Rob O'Hara's science fiction drama The Human Library is the story of Marvin Granger, an IT professional working for the Denver Veterans Administration hospital, who is known for being a maverick for not following the rules, is "kicked upstairs" when one too many bad incidents requires his boss to transfer him to another government agency. He ends up working for a secretive government facility in the Nevada desert, so far out in the middle of nowhere that it's a six-hour drive from Las Vegas. Worse, the facility, known as "the Tombstone" because of its appearance, is only a few miles from his former home town of Bedly, a place he left nine years ago and swore he'd never return to.
Marvin finds his old friend Gracie, owner of the local diner, whom he last saw five years ago when he came back for his grandfather's funeral. When she discovers Marvin has a job at the Tombstone, she urges him not to go, that there are weird things happening there that she can't put her finger on.
Not having much choice - he had effectively burned his bridges at his previous assignment and getting a new job without a reference would be difficult - he says he's going to have to. He mentions he'll stay at one of the two motels in town until he can find a place, only to be told by Gracie that the Tombstone has booked every room in town, and has done so for years to prevent tourists from staying in the area. Gracie offers to rent him the house he sold her five years ago when he settled his grandfather's estate.
Marvin arrives there just after sunset, but the place has so many memories and has such a decrepit appearance, that he is afraid to stay there and instead sleeps in his truck. Waking up the next morning, he is unkempt and sore from all the contortions that sleeping in a pickup truck can cause. He drives out to the Tombstone, and the guard informs him he is late; Nevada is on Pacific time, while the clock in his truck is still on Mountain time. He finds a parking space, grabs a clean shirt out of his suitcase, and changes in the parking lot, then meets his boss, who suggests he should fire Marvin both for being late and inconveniencing him by making him leave a meeting. Worse, Marvin has missed the new employee orientation, so he has no idea what they do there.
Arriving at an impressive server farm of brand new equipment, Marvin discovers his job is not to do IT work as he is trained, but to deliver the mail. In the process, one of the mailpieces he has to deliver is addressed to Katie McCubbin, the co-worker in his department back in Denver. As it turns out, when she stood up for him to their old boss, she too was transferred.
Along the way, Marvin discovers the horrible secret behind the Tombstone: they are using the DNA of dead people to clone them, a secret which involves him and Katie in a web of unspeakable horror, murder, and the possibility of either another world war, or the total destruction of an irreplaceable resource of incalculable value to mankind.
The book (and a sample chapter) is available on Amazon Kindle
.
This book contains the following tropes:
- Clone Army: Rex fears that this is what the government is working on.
- Clones Are People, Too: They actually look like real human beings, but are manufactured on the equivalent of a 3D-printer.
- Clone Degeneration: If a clone ever discovers it has died, it will become psychotic.
- Gone Horribly Right: The government is using the DNA of important dead people to clone them. Apparently it works.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: When clones start to become psychotic.
- Mercy Kill: Rex makes Marvin come with him as he drives them and the Nikola Tesla Clone out to the Nevada desert so he can be euthanized after he discovers he was dead and becomes psychotic.
- Noodle Incident: Marvin is transferred from the VA Hospital in Denver to Nevada after not following the rules - which if he followed them, he'd never get anything done - which unexpectedly caused a power failure. What he did isn't clear, but apparently involved a goldfish, that his boss asks him if he would risk the lives of hundreds of veterans to save? He points out it wasn't to save the goldfish, as it was dead anyway.
- You Do NOT Want To Know: Gracie comes out to the house to bring Marvin and his co-worker some food, only Marvin isn't there with Katie. He's there with his grandpa, whom the last time Gracie saw him was five years ago when he was buried. Marvin realizes Gracie would never believe him if he were to try to explain that the man is a clone of his late grandfather in an experiment by the government Gone Horribly Right. Worse, if he discovers he was a clone or had died, he could become psychotic. Marvin gets her attention and explains that the man's mental state is very fragile.
“Well, he’s not dead, obviously. But he doesn’t remember he died. And if he finds out, bad things could happen.”
Gracie leaned to the side to peek around Marvin. “What kind of bad things?”
“Trust me. You don’t want to know.” - You Cloned Hitler!: According to Rex, the government did this. Twice.
