Bookshelf Roundup 09/12/20: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads

Posted on September 12, 2020 29 Comments

Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.

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Whew, what a week! As expected, I didn’t get much reading and reviewing done, as I turned most of my attention towards getting my kids through the first week of mandated online classes. While it wasn’t as bad as I thought, and I know we’ll be ironing out a lot of the kinks (especially the technological ones) as time goes on, I’m already sick with worry about what this is going to do to the children of our community. While our teachers have been indefatigable in trying to ensure the best for students, I really think it’s the higher ups in my particular county who have completely dropped the ball on this one. They’ve made virtually no plans, provided a lack of resources and barely any support, leaving the underprivileged and those with learning disabilities behind. I already have a feeling my youngest will need extra help learning to read, and my oldest, who is bright and used to love school has now become unmotivated and is developing this dispassionate attitude towards all her subjects. Even if she can follow along online independently, I’m worried that if don’t insert myself into her education and push her to do more and be more, by the end of the semester it will be too late, even if by some miracle the kids get to go back to in-person classes.

So anyway, that’s the end of my rant. What this means is, expect blog activity to continue to be on the lighter side for the next little while. In the meantime though, here’s a look at some of the new arrivals I’m looking forward to reading, if I can somehow manage to find some free time to myself.

Received for Review

My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!

Without a doubt, this amazing haul from the kind folks at Orbit made my entire week! The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky is one I’m really looking forward to, it’s like everything he writes ends up being a winner. The Trials of Koli by M.R. Carey is also a book I’m going to try and check out, after a couple positive reviews I saw recently convinced me to give this series another try even though the first book didn’t blow me away. Next up is The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart, which I’m sooooo excited about. I have plans to review is later this month. And finally, Dead Man in A Ditch by Luke Arnold is the sequel to The Last Smile in Sunder City, which really impressed me. I’m looking forward to see what this next installment will bring.

And here I thought my audiobook haul last week was big, but this week brings an even bigger one. With thanks to Harper Audio, I received Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdes, which is the sequel to Chilling Effect, as well as a couple YA first-in-a-series titles, The Other Side of the Sky by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner and Crownchasers by Rebecca Coffindaffer.

Courtesy of Hachette Audio, I also picked up a listening copy of The Invention of Sound by Chuck Palahniuk, which should be interesting. The last time I read anything by him was yeeeeaaaars ago. I also couldn’t resist checking out The Woods by Vanessa Savage, after I saw a really cool review of it on my friend Lynn’s blog.

And with huge thanks to Macmillan Audio, I received a treasure trove of awesome new September titles. I simply cannot wait to jump into The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, one of my most anticipated releases this fall. And even though I’m a bit wary about a lot of YA these days, I’m curious about Fable by Adrienne Young because I loved her debut Sky in the Deep; The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi, which is the sequel to The Gilded Wolves; and last but not least, White Fox by Sara Faring because it just sounds so creepy and suspenseful.

Reviews

Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling (2 of 5 stars)

This Week’s Reads

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Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read! Let me know what you plan on checking out. Until next time, see you next Roundup!

Friday Face-Off: Pattern

Posted on September 11, 2020 20 Comments

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme created by Books by Proxy! Each Friday, we will pit cover against cover while also taking the opportunity to showcase gorgeous artwork and feature some of our favorite book covers. If you want to join the fun, simply choose a book each Friday that fits that week’s predetermined theme, post and compare two or more different covers available for that book, then name your favorite. A list of future weeks’ themes are available at Lynn’s Book Blog.

This week’s theme is:

~ a cover with a PATTERN

Mogsy’s Pick:

LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff

While LIFEL1K3 may have fallen short for me (probably the only thing Jay Kristoff’s done that has), I’ve always thought the premise was really cool. I guess that’s also why I’m surprised there weren’t more interesting covers for this book, but I thought a couple of them worked well for this theme.

From left to right:
Knopf Books for Young Readers (2018) – HarperCollins (2018)

Allen and Unwin (2018) – Harper Voyager (2018)

Winner:

Seeing as I’m not a big fan of “just text” covers, it was tougher to judge this week. I would have gone with the HarperCollins 2018 edition, but it kind of creeps me out with the way it’s made to look like a bloody eye. So, I guess I was left with just one option – can’t say I love it, but it’s solid.

But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?

