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WORK TITLE: Right of Capture
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Boston
STATE: MA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.pelekinesis.com/catalog/isadora_deese-right_of_capture.html * https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isadora_Deese * https://www.linkedin.com/in/isadoradeese/ * http://biobuilder.org/board-member-staff/isadora-deese/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2017011817
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2017011817
HEADING: Deese, Isadora
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001 10363816
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008 170130n| azannaabn |n aaa c
010 __ |a no2017011817
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca10691868
040 __ |a InNd |b eng |e rda |c InNd
053 _0 |a PS3604.E2987
100 1_ |a Deese, Isadora
370 __ |e Acton (Mass.) |f Kentucky
373 __ |a Indiana University, Bloomington |s 1990 |t 1993
373 __ |a Boston University |s 1993 |t 1994
373 __ |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology
375 __ |a female
377 __ |a eng
670 __ |a Right of capture, 2016: |b title page (Isadora Deese) page 457 (a native of Kentucky; is a freelance writer and lab admin at MIT; a graduate of Indiana University and Boston University Master’s Playwriting Program; helped coordinate some of the first International Genetically Engineered Machine competitions at MIT; co-wrote Adventures in Synthetic Biology; hired in 2012 to write five short films on the history of biosafety and the future of synthetic biology for the National Science Foundation; currently on the Board of the BioBuilder Educational Foundation; lives in the Boston area)
670 __ |a Isadora Deese, LinkedIn, viewed January 25, 2017 via WWW |b (education: Indiana University Bloomington, Bachelor’s Degree, English/Theater, 1990-1993; Boston University, MA, English/Playwriting, 1993-1994)
670 __ |a Right of capture paperback, Isadora Deese, Small Press, Author bio, viewed January 25, 2017 via WWW |b (author city, Acton, MA)
PERSONAL
Born in KY. Children: three.
EDUCATION:Graduated from Indiana University and Boston University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, administrative assistant, Department of Biological Engineering.
WRITINGS
Coauthor of the comic book Adventures in Synthetic Biology with Drew Endy and the Synthetic Biology Working Group.
SIDELIGHTS
Isadora Deese is an American writer. Born in Kentucky, she graduated from Indiana University before completing a master’s degree from Boston University’s Playwriting Program. Deese’s style of writing fiction covers the intersection of art, nature, and technology and the way it impacts the future. She coauthored the comic book Adventures in Synthetic Biology with Drew Endy and the Synthetic Biology Working Group. It became the first comic to appear on the cover of Nature. When not writing, she works as an administrative assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Deese published her first novel, Right of Capture, in 2016, highlighting a case of sibling rivalry taken to the extreme. Greedy entrepreneur Bradley Dimond convinced the Goreys to give him their twins so he can help develop a cure for them. Instead, he brought the brother and sister pair to a decommissioned missile silo and conducted all manner of experiments on them to try to harness the powers that they are capable of. Judge has the ability to create portals to the unknown, called vaks, that stretch beyond our knowledge of physics. His sister, Roan, is able to create steamers, a type of tornado that goes beyond the laws of nature. Growing up in such conditions, however, caused the pair to distrust everyone around them, including each other. The pair is capable of destroying not only each other but the entire planet. Politically, the Human Genome Protection Act may be the only thing that can help them amid all the corruption, greed, and environmental exploitation that surround them.
Reviewing the book in Foreword Reviews, Vernieda Vergara observed that “the story focuses on the effects caused by personal interests and how small incidents can add up to world-changing events. The lack of deep characterization doesn’t serve as a pitfall, however.” Vergara also took note of Deese’s “deft handling of” the sizeable cast, calling its management “masterful.” In a review in Voice of Youth Advocates, Lynne Farrell Stover mentioned that the writing in the novel “can be uneven, descriptions redundant, characters inconsistent, profanity unnecessary, and dialog stilted.” However, as the first novel in a planned series, Stover conceded that Right of Capture “fills its role of introducing complex characters” and “posing interesting questions.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly stated: “Technical and complex, the story unwinds with the fast pace of a thriller.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, July 4, 2016, review of Right of Capture, p. 45.
Voice of Youth Advocates, October 1, 2016, Lynne Farrell Stover, review of Right of Capture, p. 74.
ONLINE
BioBuilder, http://biobuilder.org/ (March 19, 2017), author profile.
Foreword Reviews, https://www.forewordreviews.com/ (November 9, 2016), Vernieda Vergara, review of Right of Capture.
ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/ (April 28, 2017), author profile.*
Massachusetts Institute of Tec..., Cambridge
Entertainment and Arts, Literature, History
MA, English/Creative Writing
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Biological Engineering
Cambridge, MA, United States
About
A native of Kentucky, Isadora Deese is a graduate of Indiana University and Boston University Master’s Playwriting Program. Her fiction explores the evolving connections between technology, art, and nature that are shaping our near future.
Isadora helped coordinate some of the first iGEM competitions at MIT. She co-wrote "Adventures in Synthetic Biology" with Drew Endy and the Synthetic Biology Working Group, illustrated by Chuck Wadey. It was the first comic to be on the cover of Nature.
Isadora Deese
Isadora Deese is a writer, administrative assistant at MIT, and mother of three. Her Young Adult science fiction novel Right of Capture (Pelekinesis, 2016), is an adventure mired in family entanglements, cosmic mysteries, and resource wildcatters. She helped coordinate some of the first iGEM competitions at MIT, and co-wrote Adventures in Synthetic Biology with Drew Endy and the Synthetic Biology Working Group, illustrated by Chuck Wadey. Past projects have been with SynBERC, BioBuilder, MIT Press, WHO, and the Los Angeles Police Protective League. Isadora received her Masters in Creative Writing from Boston University’s Playwriting Program.
3/11/2017 Book Review Index Plus Saved Articles
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Print Marked Items
Right of Capture
Vernieda Vergara
ForeWord.
(Nov. 9, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 ForeWord
http://www.forewordmagazine.com
Full Text:
Isadora Deese; RIGHT OF CAPTURE; Pelekinesis (Fiction: Science Fiction) 22.95 ISBN: 9781938349478
Byline: Vernieda Vergara
At its heart, Right of Capture explores the various ways that human weaknesses can be exploited.
Genetic evolution, corporate interests, and politics collide in Isadora Deese's Right of Capture. Focusing on two
remarkable siblings, this pageturning sciencefiction thriller highlights issues impacting today's society, such as
capitalist control of scientific breakthroughs and the price of advancement.
Brotherandsister duo Roan and Judge Gorey were born with mysterious abilities; Roan can summon lethal monsters
that take the shape of anything with DNA that they touch, and Judge can create portals into another dimension. A
powerful corporation promises their parents that it can remove these dangerous powers, but their true intentions veer
into the sinister. Roan eventually escapes captivity to reunite with her family, but her actions initiate a catastrophic
string of events that threaten the world.
A breakneck pace makes Right of Capture a compelling read. The siblings, their allies, and even their enemies hardly
get a moment's respite on the journey to a thrilling, if devastating, conclusion. The actionpacked narrative
compensates for the ambiguous explanations regarding the source of the siblings' powers. The mystery of whether
Roan and Judge are the next stage of evolution or the result of an experiment form the novel's core, and the
conundrum's answer may ultimately prove unsatisfying.
Likewise, deep exploration of the individual characters' psyches is not a priority in Right of Capture. Instead, the story
focuses on the effects caused by personal interests and how small incidents can add up to worldchanging events. The
lack of deep characterization doesn't serve as a pitfall, however. The intricate weaving of multiple subplots and deft
handling of a large cast of characters is quite masterful. The twists and turns, combined with surprising motivations and
contradictions, keep the characterization from seeming slight.
At its heart, Right of Capture explores the various ways that human weaknesses can be exploited. But when the people
involved wield dangerous powers, the shape of that abuse can have terrible repercussions. The ominous conclusion
closes the chapter on Roan's immediate conflict with the corporation but sets the stage for further confrontations to
come certain to be the welcome subject of muchanticipated future installments.
Vernieda Vergara
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Vergara, Vernieda. "Right of Capture." ForeWord, 9 Nov. 2016. Book Review Index Plus, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=BRIP&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA470108837&it=r&asid=d859a654eb605f3f569ad93422660e70.
Accessed 11 Mar. 2017.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A470108837
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Deese, Isadora. Right of Capture
Lynne Farrell Stover
Voice of Youth Advocates.
39.4 (Oct. 2016): p74.
COPYRIGHT 2016 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
3Q * 3P * J * S
Deese, Isadora. Right of Capture. Pelekinesis, 2016. 460p. $22.95 Trade pb. 9781938349478.
