Run Lab Rat Run (Modified 1) by Shawn C.  Butler-Review & Interview

RUN LAB RAT RUN
by Shawn C. Butler
Release Date August 11, 2021
Genre: adult, dystopian, sci-fi, futuristic

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 11, 2021.

Media’s eyebrows were once blue for nine weeks, her bones nearly dissolved and she spent a month smelling like salted pork, but no one ate her and she never died. She came close enough to require CPR and a genomic flush on several occasions, but she’s nearly indestructible. That’s what they told her on the bad days in the lab, but she knew it was a lie.

Genetic test subjects like her usually died by thirty, and they always died in pain.

But on her 21st birthday, she’s given a chance to escape the lab—she just has to run in the deadliest race on Earth so the company that owns her can do illegal off-book testing on her. If she finishes the race, and the tests work, she and her family will be safe and she might live forever. If she doesn’t, they’ll be deoptimized and dumped back, in natural slums to starve and die. In her world, the worst thing to be is merely human.

Or is it?

••••••••

REVIEW:RUN LAB RAT RUN is the first instalment in Shawn C. Butler’s futuristic MODIFIED sci-fi, dystopian series focusing on twenty-one year old ‘Baseline’ Media Conaill.

Told from first person perspective (Media) RUN LAB RAT RUN follows twenty-one year old ‘Baseline’ Media Conaill as she is invited to participate in the Modified Marathons, the most dangerous ultra-marathon in the world for enhanced runners but Media is not quite an enhanced human, our heroine is a human guinea pig; an embryonic lab rat sold by her parents to TTI, the TrumaniTech Corporation, in the aftermath of the Chrome Wars. Flagged for exceptional characteristics, Media would become the ward of TTI, a ‘baseline’ subjected to all sorts of entry level genetic modifications. As a Beta, Media would be the one of the few early-stage human subjects but in doing so, her lifespan would be greatly affected, not expected to live beyond thirty years. In an effort to release her brother and her family from obligations to TTI, Media accepted the invitation to the marathons, marathons that would prove to be more challenging and revealing than she could have ever imagined. With each successive leg of the marathon, Media’s endurance, speed and power increase, raising red flags with the officials, competitors, and ultimately the world outside.

RUN LAB RAT RUN is a story of both speculative and science fiction wherein the modification of human DNA becomes the norm for the rich and famous, and the old ‘normals’ or non-modified humans are treated with disdain and discrimination, relegated to the slums and less than optimal living conditions. Open to the best of the best, the Modified Marathons is akin to the ‘Hunger Games’™ such that to win means to save the lives of the people back home. Working together, each team selected has a mentor, a coach, and a various modified human competitors. Many will die; aggression and individual targeting the norm; success is the exception to the rule especially in a world struggling with the affects of global warming and environmental disasters.

Shawn C Butler pulls the reader into a world of genetic enhancements and mutations, artificial intelligence, robots and implants. There are examples of anthropomorphism, super human strength and speed, backroom deals, manipulations, secrets and lies all in an effort to create the ultimate warrior –for good or evil.

RUN LAB RAT RUN is a cautionary tale; a complex, thought-provoking and twisted story of specieism and discrimination, competition, power and control. My only complaint would be the lack of background information regarding the Chrome Wars, the environmental disasters, and the history as to how and why the world of enhanced human modifications came to be.

RUN LAB RAT RUN ends on a bit of a cliff hanger-you have been warned.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

TRC:  Hi Shawn and welcome to The Reading Café. Congratulations on the release of RUN LAB RAT RUN.

Shawn: Thanks!

TRC:  We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

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Shawn:  I’ve spent most of my adult life in the tech space, fascinated by what technology can do to improve business and human lives. But I’ve never really seen myself as a technologist. What I love are solutions; finding ways to fix things that have been broken for years. What I soon realized about the high-tech industry is that solutions are secondary to profit, and that search for profit (while a vital part of capitalism) tends to create as many problems as it solves. Sometimes more.

I think I started writing to express my frustration with this, first blogging and then long-form work. Maybe if I do this right, I won’t go back into tech…but we’ll see. When not working, I love to hike and run, travel and generally be outdoors. Also, I love ice cream. It’s a good thing I run a lot.

TRC: Who or what influenced your career in writing?