Audiobook Review: Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling

Posted on September 10, 2020 27 Comments

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Yellow Jessamine by Caitlin Starling

Mogsy’s Rating: 2 of 5 stars

Genre: Horror, Fantasy

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Tantor Audio (September 5, 2020)

Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Narrator: Heather Wilds

At just over 130 pages in print form which is about 4 and a half hours in audio, Yellow Jessamine is a lightweight novella—which probably isn’t always the best format to judge a writer, I am aware. Still, I think it’s pretty safe to say Caitlin Starling’s style isn’t for me; I wasn’t too crazy for her debut novel The Luminous Dead either but was hoping that this one would strike a better chord with me, but in some ways it was even more confusing and frustrating.

Evelyn Perdanu is the protagonist of this tale. As heir to her family’s lucrative shipping business, she’s rich, she’s powerful, and she knows how to manage her people. But when one of her ships arrive to the port of Delphinium, carrying a strange illness, her nerves are rattled and she begins to suspect there may be more to the story. She’s all that’s left of her family now, her city is dying, and now it appears she may be the target of something sinister.

Then there’s the way the new disease spreads, striking its victims with a feverish craze before making them fall catatonic. Even as Evelyn is trying to convince the authorities that the outbreak is not her company’s fault, more and more are falling ill. To a one, they turn their fierce fixation on her, driving her into hiding. Frightened and cornered, Evelyn is left with no choice but to dig into her own past, trying to find the connections between her family’s checkered history and the chaos unfolding in the city.

Looking back, for a story that kicked off with such fascination and intensity, it amazed me how quickly everything shifted in the opposite direction. First off, the novella format is simply too limiting for what the author was trying to accomplish, holding down what could have been truly amazing. Listening to the audiobook, I thoroughly enjoyed the setup of the first hour or so, but soon after that, the plot went downhill as Starling tried to do too much too quickly. It feels bad saying this too, because it’s clear she had a bigger vision for Yellow Jessamine, aptly titled for the beautiful but highly poisonous flower, considering the story’s themes.

But while the book’s second half may have been packed to the gills with rich detail, I struggled to make heads or tails out of most of it. The few threads I was able to follow also weakened over time due to the deluge of newly introduced information that ultimately amounted to filler. Evelyn’s character ended up being such a mess, giving me flashbacks to Gyre in The Luminous Dead, another one of Starling’s characters whose personality seemed to be all over the map. The worst part was that Evelyn’s relationship with her maid Violetta also suffered, and what originally had the potential to mature into an emotionally deep romance instead fell flat and came across like a perfunctory nod towards diversity and representation.

By the time Yellow Jessamine was over, it had nearly lost me completely, and the final disappointment was the lack of horror elements, unless you counted weird as horror. This might also have something to do with that the fact the book was too short and strange to develop any real sense of atmosphere. The world-building was sparse, and while Delphinium as a setting would make a solid foundation for future stories, there was insufficient description in this tale to make any of the city’s history or politics convincing.

That said, you could arguably view this novella as a character study and an introspective exploration of emotion, and perhaps find value in it from that perspective. In that case, Evelyn would have been a compelling subject, though as I said, I found too much about her personality contradictory. If the story had meant to focus on the internal conflict roiling within Evelyn, to the author’s credit I think she managed to achieve this goal by the end, even if the execution could have been better.

Had the book been longer, allowing for more improvement in these areas, I might have had a better time. Ironically though, in my review of The Luminous Dead, one of my criticisms was that it dragged on for too long and might have packed a bit more punch had the story been pared down and streamlined, so maybe Starling still needs to work on ironing out pacing issues. In sum, Yellow Jessamine had promise, but a strong start gave way to a convoluted end with lackluster plot, world, and character development.

Audiobook Comments: Heather Wilds did a great job narrating, and I enjoyed listening to her voice, which had this strong, dignified, and mesmerizing quality. The book itself was simply not my cup of tea, but it was through no fault of the narrator, whose performance was lovely.

Waiting on Wednesday 09/09/20

Posted on September 9, 2020 10 Comments

Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!

Mogsy’s Pick

Heartbreak Bay by Rachel Caine (March 9, 2021 by Thomas & Mercer)

Rachel Caine was an author I discovered via her YA fantasy series The Great Library, and so when Stillhouse Lake first came out, little did I expect to be falling in love with her thriller writing, let alone still be addicted to the series five books later. But hooked I am, and I cannot wait to read the next chapter of the Gwen Proctor saga.

“They’re hunting a killer so silent, so invisible, that his unspeakable crimes are the only proof he exists.

