Partials

I really liked this book. Mainly because it reminded me of Battlestar Galactica and, like every other geeky gal around, I love me some Battlestar Galactica.

In a far away (or not so far away) time, we're fighting against our rebellious machine creations - and *cue spooky music* they look just like us! (Eeek - operation hide under the covers starts in 5.)

Most of humans have been wiped out by some scary virus that causes all babies to die within days after birth. The youngest person alive is a tween. The governments' solution is to have young girls get knocked up repeatedly starting at age 18.

I thought this was a fun read and it was a story I thought about repeatedly at work, when I should have been concentrating on other things. I liked the main character, Kira. She was smart and sassy and a scientist. And although she had a boyfriend, she didn't put him ahead of her ambitions to save humankind.

There is a twist in this book -- one that I guessed a couple of chapters in because I am brilliant. All I can say is I can't wait to read the second book. I'm dying to know where the author takes the story!

I'm a big fan of Dan Wells' John Wayne Cleaver series (which I think is over now?) so I couldn't wait to read this. It didn't help that post-apocalyptic fiction is one of my weak spots, along with candy-sweet pop music and found footage mockumentaries/movies (I'm not proud).

The scenario here is that the American military built supersoldiers called Partials to beat the Chinese during a war in the mid-21st century; then, as Skynet and The Matrix have taught us, our creations turned against us and nearly destroyed humanity. Kira, our heroine, is a medic in training on what may be the last human colony, Long Island. Although the Partials have retreated, no human baby has survived longer than three or four days in 11 years due to a virus they believe the Partials released.

Part One was a little info-dumpy, and I was disappointed. Kira's voice (although this is in 3rd person rather than the delicious 1st person voice of John Cleaver) just isn't that strong until later in the book. The whole book turns around and charges ahead at the midpoint; I thought I had everything figured out from the beginning but I was wrong. These 400 pages are only the first installment in the series, and even though I wasn't blown away, I look forward to seeing how Kira, who believes in always doing the right thing, will react in the future as the right thing becomes harder to identify.

Definitely a page-turner!

The gist of the negative reviews are that this book is too slow/boring. To some extent that's true, but it's also one of the greatest things about this book as it allows Wells to really develop the characters (and our attachment to them) and the world. For me, the world building, frequent humor, and even the mystery of how the virus works (I'm a bit of a science nerd I'll admit) kept things moving, even though there was not a lot of action. Furthermore, there aren't any obvious plot holes in any of Wells's explanations. The only thing that seemed unbelievable was Kira's age - she seems more like 22 than 16 in terms of her maturity and intellect.

Would recommend this to anyone who loves strong, smart female characters and character studies with sides of dystopian/apocolyptic/sci-fi themes and a touch of romance. Would not recommend for anyone who wants a quick action-packed read with steamy, over-the-top romance.

I kept waiting for it to get character-interesting. It just kept giving me worldbuilding-interesting.

DNF @ 25%