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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
It started well, and the epilogue was some redemption.
This book was written like a movie. This is not a bad thing, because sometimes audiences want to feel the action and get the stunning visuals of a movie. It's also not easy to write a novel like a movie. It's good entertainment.
I wish they had put a bit more thought into the problem at heart (given so much research has gone into how genetics works). Kara wants to upgrade all humans, 13% of whom will die. Logan wants to not. So there is a war... But this is a false dichotomy. How about you test the upgrade with consenting individuals? How about people get screened before they get upgraded to minimize lethal side effects? This is how it would work in reality. I just couldn't see past the fact that they could come to a compromise but they didn't try. Because gene war = action sequences.
This book was written like a movie. This is not a bad thing, because sometimes audiences want to feel the action and get the stunning visuals of a movie. It's also not easy to write a novel like a movie. It's good entertainment.
I wish they had put a bit more thought into the problem at heart (given so much research has gone into how genetics works). Kara wants to upgrade all humans, 13% of whom will die. Logan wants to not. So there is a war... But this is a false dichotomy. How about you test the upgrade with consenting individuals? How about people get screened before they get upgraded to minimize lethal side effects? This is how it would work in reality. I just couldn't see past the fact that they could come to a compromise but they didn't try. Because gene war = action sequences.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel like it should have concluded in about 50-100 pages less.
I liked it but I really thought some of the author's in depth scientific explanations was a little much. It got to a point where it felt like he was just name-dropping genes, mutations, and scientific phenomena. A little goes a long way imho.
Otherwise a very thoughtful & interesting what-if scenario.
Otherwise a very thoughtful & interesting what-if scenario.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
I spent the first part of this book thinking I would really like it, loving the semi-futuristic technology and hard science, and then it lost me a bit between finding Miriam’s body and the final fight in New York. I was a little bored, the oversaturated fight scenes and tech-speak thinking montages eventually felt repetitive, but the epilogue? That sealed the whole damn book. It left me breathless and stricken and emotional. It took what a lot of end-stage apocalyptic science fiction skirts around and delivered the heart of the story with a bang. Plague and famine and climate change and war are not just the causes of extinction, they’re symptoms. Humans have all the resources we need to end these things or to begin to end them, but still we fight, and get sick, and starve and will eventually collapse. We have “Phones more powerful than the computers that took us to the moon, but no more coral reefs.” What’s the missing ingredient? Compassion. We need policy change to enact environmental and humanitarian change, but who can be bothered to vote or to act on behalf of someone you don’t know? A tsunami in Thailand is nothing to a farmer in Iowa. How often do you hear “if it was your mom/dad/brother/cousin experiencing X tragedy wouldn’t you care?” Humans have to contextualize suffering. What kind of change could happen if everyone started caring about the ones we don’t know and can’t see and won’t ever meet?
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"we were a monstrous, thoughtful, selfish, fearful, ambitious, loving, hateful, hoping species. we contained within us the potential for great evil, but also for great good. and we were capable of so much more than this."
i LOVED this book!! sci-fi thriller that was very difficult to put down. i felt really smart reading this book with all the science/bio references (bio minor coming in handy with this one and being able to recognize some of these terms) and i think crouch did a really good job explaining the science things that aren't common knowledge. the chapters are kind of long, but they didn't feel long at all because the pacing is really fast and there is TONS of action. there was an unexpected plot twist and there was no ambiguous ending (the reader knows exactly what happens at the end), both of which i enjoyed. the only thing that really bothered me was the mention of category 7 hurricanes, which aren't a real thing, BUT i'm thinking this was part of crouch's world building and him saying category 7 hurricanes are something that will be seen in the future (thankfully this is a work of fiction so that is not likely to happen). highly recommend this one!!
i LOVED this book!! sci-fi thriller that was very difficult to put down. i felt really smart reading this book with all the science/bio references (bio minor coming in handy with this one and being able to recognize some of these terms) and i think crouch did a really good job explaining the science things that aren't common knowledge. the chapters are kind of long, but they didn't feel long at all because the pacing is really fast and there is TONS of action. there was an unexpected plot twist and there was no ambiguous ending (the reader knows exactly what happens at the end), both of which i enjoyed. the only thing that really bothered me was the mention of category 7 hurricanes, which aren't a real thing, BUT i'm thinking this was part of crouch's world building and him saying category 7 hurricanes are something that will be seen in the future (thankfully this is a work of fiction so that is not likely to happen). highly recommend this one!!