A car submerged in a remote pond. The bodies of two girls strapped into their seats. The mystery of their mother, vanished without a trace, leads Gwen Proctor and Kezia Claremont into dangerous territory.

On the surface, Gwen’s life is good—two children approaching adulthood, a committed partner, and a harrowing past dead and gone. But that past is attracting the attention of someone invisible…and unstoppable. Trouble’s just beginning. So is the body count in this backwoods Tennessee town.

As threats mount and Gwen’s hunted by an enemy who pulls all the strings, Kezia has her back. But working to solve these vicious and unreasonable crimes will expose them both to a killer they can’t for the life of them see coming.”

Bookshelf Roundup 09/05/20: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads

Posted on September 5, 2020 38 Comments

Happy September! Or should I say, holy crap, it’s September?! As challenging as this summer has been, it felt like it really just flew by. Of course, fall will also bring its own set of challenges, and for me, the first and foremost of these will be getting my kids back to school. Like many, they’ll be virtual learning for the first semester, and as hardworking as our teachers are, I’m already anticipating certain areas where distance learning simply won’t cut it, and for one, I know I have a Kindergartener who will probably need some extra attention. At this time, I have no idea how much it will affect my schedule, only that it will, because I’ll also be working. I try to update this blog daily, but for the next little while, you might see a few less posts from me every week — at least until I settle into my new rhythm, which hopefully won’t take too long! You can bet I’ll still be reading and reviewing, so without further ado, let’s continue to the roundup…

Received for Review

My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!

A couple more new arrivals made it to my mailbox this week, with thanks to Subterranean Press for this ARC of A Question of Navigation by Kevin Hearne. This one wasn’t even on Goodreads when I tried to look it up, and I was made even more curious by whatever is happening on that cover. Dare I ask? All I know is that it’s a sci-fi novella about aliens, and chances are it’s going to be quirky and wild, considering who wrote it.

Also, my thanks to Saga Press for The Residence by Andrew Pyper, a mid-nineteenth century historical horror inspired by the tragic family life of President Franklin Pierce, whose last son was gruesomely killed in a train accident when he was just 11, right before his inauguration. I think this is going to be a tough read considering the sorrowful and grim subject matter, but I can’t deny I’m intrigued by this tale of haunting.

This is probably my biggest audiobook hauls in a while, but it’s the start of the month so there were a lot of September releases that caught my eye. With thanks to Penguin Random House Audio, I received Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn, first book in a new series about our favorite Chiss Admiral, as well as One Step Behind by Lauren North, a psychological thriller about a woman who is targeted by a stalker. And with thanks to Macmillan Audio, I also received Skyhunter by Marie Lu which already has so much excitement surrounding it, I can’t wait to check it out.

Courtesy of Hachette Audio, I received three new ALCs: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, which I don’t know why I’ve heard about only recently. I love the author! I also grabbed How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It by K.J. Parker, which promises to be a humorous, high-spirited read. And cheers to Tammy from Books, Bones & Buffy who convinced me to pick up Lone Jack Trail by Owen Laukkanen, even though it’s the second book in the series. I still need to read the first, but these books are standalone and the premise to this one sounds irresistible.

And you know it’s getting to fall season when all these great looking horror novels start showing up. With thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio, I picked up The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson, which has drawn comparisons to Stranger Things and The X-Files.

Last but not least, with thanks to the author, I received a listening copy of Blue Angel by Phil Williams! As you know the Ordshaw books are gradually coming to audio, so I am so thrilled to be continuing the series as they come out. Thank you again, Phil!

Reviews

Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis (4 of 5 stars)
Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Vanished Queen by Lisbeth Campbell (3 of 5 stars)
The Mother Code by Carole Stivers (3 of 5 stars)

This Week’s Reads

Friday Face-Off: Winter Vibes

Posted on September 4, 2020 12 Comments

This week’s theme is:

“The road goes ever on and on”
~ a cover featuring WINTER VIBES

Mogsy’s Pick:

Cold Welcome by Elizabeth Moon

I’ve wanted to feature this book for Friday Face-Off forever, and now I finally have a chance! I thought Cold Welcome was perfect for the theme of Winter Vibes, as the book takes place on the iciest, most inhospitable part of the planet Slotter Key, where our protagonist Admiral Kylara Vatta and her crew have crashed landed after someone sabotaged their shuttle. There are only two covers that I could find, but they’re both very effective at conveying certain emotions.