Shawn:  I’d guess the usual answer is that I read a lot of science fiction when I was young, and that got me started. And that’s true. But what I loved about SF compared to other genres was that it was usually focused on envisioning challenges and then finding solutions. It’s like the crime fiction of the future. Here’s the body or challenge. Here are the available tools. Here’s what happens if you solve the problem, or if you fail. The fact that the challenge is often existential—alien invasion, meteors, plagues, raging cyborgs, just makes it all the more entertaining.

In parallel, I blog about ultra-running and long distance day hikes. It was kind of inevitable that I’d try to blend science fiction with the outdoors at some point. Run Lab Rat Run is that point.

TRC:  What challenges or difficulties did you encounter writing and publishing this story?

Shawn:  Run Lab Rat Run is based on three things. First, advances in genetic engineering that I see deriving from CRISPR—leading inevitably to designer babies. Second, ultrarunning super-athletes. And third, the Barkley Marathons, a real race that drives incomprehensibly fit and fantastic athletes to miserable fates. Finding a way to combine all three in a way that would appeal to the average SF reader was difficult. Most of us don’t care much about lactate thresholds or fartlek training. And I didn’t want the result to be a caricature future where silly people do silly things just to make the story interesting. I think I got it right, but we’ll see.

TRC:  Would you please tell us something about the premise of RUN LAB RAT RUN?

Shawn:  Recent developments in genetic engineering mean that we’ll have the ability to eliminate many genetic diseases within a few years. Soon after that, it’ll be possible to genetically alter animals almost at will. And then human modifications will follow. The rich will travel to less regulated countries and come back pregnant with enhanced babies. Monetary class and genetic caste will be inextricably linked.

Run Lab Rat Run is about the resulting hierarchical world, where the “modified” rule over impoverished and nearly obsolete “natural” human beings. It’s like Gattaca, with a lot more rules and a deadly race in the middle—a race that gives one company CEO the chance to do illegal tests away from corporate oversight, and one runner the chance to earn her freedom. If she doesn’t die in the process.

TRC:  What kind of research/plotting did you do, and how long did you spend researching /plotting before beginning RUN LAB RAT RUN?

Shawn:  I don’t write hard science fiction, but realism is important to me. So I researched enough to have a general working knowledge of all salient topics, and then asked more intelligent people to read what I’d created so it didn’t sound ludicrous. RLRR research was more about the history of racial discrimination and caste systems than about genetics, but I spent a good deal of time on both. A few months, probably, with a lot of ongoing research as I wrote the book.

TRC:  How much of the story line is based in science fact vs science fiction?

Shawn:  When I sat down to write RLRR, I wanted a book that was science fiction only in the sense that it was a possible view of our near future. All of the technology and technical advances are meant to be predictions of what I think will happen. They are not fantastical, but all based on what’s occurring today projected forward. The world of RLRR is meant to be the real world, just 50+ years from now.

I believe we are headed toward a class system based on levels of genetic and technical modification, and that designer babies will be here much sooner than we think. This is the Pandora’s Box opened by CRISPR and related genetic engineering systems.

The sole exceptions to my rule about realistic technologies in the book are the Black Hole Drones, which rely on a flight technology that seems fanciful at best.

TRC:  Believability is an important factor in writing and reading science fiction / speculative fiction. How do you keep the story line believable in a genre that crosses the line between reality and fantasy?

Shawn:  I guess the question is what you mean by “believable.” Run Lab Rat Run is based almost entirely on projected technology, so it’s not hard in this case. Other things I’m working on are a little more fantastical, but to me believability is about internal consistency and respecting the reader. Build your world completely and honestly. Tell your story without factual lapses, leaps of faith and plot holes, and I think most readers will come along for the ride. I never thought the world of, say, The Expanse was objectively believable, but once I accepted the world as defined, I was on board for the duration.

TRC:  Is RUN LAB RAT RUN part of a series or a stand-alone. ?

Shawn:  RLRR the first in a trilogy about this particular protagonist and snapshot in future time, but it’s also part of a larger Modified meta-series that starts “today” with Beasts of Sonara (due out later this year). The trilogy of RLRR can be read on its own, or with other books in the Modified universe, but it doesn’t matter what order you read them in.

TRC:  Do you believe the cover image plays a deciding factor for many readers in the process of selecting a book or new series to read?

