by since I am a big fan of Amor Towles.The story seems to take place in the future, but yet it doesn’t feel very far off from the present. It eerily paints a picture of the future implications of genetic engineering, designer fertility clinics that offer more than your choice of sex and eye color of your baby. It was pretty scary mainly b...

3.5 STARSRead in one sitting or rather.... road trip. It is less than 50 pages! I didn't want to start a new novel and I wasn't in the middle of another, so this was the perfect read for a day trip.Totally entertained me and made my trip more enjoyable (hate sitting in the car just being a passenger!)Part Sci-Fi , but also seemed like it could be something in the near future (SCARY) where parents choose what kind of child they want! Including gender and intelligence. What could possibly go wrong...

Amor Towles proves he is the master of words, yet again. In this science fiction novella, he explores nature vs. nurture. By using foundational information, biographical histories, predictive behavior patterns, and patterned growth development, Vitek promotes a new type of genetic engineering that the main character, Sam, is confronted with. But, given the choice to alleviate one of the more unsubstantial characteristics, what would be sacrificed and how would that effect the child’s future? “...

Of all of the novellas in the Forward Collection on Amazon, You Have Arrived at Your Destination was my favorite. Genetic engineering scares the hell out of me and to see it so vividly in print was downright terrifying. I absolutely loved the ending! The entire collection is interesting but if you only read one of the offerings, read this one.

The blurb says most of it. This is a short about Nature Vs. Nurture.But what it doesn't say is just how much it's really about determinism. Those moments in our lives that make us reel back and take stock and make us set off in that new direction.Are you a Third Act kind of person?Rewrite the script, yo!I like this one a LOT. I don't like having everything set out for me, either. I want to drive to my own destination, thank you.

It’s not an unrealistic story about genetic engineering and the moral dilemmas that can come with that. Who doesn’t want to give a child a leg up in the world? Wouldn’t it be nice to knock out genetic issues like sickle cell anemia, or muscular atrophy, or cystic fibrosis, or hereditary cancers, or early-onset heart disease? And who does not wish for their child to be naturally happy and easy to make friends with, and creative, and driven, and just plain old lucky? What would you choose if you c...

Since A Gentleman in Moscow is one of my favourite books I just had to read this short story (#4 of the Forward Collection from Amazon Original Stories.)You Have Arrived at Your Destination tells the story of a couple who decide to use new genetic engineering methods to have their first child. The idea is that the child's genes are "nudged" slightly in different ways and projections are given for the possible futures of each variation. Scary stuff and the husband finds himself becoming less and

Designer Babies-R-Us. Sam and Annie are debating on what type baby they want to have.They enjoyed ‘Gin & Tonic’s’, while enjoying the process of picking out their unborn baby. Cheers…Sam & Annie want a boy! They picked out the name Daniel. We look into the future at Daniels life and various ages. This very short story is well written - ( I read the short ebook version and listened to the Audiobook) > combined it didn’t take much time. The Audiobook added quality to the text...But overall .....th...

YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT YOUR DESTINATION was a science fiction tale about eugenics, though that word is never mentioned.The husband of a couple goes to a company called Vitek which is able to produce a child for them with whatever genes the parents would like. What's different about Vitek, though, is that they are able to show the parents videos of what their child would be like, depending on what "programming" they chose. It's a disturbing and intriguing idea to write about, so I'm not sure why I g...

This is my favorite story of the FORWARD collection! They have all been excellent, but this one had a touch of humor that I loved.The story is divided in three acts, and this part is relevant to the narrative. I am not going to go and describe each part because then we would get into spoilers and the story itself is so short I urge you to go read it.I loved the main character, I loved the supporting character and the reactions along the way. It was different than the others stories in the sense

Real Rating: 2.5* of fiveThis is one of the Forward Collection, short stories...this one's 46pp...based on an idea by Blake Crouch to explore the nature of change, innovation, and society in fiction. I didn't feel this entry suited the brief. It's too gee-whiz about self-driving cars, a thing that's already entered its second decade of reality...it's entirely too wowee-toledo about the idea of in vitro genetic manipulation, something that's basically ready to roll as soon as a generation less sq...

The fallacy of statistics and averages versus lifeIt goes without saying that our lives are intricate and multifaceted. But they also tend to have a larger arc that takes us from a position of youthful self-assurance through a period of setbacks, leading to a third phase in which, if we’re lucky, we’ve confronted our limitations and become deeper people ready to lead richer lives.Another book on gene editing, after I just finished The Island of Doctor Moreau.Here we are not confronted with manbe...