Del Rey (2017) vs. Orbit (2017)

Winner:

These two covers could not be any more different. The Del Rey edition is an extreme close-up, with the character as the main focus. The Orbit edit, on the other hand, is zoomed out, with the character being secondary to the icy landscape surrounding her in all its glory. I am struck by how the artist has perfectly captured Ky Vatta’s personality in her expression on first cover, showing her determination in the face of hardship and struggle for survival. But I am also in awe of the majestic view of the mountains in the second cover, and the symbolism of Ky standing small but defiant on the burnt out remains of her crashed shuttle.

Yep, there’s no doubt it’s a tough choice this week. But in the end, I think I will have to go with the Orbit cover, if for no other reason because it tells a prospective reader much more about the story. The Del Rey version says very little in comparison, though if you’ve read Moon’s other books, especially in the Vatta series, I can see how the character-focused approach might make it more appealing.

But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?

Audiobook Review: Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Posted on September 3, 2020 15 Comments

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 3.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Science Fiction

Series: Book 1 of Seven Devils

Publisher: Brilliance Audio (August 4, 2020)

Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins

Author Information: Laura Lam | Elizabeth May

Narrator: Christina Traister

Seven Devils is the first book of a planned space opera duology by authors Laura Lam and Elizabeth May in their first collaboration. Set in a galaxy controlled by the oppressive Tholosian Empire, the book follows a group of seven plucky Novantaen Resistance members who will never stop fighting to free the billions of people living under the Empire’s iron rule.

First, we have Eris. Former heir to the Tholosian throne, she knows better than anyone why the resistance is so important. It took a lot to break free of her old life, which included having to fake her own death, but it took even more for those in her new life to finally trust her. Next up is Clo, a mechanic who had also defected from the Empire, whose sometimes-friend, sometimes-rival relationship with Eris often causes friction whenever they go on missions together. Then there’s Nyx, a career soldier and former royal guard who has lost count of how many people she’s killed. Tired of being used as a weapon, Nyx now dedicates her efforts to stopping the Oracle, the artificial mind behind the Empire. She also looks out for Ariadne, the youngest member of the group. A gifted engineer, Ariadne was originally created by the enemy, but has secretly been helping the resistance for years. Also, we have Rhea, a courtesan with a heart of gold. She is extremely sensitive to the emotions of others, making her a great confidante but also quick to adapt to changing situations. And finally, we have Kyla, the resistant commander calling the shots, as well as Cato, hotshot pilot, rounding out the team.

On their latest mission, the team is called upon to intercept a Tholosian ship carrying mysterious cargo, and to gather any intelligence to return to the Resistance. But once they infiltrate the ship, they find more than they bargained for.

Seven Devils was so much fun! But it is also a very difficult novel to review. First off, I think this is a fantastic sci-fi adventure tale about a strong group of women who come together and support each other to fight for a common cause. Their backgrounds are interesting and diverse, their relationships meaningful and complex. The story is highly energetic, with barely any lulls at all. I was also impressed with the writing, and to Lam and May’s credit, their styles meshed incredibly well and I could hardly tell where one author’s voice ends and the other’s begins. That’s seriously impressive, considering it’s their first team-up.

However, dig a little deeper below the surface, and you might find some things that are less harmonious. The biggest challenge for me personally was the structure of the novel, which has a present timeline that is frequently interrupted by flashbacks to the individual characters’ lives as the cast list gradually expands. In the end, what we get are five main perspectives, and interspersed among them are these mostly brief time jumps to the past, focusing on important moments in the characters’ lives, many of which have direct relevance as to what is occurring in the present. I often see this format utilized for TV shows as a way for writers to develop individual characters, especially when dealing with a large ensemble cast. But while this may work well for the screen, it comes across as less coherent on the page, and in the case of Seven Devils, it caused some POV and timeline confusion.

It also might have been a tad too long. Granted, each time we got a flashback, it was a way to flesh out that particular character, which also helped explain her motivations and decision-making. Still, while the narrative was doing this for half a dozen characters or more, the present timeline was going nowhere fast. As much as I hate to admit it, with a first half that was mostly bogged down with backstory-telling, the book took a long time to build, and the take-off was rough and uneven. The world-building was also detailed to the point of too much bloat. Considering what we have here is essentially your classic Empire vs. Resistance narrative (not exactly original), the length probably could have been pared down by a lot and the novel would have been better for it.

