So far, I'm enjoying The List--it's funny and I like the premise that a group of famous people were cloned and are just finding out about it. It gets to the heart of the nature vs. nurture debate and I like that the author has come down on the side of nurture, or at least against nature.
It's interesting that the first plot point--the protagonist finding out he's a clone of a Founding Father--comes at 15% which is earlier that normal (20-25%). I thought perhaps there would be a bigger event around 25% which would be the real first plot point (FPP) but so far there hasn't been and I'm up to 30%. The reason the FPP is usually at 25% is to give the reader a chance to identify with the protagonist during the set-up: to see what his or her life was like before the big change, to identify needs or gaps, and to make us like the character. In the case of Tom in The List, I'm not overly invested in him so far, perhaps because he didn't have enough set-up before getting into the action.
I'm looking forward to seeing where the book goes from here.
(Notes after finishing)
I enjoyed The List even though the science was suspect and the situations the protagonists were put in strained plausibility. That's because I read this book to be entertained by pop fiction, not to change my life. As pop fiction, it had what it needed: heroic protagonists, interesting bad guys, an intriguing concept, suspense and action that kept the story moving forward, and a good amount of humor from the side-kick characters.
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