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A review by bboerner
Seed by Rob Ziegler
4.0
First off, this isn't just another dystopian science fiction book. I enjoyed it quite a bit, even though I sometimes had trouble figuring out who the sympathetic figures should be. I'm guessing this was by design, as there weren't any characters in the book (maybe one exception) that weren't responsible for a significant amount of bloodshed and violence.
The underlying concepts of the book had some familiar elements, but for the most part were really fresh and new to me. I liked the idea of Satori, the living, self-sustaining "city" that was one of the main settings as well as being a character in itself. As outlandish as some of the biotechnology seems when described, how far out of our reach is that concept?? I can't say, but it's somewhat scary to be able to envision the world these characters inhabit as something quite possibly in our future.
We spend most of the story looking over the shoulder of Brood, who is praised by other characters for his ability to survive and his ruthlessness. He has a softer core, and though we see that only rarely, it makes him a good protagonist for this story.
One of the reasons this didn't quite get a bump up to 5 stars is that there were too many silly errors in the writing and/or printing. I think it was just poor use of spell-check for the most part. Some examples: "tenants" used rather than "tenets", "breaks" rather than "brakes", "pours" rather than "pores", "first" rather than "fist". There are a few other errors, but these types of mistakes just make it tough for me to stay involved in the story when I have to re-read a sentence or phrase to get the proper meaning.
Finally, I have to say that I really like the name and cover of this book. Both are very appropriate to the story.
The underlying concepts of the book had some familiar elements, but for the most part were really fresh and new to me. I liked the idea of Satori, the living, self-sustaining "city" that was one of the main settings as well as being a character in itself. As outlandish as some of the biotechnology seems when described, how far out of our reach is that concept?? I can't say, but it's somewhat scary to be able to envision the world these characters inhabit as something quite possibly in our future.
We spend most of the story looking over the shoulder of Brood, who is praised by other characters for his ability to survive and his ruthlessness. He has a softer core, and though we see that only rarely, it makes him a good protagonist for this story.
One of the reasons this didn't quite get a bump up to 5 stars is that there were too many silly errors in the writing and/or printing. I think it was just poor use of spell-check for the most part. Some examples: "tenants" used rather than "tenets", "breaks" rather than "brakes", "pours" rather than "pores", "first" rather than "fist". There are a few other errors, but these types of mistakes just make it tough for me to stay involved in the story when I have to re-read a sentence or phrase to get the proper meaning.
Finally, I have to say that I really like the name and cover of this book. Both are very appropriate to the story.