Anna to the Infinite Power

by Mildred Ames

A 12-year-old math whiz accidentally learns the startling facts about her true identity and her role in an important secret experiment.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Dystopia, Childrens, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy

202 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

US writer of novels for older children, a few of them fantasy - See more at: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

No, (to respond to other reviewers), I can see how you can say that this really isn't a children's book, esp. after the devastating epilogue. But the author knows that one should not talk down to children, and knows that many are capable of handling heavy, provocative material. It's a little dated, as near-future SF can't help become, but if you can still find value in the books "1984" and "2001" you can find value here.

Explorations of the Holocaust, of cloning, of eugenics, of musical or mathematical genius, of scientific hubris, of overpopulation, all work together to encourage the reader, age 10 up, to think about themes of identity, community, family, and the difference between intelligence and wisdom.

I make it sound earnest, even preachy, but it's not. It reads like an adventure combined with a coming-of-age story. I recommend it, if you can find it (my copy came from a university library) and I will look for more by the author.

Off to Google for Reverie by Clara Muller and Love Story by Mancini. (The former may be invented for the story.)

Oscar Wilde is quoted:
“After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own. Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one’s tears.”

Author says, through Anna's dad, "Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and Mendelssohn never turned out anything with substance. They were shallow men. Beethoven now--he storms, he raves, he growls. He takes us to the depths of hell and lifts us to the skies."

[Cinco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young adult book about cloning, a Holocaust survivor, and a Big Brother-like society? Sign me up. I loved this when I was in middle school, and I reread it a couple of years ago and still thought it was pretty awesome.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books as a child, along with Wait Till Helen Comes, by Mary Downing Hahn. The story is as unbelievably wonderful as I remember. The futuristic tone is well-done, without getting into complicated jargon that would be overdone in this story. Essentially, the story is about identity, adolescence, "individuation," concepts that are relatable to every human being, clone or not. I found the story eerily comparable to the rigid and overwhelming programming in school systems today, an effort to turn children out as perfect citizens, team players. The story asks the reader to consider the individual, not the team. It was very relatable to my generation, with the unreliable adults wrapped up in their own problems, corrupt bureaucracy, etc., and children having to save themselves often from the adults themselves. This story is so, so good. I don't know if it's still in print. If not, it needs to be. Please get it out on the shelves so another generation of children can read and feel inspired.

[Cera · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of my favourite books in elementary school & junior high, and held up well on adult rereading. It doesn't really work as a modern book about cloning because the science is so wrong (clones being mental & emotional duplicates as well as genetically identical), but it definitely works as a horror novel about a very broken young woman discovering terrible secrets about herself. The dystopian future is dated (explicit references to how much better things were in the 70s, plus the super-bright teenagers are unaware of biotech/cloning/etc in a way that'd be impossible in 2009), but this probably won't bother a lot of young readers, who are definitely the target audience. Recommended, but if the kid is young or very sensitive be warned there's some horrifying Auschwitz scenes.

[Flora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, my God, this book. I re-read it last year and it was just as amazing as it was the first time I read it, a hundred years ago. Unlike any other children's novel I've ever read -- the main character is a sociopathic child genius who discovers that she was cloned from a German scientist and Auschwitz survivor. Absolutely incredible.

[Michelina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in 1985 and it still sticks with me. It’s where I learned the word “doppelgänger”.

[Fred Rothganger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was amazed at the quality of science fiction in this simple YA novel. It is set in a near-future world, where resources have grown thin, and the elite live in secured enclaves. They have access to the latest computer technology, where everyone can connect to information networks and output stuff on their own printer!

OK, it does date itself quite a bit, but it was a projection into the 1990s. Even Asimov makes some pretty hilarious mispredictions. FWIW, the technology described was pretty accurate for the 90s.

The main storyline explores cloning and its impact on one family. As typical with YA fiction, the central character is coming of age, and discovering that she is awesome. She is the clone, copied from someone with extraordinary talent.