And yet, despite the turbulent pacing and its technical flaws, Seven Devils featured a thoroughly engaging and entertaining storyline, and I believe that, in the end, is what will determine the book’s success with readers. I love adventurous space operas, found family plotlines, stories about people working together, helping each other, saving each other, and loving each other. Laura Lam and Elizabeth May have delivered the first half of a promising duology that encompasses all this and so much more, and ultimately, a few hiccups here and there are a small price to pay for so much fun.

Audiobook Comments: This was definitely a missed opportunity for multiple narrators, which would have created a more immersive audio experience. That being said, Christina Traister did a great job with the many voices, capturing each character perfectly, from hotheaded Clo to kind and gentle Rhea.

Waiting on Wednesday 09/02/20

Posted on September 2, 2020 10 Comments

Mogsy’s Pick

The Ice Lion by Kathleen O’Neal Gear (May 4, 2021 by DAW)

I had a great time with my last read by Kathleen O’Neal Gear (Cries from the Lost Island) and was already looking forward to her next novel even before I saw the synopsis to The Ice Lion, which sounds like a book written just for me!

“This cli-fi novel from a notable archaeologist and anthropologist explores a frozen future where archaic species struggle to survive an apocalyptic Ice Age

One thousand years in the future, the zyme, a thick blanket of luminous green slime, covers the oceans. Glaciers three-miles-high rise over the continents. The old stories say that when the Jemen, godlike beings from the past, realized their efforts to halt global warming had gone terribly wrong, they made a desperate gamble to save life on earth and recreated species that had survived the worst of the earth’s Ice Ages.

Sixteen-summers-old Lynx and his best friend Quiller are members of the Sealion People–archaic humans known as Denisovans. They live in a world growing colder, a world filled with monstrous predators that hunt them for food. When they flee to a new land, they meet a strange old man who impossibly seems to be the last of the Jemen. He tells Lynx the only way he can save his world is by sacrificing himself to the last true god, a quantum computer named Quancee.”

Review: The Vanished Queen by Lisbeth Campbell

Posted on September 1, 2020 11 Comments

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

The Vanished Queen by Lisbeth Campbell

Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Hardcover: Saga Press | Audiobook: Simon & Schuster Audio (August 18, 2020)

Length: HC: 496 pages | Audio: 14 hrs and 33 mins

Author Information: Website | Twitter

A devastated city. A tyrant king. Then, Queen Mirantha vanished without a trace, and even though the official explanation for her disappearance was blamed on a neighboring kingdom, everyone knows the truth is that the cruel King Karolje Disappeared her himself.

Then, a student named Anza finds the journal of Mirantha in a forbidden library. Inspired by the queen’s words and driven by the wrongful execution of her father at the hands of the throne, she decides to join a rebel group to overthrow the king.

Karolje though, also has two sons. Tevin, the eldest and the heir, is prepared to one day step into his father’s shoes, but the prospect of keeping things the status quo does not sit well with him. His younger brother, Esvar, is likewise extremely against the brutal and oppressive rule of the king. Their mother Mirantha had sacrificed much to keep them safe, before Karolje took matters into his own hands.

Fates collide when Anza is arrested for her resistance activities, and her interrogator is none other than Esvar, who realizes they can help each other.

I thought The Vanished Queen was a solid book, and generally well-written. Which is why I’m so perplexed as to why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should. If I had to guess, it had to do with the characterization. There are a lot of characters, and at times I felt like I needed a flow chart to keep me reminded of who everyone was. Most of them are either bland and dry as a piece of driftwood, or overdone to the extreme. King Karolje, for example, is the evilest evil person to ever do evil things, and the narrative never lets you forget that. Anza, for another, is a bisexual resistance fighter and she’s wicked smart, but that’s about it for her memorable traits. For me, there’s just something deeply, deeply wrong with that. Where’s the showing and not telling? Where’s the actual, meaningful character development?

For much of the first half, the pacing was also very slow. That didn’t hurt the book, necessarily, since there was so much happening to keep interest high. But as other reviewers have noted, The Vanished Queen is dialogue heavy. Expect lots of talk and not much action, and I found that if the novel ever caught me in a drab mood, I simply did not have the enthusiasm or inclination to read it for too long before needing to put it aside and pick up something with more kick. To its credit, the plot does pick up towards the end and I could hardly read the last few chapters fast enough. It made me glad I finished the book, but I also wished the pacing had been more balanced.

As for what the book did well, in spite of lackluster characters for the most part there were one or two points-of-view that stood out for me, Mirantha being the main example. Her story, detailed by her diary, was a fascinating thread throughout the novel, exploring her suffering at the hands of the king as well as the theme of unconditional love for her two sons. The princes’ personalities are a result of her influence; they see what their father has done to their kingdom and they want to stop it. Now they only need to be strong enough to see it all through, or risk losing everything.

