billmcscifi's review
5.0
This is my first, full length, novel. Below is a quick blurb to let you know what it's about.
In a far future, Earth had already been visited by an alien race called the Sominids, who came here for the express purpose of drinking and having sex with everyone they could. When one of their infamous parties resulted in the moon being cut in half, and killing everyone who happened to live there, they quietly left. Their encounter with the Sominids had taught the human race many things, primarily that faster than light travel did not exist. Denied the stars, the human race began to dwindle in numbers and terminate all of their space programs.
A thousand years after that, a scientist named Edward Q. Rohta circumvented anti-AI laws, laws which had been on the books for millennia, by creating organic creatures to provide manual labor. Instead of dying after ten years, as promised in the company brochure, they would develop flu-like symptoms and go into hiding. Eventually, fed up with the mistreatment they suffered at the hands of humans they rose up and killed every man, woman, and child on the planet.
This is the story of what happens next.
The Brittle Riders; Apocalypses are funny that way.
In a far future, Earth had already been visited by an alien race called the Sominids, who came here for the express purpose of drinking and having sex with everyone they could. When one of their infamous parties resulted in the moon being cut in half, and killing everyone who happened to live there, they quietly left. Their encounter with the Sominids had taught the human race many things, primarily that faster than light travel did not exist. Denied the stars, the human race began to dwindle in numbers and terminate all of their space programs.
A thousand years after that, a scientist named Edward Q. Rohta circumvented anti-AI laws, laws which had been on the books for millennia, by creating organic creatures to provide manual labor. Instead of dying after ten years, as promised in the company brochure, they would develop flu-like symptoms and go into hiding. Eventually, fed up with the mistreatment they suffered at the hands of humans they rose up and killed every man, woman, and child on the planet.
This is the story of what happens next.
The Brittle Riders; Apocalypses are funny that way.
keyla_damaer's review
3.0
Being the first novel of a trilogy, The Brittle Riders left me with a sense of unfinished business. Like ‘Tell me more, FFS!’
The story is self conclusive though. Still, it sets up curiosity to know more.
From page one, the reader is introduced to a post-apocalyptic fantasy Earth where mankind is extinct. Something called the Gen-O-Pod War happened and now all other species originated from experiments with animals, wander the earth and rule.
It reminded me of the ending of RUR (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Capek, as a continuation of it. While the Gen-O-Pod War resulting in different brands made me think about The Uplift Series by David Brin.
Bill McCormick did a good job with worldbuilding, the background, the brands, the places, everything is described with vivid details to drag the reader into this strange world of sentient genetically-modified animals.
That’s said, the flow of the story is somewhat slow throughout the book.
It’s a complicated story with a useful glossary at the beginning of the book, explaining all the brands. I’m a big fan of this kind of stories, but I’m not sure it’s enough for reading the sequels due to the slow flow.
The story is self conclusive though. Still, it sets up curiosity to know more.
From page one, the reader is introduced to a post-apocalyptic fantasy Earth where mankind is extinct. Something called the Gen-O-Pod War happened and now all other species originated from experiments with animals, wander the earth and rule.
It reminded me of the ending of RUR (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Capek, as a continuation of it. While the Gen-O-Pod War resulting in different brands made me think about The Uplift Series by David Brin.
Bill McCormick did a good job with worldbuilding, the background, the brands, the places, everything is described with vivid details to drag the reader into this strange world of sentient genetically-modified animals.
That’s said, the flow of the story is somewhat slow throughout the book.
It’s a complicated story with a useful glossary at the beginning of the book, explaining all the brands. I’m a big fan of this kind of stories, but I’m not sure it’s enough for reading the sequels due to the slow flow.
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