The Duplicate ¦ Strange Attractors

Bifurcation - an entity duplicating itself - is the unlikely subject of these two books. In The Duplicate, David finds a duplicating machine and, in a moment of weakness, makes a copy of himself to attend a family party while he visits his girlfriend. Strange Attractors tells of Max's involvement with Sylvan - a scientist, and Eve - his daughter, and their duplicates.

Both books degenerate into a frenzy of barely credible activity. In the first David's duplicate duplicates himself and all three struggle for the regard of one girl and for survival. The second climbs to a delicious vignette of the three main characters living in a time-travelled luxury home in the year 33,019 BC.

William Sleator is too good a writer to allow this kind of output to become standard fare for his readers. Perhaps we should buy this unhappy pair as an example of how not to write convincing and stimulating literature, designed to enrich children's emotional lives.