Bottom line, I didn’t love this book, but I didn’t hate it either. The story was packed with intrigue and fascination, but it was also tragically weakened by uninspiring characters. I would recommend it for fantasy fans who are into palace politics and revolution plots, with the caveat that the amount of drama and lack of much action can make the reading a bit tedious, especially early on. On that point though, the amount of dialogue and the number of POVs might make this book a good choice for audio, if you are considering that format. With regards to the slower first half, a stronger second half makes up for it somewhat, but although readers got a satisfying ending, the surprises and revelations were still pretty predictable, with the kinds of twists you can see coming from miles away. The Vanished Queen therefore gets 3 stars from me—nothing more, nothing less.

Tour Review: The Mother Code by Carole Stivers

Posted on August 31, 2020 20 Comments

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

The Mother Code by Carole Stivers

Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Genre: Science Fiction

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Berkley (August 25, 2020)

Length: 352 pages

Author Information: Website

So, I had some mixed feelings for this book. The premise was solid and intriguing, and the science behind it fascinating—not surprising, considering the author is a biochemist by trade and is clearly knows her subject. But on the flip side, the weaker story elements made for a frustrating, unfocused read.

It is the year 2049. Civilization as we know it is about to end, as a DNA-based nano bioweapon is unleashed upon the world and begins to mutate and spread out of control. Top scientists are scrambling to find a cure, and when that proves not enough, they turn to more drastic measures, like genetically engineering children to be grown inside artificial cocoons and be raised by robots. To achieve this, they developed the Mother Code—an intelligence programmed into the machines to give them individual personalities, which would also help them better understand the concepts of maternal responsibilities and instinct.

Years later, in the deserts of Utah, a human child named Kai is born to one of these robots, designated Rho-Z. As they wander the wilderness, looking for others like them, Rho-Z teaches Kai the ways of the world and how to survive in it, the way a real human mother would. Much of the story is split between the past, focusing on the actions of the scientists who created the Mother Code, and in the post-apocalyptic world, in which children like Kai are gradually learning the skills required to one day reintegrate into society, all the while being completely devoted to their robotic mothers. However, even as Kai grows and thrives, changes are occurring in Rho-Z’s programming. Ultimately, she and others like her would be targeted for destruction, leaving Kai with a difficult decision.

While I’m not the biggest fan of duo timelines, I’ve read books that utilize them to great effect, and when they work, they can really add to a story. But somehow in The Mother Code, the two threads simply refused to jive. It also gave the book a sense of being confused, like it wasn’t sure what it wanted to be—a rousing tech-thriller, or a heart-warming tale about an unconventional parent-child relationship? I could appreciate the story Carole Stivers wanted to tell, and it’s certainly one that would only make sense if we could see both sides—both past and present. But this format wasn’t the best.

As a result, I could only feel invested in specific parts of the novel, and maybe the terrifying aspect of an uncontrollable manmade plague had something to do with it, but I definitely latched on to the apocalyptic timeline. The book worked better as a thriller, highlighting the desperation of the world’s plight and the scientists’ race against time to find a solution. The science behind the story is brilliant and sharp, but does also require some background knowledge in the subjects, or at least some patience, to fully appreciate.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the sections featuring Kai and Rho-Z, but while I really like softer, glowing tones of their relationship, the structure of the book was not at all conducive to helping the reader feel emotionally invested in either of them. The characterization also wasn’t the strongest, and there are quite a few POVs to follow. Even the scientist characters felt kind of faceless and hollow, because you had such a strong emphasis on the research and following the progression of the outbreak, there was hardly enough time to develop the people in depth. As well, constantly flipping back and forth between the many perspectives only served to disrupt the pace and increase this emotional distance between the reader the characters.

In short, I think there’s a great story in The Mother Code. Certainly, at its heart is a thought-provoking concept that sci-fi fans with an interest in hard science married with realism would love, especially if you’re into “what-if” scenarios and themes dealing with artificial intelligence, plague outbreaks, and biochemical warfare. That said, at times the content does get a little too technical, and the plot’s disjointedness and pacing issues also made it hard to connect with the characters. Personally, I would have liked to see more developed characterization, smoother transitions between POV changes and improved flow, but going forward, I wouldn’t discount the possibility of reading Carole Stivers again, as she’s obviously got some tremendous ideas for stories.