She struggles with her own identity. Is she herself, or someone else? The core of the story is her journey from merely a copy of someone else into her own person.

Of course, the evil government that made the clones doesn't like that. They plan to exterminate her, and all the others. Thanks to the love of the most important man in her life, she escapes.

I read this book in the early 80s, not long after it came out. Recently my family rewatched the film adaptation (a rather low budget made-for-tv film). I felt the need to remember the "real" story, so I bought the paperback. Unfortunately, it is not in ebook, and pretty much out of print in general. Sad. Anyway, it was well worth the 3-4 hours of my precious existence to read it again.

One thing that struck me is how much it is like today's YA fiction, even though it was written back when YA wasn't such a big fad.

[Reta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books as a child. I originally picked it up because the main character had the same name I did. The sibling connection is strong, which I can really relate to, and Anna's situation is uniquely different. I loved the eerie tone of the book and the thought-provoking questions it implied. The plot is scientifically unrealistic, but I was shocked by the ending. And any book that can shock me is a good read.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Complex study of someone finding her true self

11-year-old Anna Hart, the human calculator, seems to have some problems dealing with people; she also has a few problems like kleptomania and being amoral.

One day Anna does not consult her INFAT (a computer that tells her whether it is safe to go to locations) and sees her doppelgänger at a clothing store and she decides to investigate; this will lead her to a secret about herself and a person once known as Anna Zimmerman.

We notice through the story that her brother Rowan goes from hating Anna to helping and maybe even liking her. This could lead to a lifesaving situation for the whole family.

An exotic-looking and mysterious substitute music history teacher from school, Michaela Dupont is not helping; if anything she seems to be aggravating the situation (or is she supposed to be guiding the child to some end.) Anna at first suspects Michaela of being evil.

There is a lot of danger and mystery in the story. Stranger still is that Anna seems to become more human. You will find yourself kibitzing during potential escape scenes. In the end, you decide who the good guys are and who the bad are.

A movie based on this novel is “Anna to the Infinite Power” by Mildred Ames. The Novel and movie are closely aligned.
Dina Merrill as Sarah Hart
Martha Byrne as Anna Hart
Mark Patton as Rowan Hart
Jack Gilford as Dr. Henry Jelliff

If you find this story intriguing then you may want to read the Replica book series by Marilyn Kaye, starting with “Amy Number Seven.”

[P.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting story about the Holocaust and cloning.

[Mely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Childhood favorite. Or not favorite really; it gave me the creeps. Eerie book about cloning and government manipulation, precursor in some ways to my most adored Cyteen. Has strong incestuous undertones between non-blood-related siblings forced to rely on each other because everyone else is untrustworthy (also much like Cyteen, now that I think of it). I reread it a few years ago and was surprised that a character I'd remembered as an older Anna determined to disrupt the government's plans was never explicitly identified as such in the text.

Surprisingly dark.

Reread 04/01/2012. I focused this time most on Michaela Dupont as a shifting and untrustworthy element; the (clearly deliberate) ambiguity about her is almost as unsettling as the government conspiracy. I am also astonished at how very close to textual the incest subtext gets: not just that Anna is brought to humanity by empathizing with Rowan's pain and shame, but that Rowan notices she's looking more "womanly" and "prettier" and the music theme they identify with each other is the "Love Theme to Romeo and Juliet."

The reason for the Annas' differentiation from original form never actually does get any explanation, either (pseudo-)scientific or mystical. I like how the imagined voice, at first threatening and finally supportive, is both the original Anna and the girl her clone becomes; it mixes the boundaries between self and other, the threat of something growing inside that is alien, the threat of something growing inside that is the pure expression of self.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn! That ending...
Dr. Jelliff & the scientists at San Clemente Island are just like the Nazi Concentration Camp officers.
Killing & Cremating all the other Anna's.

