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calamity_mary's review against another edition
2.0
Short version: good idea, bad execution. Would have worked way better in movie format.
General feeling: "meh...". Its unimpressive and a bit of a waste of time, especially if you have seen or read anything on dystopian futures.
General feeling: "meh...". Its unimpressive and a bit of a waste of time, especially if you have seen or read anything on dystopian futures.
ablotial's review against another edition
4.0
This book was really awesome! I think there were a few things that could have been done better, hence the 4 instead of 5 star rating, but I really enjoyed the plot and the way the story line all fell together.
The book takes place in a future where large cities have been reduced to rubble, gangs rule the open roads, and food and water are hard to come by due to the climate changes that are slowly roasting the citizens. In the midst of all this is Satori, a company whose goal is to genetically engineer food that will grow in such climates (each seed has a bar code!) and also to engineer creatures to grow the food, keep the company running, defend the company, etc. The company is masterminded by four ancient men who have been kept alive for ... centuries? ... inside a special pod, and a "computer" (also named Satori) that is very much in touch with DNA and the entire company (the physical building, I mean) is a part of her. Or she is a part of it. Hard to say.
When it becomes clear that Satori has ulterior motives after one of their "designers" leaves, the government (which has mostly been reduced to a seed distribution mechanism) sends in a team to figure out what is going on. The story follows three stories -- one of the military members, the "designer" and her mate (also a designer), and two boys (Brood and Pollo) who have been living on the road and whose lives become entwined with Satori in more ways than one.
I loved the idea of the barcoded seed and the genetic engineering of food and creatures. I loved the way the stories interacted. And I loved the cultural aspects to the book, and the random Spanish thrown in here and there. The ending was a little weird, but nothing I couldn't deal with.
The book takes place in a future where large cities have been reduced to rubble, gangs rule the open roads, and food and water are hard to come by due to the climate changes that are slowly roasting the citizens. In the midst of all this is Satori, a company whose goal is to genetically engineer food that will grow in such climates (each seed has a bar code!) and also to engineer creatures to grow the food, keep the company running, defend the company, etc. The company is masterminded by four ancient men who have been kept alive for ... centuries? ... inside a special pod, and a "computer" (also named Satori) that is very much in touch with DNA and the entire company (the physical building, I mean) is a part of her. Or she is a part of it. Hard to say.
When it becomes clear that Satori has ulterior motives after one of their "designers" leaves, the government (which has mostly been reduced to a seed distribution mechanism) sends in a team to figure out what is going on. The story follows three stories -- one of the military members, the "designer" and her mate (also a designer), and two boys (Brood and Pollo) who have been living on the road and whose lives become entwined with Satori in more ways than one.
I loved the idea of the barcoded seed and the genetic engineering of food and creatures. I loved the way the stories interacted. And I loved the cultural aspects to the book, and the random Spanish thrown in here and there. The ending was a little weird, but nothing I couldn't deal with.
mjfmjfmjf's review
3.0
Weird after-the-end-of-oil book. A true kitchen sink book, its got a bit of everything in here. And it almost holds together. There's Spanish and migrants and seed people and random nakedness and genetic modifications and fancy soldier stuff and ow it just hurt my head. And yet I cared about the characters and I have no idea what I just read. Someone looking for a challenging but odd relatively near-future on-planet book, you might as well as give this one a try.
abhrasach's review
3.0
So. Very. Bleak. If Butler's Parable of the Sower had too cheery an outlook for you, look no further for your dystopian needs! Careful worldbuilding, solid writing, but expect to loathe humanity by the end. Much darker than this reader was seeking at the time.
lisagray68's review
My rule is 100 pages before I give up on a book. However, 50 pages in I still have no idea what is going on and no interest in any of the characters. The premise sounded good, but nothing here intrigues me.
folklaureate's review
3.0
More reviews at Rondo of a Possible World: YA Book Reviews
Rob Ziegler does a great job on divulging his view on a post-apocalyptic tale. A dreary and devastated world with characters struggling with the hardships and the eruption of a company that has accumulated large amount of power and dictation.
For the most part I liked the descriptions, the view of the world Ziegler had created. The only thing that put me off was the overindulgence of information and characters given to the reader. I felt overwhelmed at parts to the point where I couldn't follow and had to step back to sort out everything.
The cover and the synopsis (very long but it did draw me in) were enough to get me to look into this story. Though for what I thought it was going to be, I was disappointed to the extent of how I expected this book to be.
For a science fiction novel I give it credit where it is due, for it did captivate me in its field. If I didn't have to step back and sort through the different POVs and articulate what happened in different scenes, I probably would have enjoyed this much more.