Shawn:  I do. I’ve bought a lot of books over the years, and with many of them the cover was definitely part of the decision process. I don’t know if I’d every have read Larry Niven as a kid if not for the fantastical PAJ cover art. It’s not everything, of course, but it undeniably helps.

TRC:  When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Shawn:  I think this has a lot to do with the planner vs. pantser question. I’d like to be more of a planner, doing nice outlines like bumpers the characters obey. But honestly, I write almost randomly to see what happens (including what the characters do), and then see if there’s a plot there. It’s not the most organized model in the world, but I get really bored and distracted following strict outlines.

TRC:  The mark of a good writer is to pull the reader into the storyline so that they experience the emotions along with the characters. What do you believe a writer must do to make this happen? Where do you believe writer’s fail in this endeavor?

Shawn:  This is different for all of us, but to me it’s about getting readers invested in a character or situation so they feel a connection to them. The stakes must feel personal, like of the way people attach themselves to football teams or other sports. And that only works if you create realistic people with character and flaws in situations with real stakes.

I suspect some writers fail at this when they make something so unrealistic or poorly structured that it’s impossible to sustain believability, and thus lose their trust and connection to what’s going on in the book. I remember thinking this about the book It, when the kids end up having an orgy in the sewer system (spoiler?). It was just so bizarre and unnecessary that it ruined my confidence in the author, the story and the characters. Not like Stephen King cares, of course, but what the heck?

TRC:  Do you listen to music while writing? If so, does the style of music influence the storyline direction? Characters?

Shawn:  I have in the past—usually techno, EDM or classical. I find music with lyrics distracting and for some reason a bit melancholy. Now I primarily try to write in coffee shops with ambient noise to help me concentrate, and forego the music. Also seems a bit less lonely. I don’t think the music ever impacted the storyline, but it might have impacted the energy level in some passages.

TRC:  What do you believe is the biggest misconception people have about authors?

Shawn:  I don’t know. Maybe the modern one is that most of them make money. It seems like almost no one does unless they’re very lucky. A second misconception is that any one “type” of person makes a good or bad author. Anyone, man or woman, Black or white, straight or gay, can write a great novel in any genre. I love seeing more diversity in what’s coming out.

TRC:  What is something that few, if anyone, know about you?

Shawn:  I once ate an entire raw white onion and chased it with a quart of orange juice. The result was like Coke + Mentos, except in my stomach and with more acid. When I exhaled, it smelled like burning plastic. It was not a pleasant experience. Not my brightest moment. Also, I am the Highlander.

TRC:  Who or what influenced your path towards science fiction?

Shawn:  I don’t know if it was a specific person or thing. When I was a kid, I’d stay up all night on weekends watching horror movies and science fiction. Then I read all the SF I could get my hands on, meaning the usual classics like Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Niven, etc. It was just what I loved. When I started writing, it never occurred to me to write anything else. I read a lot of mystery back in the day, too, so I’ll probably try my hand at mysteries in the future.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Shawn:  I’m polishing Beasts of Sonara, which is due out in November. This is the first book in the modified universe, and a very distant prequel to RLRR. After that is a stand-alone sci-fi horror novel that’ll be…different. I can’t wait to see that one in print.

TRC:  Would you like to add anything else?

Shawn:  I can pretty much guarantee you Run Lab Rat Run is the best ultrarunning science fiction novel you’ll ever read.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food

Salt and things covered in salt, with guacamole. And salt.

Favorite Dessert

Ice cream, German chocolate pie or hot cinnamon rolls.

Favorite TV Show

The Expanse? Honestly, any great bit of art whether it’s social commentary like Flea Bag, fantasy like the first season of Penny Dreadful or the first six seasons of Game of Thrones, etc. My favorite changes daily.

Last Movie You Saw

The last good movie was Palm Springs. Lots of nonsense since then.

Dark or Milk Chocolate

Yes, as long as they’re European.

Secret Celebrity Crush

Anna Kendrick. Not really a secret. Anna!!! Such a nerd, I am.

Last Vacation Destination

Denali National Park in Alaska.

Do you have any pets?

I have several house plants with minimal needs—pathos, the house cats of the plant world.

Last book you read

Hail Mary by Andy Weir, like everybody else. That’s great science fiction. Before that I had a weird month where I read all of the Jack Reacher novels. Still not sure what that was all about.

TRC:  Thank you Shawn for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the release of RUN LAB RAT RUN. We wish you all the best.