An extreme case of sibling rivalry overrides all compassion as recently escaped Roan and Judge Gorey's vicious hatred
for each other threatens to destroy the world. Two years ago, selfserving entrepreneur Bradley Dimond managed to
persuade their clueless parents to turn over custody of the twins to him with a promise of a lifesaving treatment. Held
in a decommissioned missile silo where scientists worked to contain and control their destructive powers, the sister and
brother became extremely bitter and distrustful. Roans ability to defy the laws of nature using her "steamers,"
supernatural tornadoes, continues to cause death and destruction. Judge is able to break the boundries of the universe
with "vaks," portals to the unknown, and he uses this terrifying power unremorsefully. Politics, greed, and survival
intertwine as the fate of the siblings and the salvation of the planet seems to rest on passage of the nefarious Human
Genome Protection Act.
The adult characters in the story bring with them the contemporary issues of environmental exploitation, unethical
public policy, and government corruption. The young characters, with the exception of Roans best friend, Walt, are
terrifying biohazards. While posing some interesting scientific concepts, the actionfilled story is implausible at times.
The writing can be uneven, descriptions redundant, characters inconsistent, profanity unnecessary, and dialog stilted.
This first book in a projected fivepart series fills its role of introducing complex characters, posing interesting
questions, and foreshadowing dire events.Lynne Farrell Stover.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Stover, Lynne Farrell. "Deese, Isadora. Right of Capture." Voice of Youth Advocates, Oct. 2016, p. 74+. Book Review
Index Plus, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=BRIP&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA467831155&it=r&asid=4b6ea01e6e3e7e73ac585042fe71fb19.
Accessed 11 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A467831155
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Right of Capture
Publishers Weekly.
263.27 (July 4, 2016): p45.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Right of Capture
Isadora Deese. Pelekinesis, $22.95 trade paper (460p) ISBN 9781938349478
Fraternal twins born 12 years apart are only one of the scientific mysteries to be found in Deese's science fantasy
adventure, the first in a fivebook cycle set in the presentday U.S. Roan has been held against her will in a silo for
years (the exact location is never made clear), treated as a guinea pig by Dimond, the man her parents entrusted to keep
her safe and train her unusual abilities. The secrets of her powers, like those of her brother, Judge, lie in the depths of
her DNA, and these secrets have the potential to change the world. As Roan and Judge make desperate bids for
freedom, their stories form a very small part of a much larger, potentially much more sinister picture, with threads
unraveling as the siblings travel separately along the eastern seaboard with a variety of enemies and allies. Technical
and complex, the story unwinds with the fast pace of a thriller, peppered with the nastiest aspects of sibling rivalry and
family tension. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Associates. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Right of Capture." Publishers Weekly, 4 July 2016, p. 45+. Book Review Index Plus, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=BRIP&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA457302883&it=r&asid=a6952dae7abb3003fee3f50c411f0fdb.
Accessed 11 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A457302883
Right of Capture
Reviewed by Vernieda Vergara
November 9, 2016
At its heart, Right of Capture explores the various ways that human weaknesses can be exploited.
Genetic evolution, corporate interests, and politics collide in Isadora Deese’s Right of Capture. Focusing on two remarkable siblings, this page-turning science-fiction thriller highlights issues impacting today’s society, such as capitalist control of scientific breakthroughs and the price of advancement.
Brother-and-sister duo Roan and Judge Gorey were born with mysterious abilities; Roan can summon lethal monsters that take the shape of anything with DNA that they touch, and Judge can create portals into another dimension. A powerful corporation promises their parents that it can remove these dangerous powers, but their true intentions veer into the sinister. Roan eventually escapes captivity to reunite with her family, but her actions initiate a catastrophic string of events that threaten the world.
A breakneck pace makes Right of Capture a compelling read. The siblings, their allies, and even their enemies hardly get a moment’s respite on the journey to a thrilling, if devastating, conclusion. The action-packed narrative compensates for the ambiguous explanations regarding the source of the siblings’ powers. The mystery of whether Roan and Judge are the next stage of evolution or the result of an experiment form the novel’s core, and the conundrum’s answer may ultimately prove unsatisfying.
Likewise, deep exploration of the individual characters’ psyches is not a priority in Right of Capture. Instead, the story focuses on the effects caused by personal interests and how small incidents can add up to world-changing events. The lack of deep characterization doesn’t serve as a pitfall, however. The intricate weaving of multiple subplots and deft handling of a large cast of characters is quite masterful. The twists and turns, combined with surprising motivations and contradictions, keep the characterization from seeming slight.
At its heart, Right of Capture explores the various ways that human weaknesses can be exploited. But when the people involved wield dangerous powers, the shape of that abuse can have terrible repercussions. The ominous conclusion closes the chapter on Roan’s immediate conflict with the corporation but sets the stage for further confrontations to come—certain to be the welcome subject of much-anticipated future installments.
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The author of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the author for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.