Thursday 21 March 2013

Partials - Dan Wells

Titel: Partials
Author: Dan Wells
Series: Partials #1
Publisher: Balzer+Bray
Pages: 468
Publication Date: February 28, 2012
Source: Bought






The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials--engineered organic beings identical to humans--has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.

Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what's left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she's not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them--connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.


***


Partials has everything I want in a great dystopian novel and then some; amazing writing, awesome characters, great world building and a lot of surprises,

I really like the protagonist, Kira, although she's a bit pushy at times. But she's also smart, energetic and not afraid to speak her mind. She changes so much trough the book and I'm sure her change continues during the second book - seems that way to me. There are so many different characters in this book and I got to know all of them pretty well. I especially adored Marcus; he's so much fun.

"Well, thanks for not shooting anyone, I guess," said Marcus. "My contribution was to somehow refrain from peeing myself. You can thank me later." (s. 344)
The story has a great balance between action and touchy-feely-stuff. There's a lot of considering and planning, but it gets us through a lot of emotions, including love and betrayal. There's a lot of politics, but it works so well and doesn't get boring at all. It just all comes together.

Both the story and the world in the book is coherent - you can really sense how much work Dan Wells put in to it - no plot holes at all! I loved reading about a dystopian world so close to our own time - it makes it scarier in some way. The book may appear to be about saving humanity (which it is!), but it's also about believing in yourself and fighting for what you believe in. Kira chases the truth as much as she chases a cure and she fights hard for her case. She's very idealistic, yet not unrealistic. I just plain love her :)
I'm gonna start the next in the series as soon as possible - Dan Wells has a new fan!

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