Another Dystopia to Watch For...
I just got this galley in the mail yesterday and finished it last night:
Partials by Dan Wells
The concept: The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials-engineered organic beings identical to humans-has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.
Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what's left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she's not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them-connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.
Wowzer, this was an insane read. The sci-fi element was there, but the story was about humans in their new society, arisen from the decay of the old. Of course, the new society is flawed, still haunted by the memory of the old. Though the book does end on a cliffhanger, setting us up, presumably, for a sequel, I was totally satisfied with the wild ride this one took me on. And I'll be waiting to read the next one.
Partials by Dan Wells
The concept: The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials-engineered organic beings identical to humans-has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.
Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what's left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she's not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them-connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.
Wowzer, this was an insane read. The sci-fi element was there, but the story was about humans in their new society, arisen from the decay of the old. Of course, the new society is flawed, still haunted by the memory of the old. Though the book does end on a cliffhanger, setting us up, presumably, for a sequel, I was totally satisfied with the wild ride this one took me on. And I'll be waiting to read the next one.