I do prefer the movie's twist, that Michaela is actually an early Anna clone that was hidden away, and has nearly completed in making a replicator.

As well as the movie's ending, where Dr. Jelliff will get a completed replicator in a few months when all the Anna's and herself are safe and a letter of all the events is written & kept in a "safe" location as leverage to keep Dr. Jelliff from betraying them.

[pbj · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember this from when I was a kid. I picked it up again after seeing a preview for a new TV show "Orphan Black". I have no idea if "Orphan Black" has any relationship to Anna to the Infinite Power, but I was curious to re-read this and see if it lived up to my memories.
I have to say, it's more complicated and scary than I remembered. They just don't write books like this anymore. The world-building is a bit simplistic, but given how short this book is, is certainly packs a punch.

[Tansy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book when I was a teenager, and it is the book I immediately thought of when I started watching Orphan Black.

[Dawn Filler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was surprisingly suspenseful and had twists. Ending gave me chills! Loved this book!

[Joss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on cloning. Far ahead of it's time, making it appear nearly prophetic. And for my experience, the first time as a lay person given the concept of the early internet. Always worth another read, the book takes you even deeper than the film, which was also good and has become a "Cult Classic". Both the book and film are very hard to come upon nowadays, and will set you back a pretty penny. If you are lucky enough to come across a copy, I would urge you to add it to your personal library as you will enjoy it time and again.
When I was a young girl in middle school, we had a nationwide (USA) literacy program called RIF (Reading Is Fundamental) that would donate free copies of books from all genres to school libraries across the nation. Each student was able to select one free book in the hopes that they would come to love reading and help stamp out illiteracy, which was still rather high in the late nineteen seventies/early nineteen eighties.
I was keenly overjoyed a couple years after seeing the film, to find they had several copies of "Anna..." on hand. I read it to rags. It is different than the film, (better as most original works often are). And in a way it changed my life because most of us at the time (1981) were still using libraries for their copies of encyclopedias and rare books that were solely for reference and had to remain at the library. One could spend a week or two researching information for a term paper. Also, if the subject you were to write on was given out to all of your particular grade, say all four rotations of English classes for a term paper, the school library and the one in town would quickly be checked out and it could be very hard to come up with material. It would have been lovely to just log into a terminal like Anna and her brother Rowan, and get data and info. at a moment's notice. Most of us were just being exposed on a limited basis to computers. We all knew that NASA, the government, global corporations had them. Computers then took up whole wings in building and were very complex. Only a select number of highly skilled persons knew how to make them respond. The first computer system we had any experience with was with TRS-80. The presenters came to our elementary school (I was in third grade in 1980, TRS-80 was discontinued in 1981), lectured us and gave us corresponding coloring books/comics to use as an aide with the system. A certain amount of them were donated at that time. Because those early systems used very difficult and exacting Doss Commands, it was not user friendly at all! (Syntax error!, Anyone?) They had floppy disks which held all the games and remedial math and reading programs to aide those who either earned computer time for good behavior or required extra help in those subjects to free up the teacher. I included all of this in this book review because it corresponds to the introduction of what we would later know in the late nineties as the "The Internet, The Web, or The Information Superhighway" as dubbed by then President Bill Clinton. In Anna's story they used terminals to look up information and learn about multitudes of topics. It was the closest we came to a concept of "Google". There is a great story in Anna to the Infinite power I have enjoyed dipping into over the course of my life. I hope you will also find the time to see just how magnificent Ms. Ames work was! Please note, these things I have related are mostly from memory. If there are mistakes, they belong to me. July 5, 2020

[Juniper Shore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn between two stars and three, but I'll go for the higher rating because Anna to the Infinite Power is pretty unique.