Rob Ziegler does a great job on divulging his view on a post-apocalyptic tale. A dreary and devastated world with characters struggling with the hardships and the eruption of a company that has accumulated large amount of power and dictation.
For the most part I liked the descriptions, the view of the world Ziegler had created. The only thing that put me off was the overindulgence of information and characters given to the reader. I felt overwhelmed at parts to the point where I couldn't follow and had to step back to sort out everything.
The cover and the synopsis (very long but it did draw me in) were enough to get me to look into this story. Though for what I thought it was going to be, I was disappointed to the extent of how I expected this book to be.
For a science fiction novel I give it credit where it is due, for it did captivate me in its field. If I didn't have to step back and sort through the different POVs and articulate what happened in different scenes, I probably would have enjoyed this much more.
maddylogic's review
3.0
While I thought the writer did a good job, I ultimately felt like the story really went nowhere. You get to know these characters but ultimately in the end there was not change or growth.
breecreative's review
4.0
I had a really hard time getting into this one at first, I have to admit. I felt that the book started without much of an explanation of what was going on, and I was confused and admittedly, a little bit bored. I couldn’t understand why these people traded Seed like money and lived a nomadic lifestyle instead of stopping and planting it somewhere and setting themselves up. It gets explained a little further on in the book, but at first I felt confused and frustrated by it.
Once I got past that and started understanding what was happening, the story got a lot better. There were several seemingly unconnected plot lines running at the same time, and while a little disorienting at first because of their stark differences to each other – one a nomadic group consisting of 2 boys and an old man, another a military officer in DC, and then the Satori (the source of Seed) and it’s DNA-spliced “children”. But as the plot moves along, all three come together at an amazing pace and I was left reeling.
There are some very awkward scenes in this book – like when the Satori engineers (who are genetically created twins and siblings) “connect”, if they are actually siblings it’s incest and pretty gross to think about. But, I think what the author was trying to get across is that these weren’t human beings, they were genetically modified with animal DNA and they weren’t normal.
The idea of Satori was really well done – this odd dome-like area that is actually living, breathing, thinking. It cares for those inside of it, provides “meat” and seems all-knowing. The people *running* Satori were corrupt, but in a world that was as bad this dystopian future, Satori itself was something powerful and good.
The characters were not that likeable at first, but they grew on me with time. Brood and Pollo are wandering like so many others, what they are looking for is not really clear. They are thieves, taking what they want or need under the cover of darkness. But through the story, the author tells about their past and Brood starts shaping up as a good kid (Pollo as well). Sienna Doss is military and has some very bizarre ideas about right and wrong, but I ended up admiring her personality towards the end. I also really liked the “rogue bio-engineer”, I felt she was trying to do the right thing away from Satori, and was upset with the way society and government decided to deal with it.
Ultimately, this was really well written. While it doesn’t seem like something feasible like some dystopian stories, the world was so intricately created and well-told that I felt I was there in that society, hoping for something good to come out of the corruption. I almost wish it *was* real. If you like dystopian stories, then you should definitely pick this one up!
Once I got past that and started understanding what was happening, the story got a lot better. There were several seemingly unconnected plot lines running at the same time, and while a little disorienting at first because of their stark differences to each other – one a nomadic group consisting of 2 boys and an old man, another a military officer in DC, and then the Satori (the source of Seed) and it’s DNA-spliced “children”. But as the plot moves along, all three come together at an amazing pace and I was left reeling.
There are some very awkward scenes in this book – like when the Satori engineers (who are genetically created twins and siblings) “connect”, if they are actually siblings it’s incest and pretty gross to think about. But, I think what the author was trying to get across is that these weren’t human beings, they were genetically modified with animal DNA and they weren’t normal.
The idea of Satori was really well done – this odd dome-like area that is actually living, breathing, thinking. It cares for those inside of it, provides “meat” and seems all-knowing. The people *running* Satori were corrupt, but in a world that was as bad this dystopian future, Satori itself was something powerful and good.
The characters were not that likeable at first, but they grew on me with time. Brood and Pollo are wandering like so many others, what they are looking for is not really clear. They are thieves, taking what they want or need under the cover of darkness. But through the story, the author tells about their past and Brood starts shaping up as a good kid (Pollo as well). Sienna Doss is military and has some very bizarre ideas about right and wrong, but I ended up admiring her personality towards the end. I also really liked the “rogue bio-engineer”, I felt she was trying to do the right thing away from Satori, and was upset with the way society and government decided to deal with it.
Ultimately, this was really well written. While it doesn’t seem like something feasible like some dystopian stories, the world was so intricately created and well-told that I felt I was there in that society, hoping for something good to come out of the corruption. I almost wish it *was* real. If you like dystopian stories, then you should definitely pick this one up!