Partials

This is one of those books that jumped off a bookstore shelf at me and screamed, "READ ME!" I have no idea why. I think I liked the cover. Huh. Anyway, I just finished reading Partials by Dan Wells.

At some point in the near future, humanity is teetering on the edge of extinction. Most of humanity was wiped out by a group of synthetic lifeforms called Partials when those artificial people rebelled against their human masters. Then, to make matters worse, the Partials unleashed the RM virus, an epidemic that wiped out the majority of the human survivors. Only a couple thousand are left, bunkered down on Long Island, trying desperately to survive. That's not easy, though. Every time the human survivors produce a new baby, the baby catches RM immediately and dies. The youngest human being just turned 14 and things are turning desperate. The Senate has lowered the mandatory pregnancy age to 18 and a lot of people are not happy about it.

This is the world that Kira finds herself in. She's about to turn 16 and she's training to be a medic in a hospital. When she learns that her "big sister" is pregnant, Kira vows to find a cure to the RM virus. And she strikes upon a wild idea: why not see how the Partials deal with the virus? This leads Kira and her friends on a desperate hunt to not only capture one of humanity's avowed enemies, but see if they can find a cure in record time. But Kira has to be careful, because she might learn more than she wanted.

This was a pretty good book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I found it interesting the way Wells described humanity's attempt to survive in a nearly abandoned part of what was New York City. For me, the most fascinating part was another of Kira's "sisters," Xochi, who was the music freak. She had gathered baskets full of MP3 players and had named them after the people who had monogrammed their names on them.

In some ways, the plot was a bit predictable. I had two of the twists pegged before they came. But that didn't diminish my enjoyment of this book. There appears to be a sequel in the works, and I, for one, can't wait to see where the adventure goes next.