First, the good: this is a really interesting historical relic, set in the ultrafuturistic 1990s. The detailed description of INAFT (i.e. the internet) is fascinating. Ames doesn't talk down to kids; the novel consistently assumes they can handle adult ideas and face adult-level problems. The characters are more like icons of particular traits than actual people (Sarah Hart is the fanatically amoral scientist; Graham Hart is the overemotional artist; Anna is the pathological machine; Rowan is the voice of reason and conscience) but the traits represented are serious and varied. This is a grown-up novel for kids.

Then, the bad: the writing is extremely clunky. It's hard to like any of the protagonists because of their unidimensionality (see above). The plot drags for a long time, then abruptly lurches into left field and takes a really dark turn. To call it implausible is an understatement.

In sum, it's an interesting book, but not exactly a good one.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this sometime in college, in the early eighties. I remember certain parts, not the whole thing. I don't really want to read it again. It portrayed Anna's high-performance in math and science as mindless robot action. (And when she begins to "individuate", if I recall the right word, she is losing her math abilities.)

Her older brother's expertise in the arts (the old-fashioned type in particular) is, of course applauded. Anna is forced into piano lessons, where there is very real indoctrination. For example, her teacher holds a sharp pencil under her wrists, to force her to keep her wrists high. Yes, I'm aware that both science and art performance can come from driving oppression. I'm aware that one can do well in both fields without indoctrinating oppression as well.

Of course, Anna and her brother wind up discovering the truth behind Anna in particular and the government in general -- and we, the readers, discover what the heck "Anna to the Infinite Power" actually means. And while the ending is back home to the usual for the siblings, it's a hellish horror for the rest of "them".

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read Anna to the Infinite Power in several years, but as a middle schoolish aged kid, I was completely obsessed with this story and can't tell you how many times I read it. Although I personally love this book, I will wholeheartedly admit that it isn't for everyone. It's a really weird idea, but I thought it was fascinating, and very, very sad. Parts of it were kind of hard to understand as a kid; I'd have to reread it now to see if it was an age thing or what the deal was, but from my recollection, the plotline was set during some kind of futuristic time, and some of the details weren't really explained well. In spite of that, I still loved the book, but I totally understand if others don't.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me it was The Giver, for my wife it was Anna to the Infinite Power. This was her favorite book from when she was younger and I can see why so many have positive memories of it. This is a young adult dystopian novel with an intelligent female protagonist and a conclusion that keeps you guessing till the end.

There are two big reasons I could see this not being someone's favorite book:
1. For a good portion of the book we're not sure if any character is likeable.
2. The choice of the Romeo and Juliet theme and all it implies. The author must have known some of the romantic themes this would communicate?

[Katie Merkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the premise of the story. I also found the development in the Anna and Rowan's relationship touching. It was interesting reading sci-fi from the early 1980s, because the setting takes place in what was 20-30 years in the future for the original readers, but what is now the past. I was amused by the technology in the story. It must have seemed advanced back in the '80s, but looking back, it was already outdated when the story takes place.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't like any of the characters for the first half of this book, but the character growth of the young protagonists helped that a lot. This book is no longer unique in its ideas, but this did leave me quite a bit to think about. Especially chilling to read this book after reading Never Let Me Go, as the time of the setting and the themes are so similar, but in some ways a different side of the same coin.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this several times as a child and loved/hated it for how it messed with my head and the horror of the ending. I had thought about rereading it as an adult to see what I think, but for now I am just going to let it sit.

[MadeMarion · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a very small child, and I still remember how amazed I was at the plot. It felt so hard-boiled and gritty to me! I haven't read it since then, but I have very fond memories of it.

[The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Middle school reading. I remember liking it.

[Storm Caywood]

Childhood favorite, might give a reread.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book I remember loving. Had to hunt to find it - still good 35 years later.

[the ancient lore · Rating 3 out of 5]

The evolution of Anna and Rowan's relationship is the best part. And, that ending . . .

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anna, a 12-year-old math genius, accidentally discovers herself to be one of many secret clones of a brilliant physicist.

[Seamus Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

It grew on me.