“The Recorder's fate has been sealed, but the Consortium is not the only enemy.
Labeled an aberration by the Consortium, the Recorder is not yet free. Time is running out as an engineered bioweapon wreaks havoc on friend and foe alike.
Stopping both the biological agent and the people who created it is no easy task, especially since the Recorder and her friends are trapped on a research station infested with behemoth insects. Without Consortium technology, the probability of neutralizing the threat falls to nothing. In order to save her allies, the Recorder must activate a drone, but her success might destroy any hope for freedom, a future, and a name.”
Series: Book #3 in the “Children of the Consortium” trilogy. Review of Book #1, Here! and Book #2, Here!
Spiritual Content- A couple references to Scripture (“things work together for the good” and “no fear in the future”); In the first book, Recorder is told that “some people say we evolved from the dust of stars. Others say we are uniquely formed by a divine being. Stardust or Creation. Either way, you are exceptional. You are the only one of you in all the space and time. You cannot be nothing.”, and she thinks about this a handful of times later in this book as well (including weighing the value of a soul); That same person tells Recorder that she must have confidence that Someone greater than them shapes the worlds and is directing our paths; Someone else says that whether we are stardust or creation, everyone is unique; Recorder thinks about a side character’s “unquantifiable God” and is disappointed when the girl doesn’t talk about Him and is concerned that the girl might have lost her assurance in her God (which makes Recorder sad because the girl has held on to them and provided her a foundation and hope); Recorder wonders what having hope means and if it’s an act of faith; Recorder prays briefly for someone (not said to Who the prayers are towards); Someone says that he isn’t sure if “faith is the building block of hope, or vice versa, but maybe without it, the universe isn’t worth much”; Mentions of God; Mentions of a cross necklace & is being like a lifeline for someone; Mentions of having faith & hope; A few mentions of prayers & praying; A few mentions of being blessed & a blessing; A couple mentions of a side-character having olive wood beads and running them through his fingers when stressed/worried (could be a rosary); A mention of trying to convert someone; A mention of someone saying he is “going home” right before he passes; A mention of the sins of the parents going to their children;
*Note: Recorder is concerned with someone being killed before having the opportunity to change; A side character thinks that the idea of souls is “metaphysical rubbish” and an “old-Earth relic of whatever religions” the Founders of their current society had fled; Mentions of being lucky; A few mentions of evil people & their actions; A mention of a talisman.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘like blazes’, an unfinished ‘where the—', a ‘why on any known planet’, two forms of ‘blast it’, two forms of ‘idiot’, three forms of ‘shut up’, six ‘blasted’s, and twenty-one forms of ‘stupid’; Made-up cursing for this fictional world includes: an ‘Eldest spare me’, a ‘plague take you’, a ‘space it’s, a ‘what on all the worlds’, a ‘what on New Triton’, a ‘what the void’, a ‘why on any known planet’, two forms of ‘spaced (screwed)’, three forms of ‘moons above’, three ‘rotted’s, six forms of ‘dross’ (used as an insult), seven forms of ‘founders’ sakes/founder’s oath’, eight ‘trog’s (derogatory), eleven forms of spacing (used for emphasis), twelve forms of ‘void it/ void take it’s, fourteen forms of ‘stars above’, fourteen forms of ‘voided/voiding’s, twenty-two ‘moons and stars’, and forty ‘stars’ (exclamation); A couple other possible curses are cut-off; Many mentions of curses (said, not written); A couple lies; Sarcasm & Eye rolling; Trauma from being in prior near-death and high pain related places again, Explosions, Fighting, Being held at knife-point, Being hit, Being shocked, Being very sick/ill, Being shot with a virus, Pain, Injuries, Bleeding, Passing out, & Throwing up (up to semi-detailed); Panic and Anxiety (up to semi-detailed); Fighting, Facing down giant man-eating bugs, thinking you may die, & seeing someone almost eaten (up to semi-detailed); Remembering past events (including nearly dying), seeing deaths, & pain (up to semi-detailed); Seeing others killed by an authority figure and drones & the bodies (up to semi-detailed); Seeing others fighting, ill, in pain, injured, bleeding, & shot with a virus (barely-above-not-detailed); Seeing other being attacked & fighting (including giant cockroaches, up to semi-detailed); A side character is grieving the sudden death of her father in a flashback chapter; *Spoiler* Recorder tells a drone to rescue someone being held hostage & the drone ends up killing the abductor by crushing his skull (this causes her major guilt & thinking about it often and thinking herself as a murderer, up to semi-detailed on her thoughts and guilt); She feels as if his family is calling out for her blood, but someone tells her that the debt of blood as already been paid (implying Christianity) & that there is evil in the world *End of Spoiler*; Recorders are punished (shocked) by their drone if they do not act like they are supposed to (such as being emotional) and we see this happen on-page a handful of times (up to semi-detailed); After her drone is destroyed in the first book, Recorder started to hit herself when she shows emotion and that’s continued in this book as well (though less often) when she’s trying to think of something; An enemy group orders a hit on Recorder & she hears the orders (barely-above-not-detailed); Someone is bitter about being shot with the virus and makes comments about dying & waiting for death; Someone says she hopes a terrorist is recycle (killed); Some side characters are disrespectful to “shells” (bodies) and are called out on it; *Major Spoilers* The terrorists with the virus plan to take out the next generation of Recorders which are currently children and in gifting tanks; Many Recorders are killed but the children and infants are okay; Those in the Hall of Reclamation tanks do not make it *End of Spoilers*; Many, many mentions of deaths (including of family members and partners), grief, a virus being created to be a biological weapon, being injected with it, the symptoms (including weeping blood from their eyes), & the terrorists/creators and their hatred for the Consortium (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of the Hall of Reclamation (which is where organ donating with rows of deceased donors and live Recorders to serve with their bodies happen); Many mentions of the possibly of dying/being killed, giant man-eating cockroaches, them attacking and eating people, & the remains of those they’ve attacked and others losing limbs and/or dying from the injuries (barely-above-not-detailed); Many mentions of weapons, weapons being aimed at others for threats, being shot, explosions, bodies, fights, beatings, weapons, injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding (semi-detailed); Mentions of murders, murderers, & trying to figure out to did it (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of bodies & people being “recycled” (cremated); Mentions of explosions, earthquakes, & deaths (including of family members); Mentions of kidnappings, being held hostage, & shot with a virus; Mentions of survivor’s guilt; Mentions of citizens getting “removed” (either killed or sent to a hard labor area and not heard from again); Mentions of Recorders and others being shocked and strangled by drones & in pain; Mentions of pirates, mutineers, attacks, criminals, & crimes; Mentions of thieves & stealing; Mentions of blackmail & threats; Mentions of alcohol, drunken behavior, & drinking (including someone saying that they need a drink); Mentions of hatred (that some have towards the Consortium and others towards citizens who want to harm the Consortium); Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; A few mentions of stabbings; A few mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of bullies; A few mentions of tattoos (on those who have been sentenced and deemed as criminals); A couple mentions of others committing suicide by a pill instead of getting caught by their enemy; A couple mentions of Consortium staff being like slavery; A couple mentions of an electrocution; A couple mentions of gossip; A couple mentions of urine; A mention of suicidal thoughts (someone asks Recorder if she is suicidal because of her plan); A mention of someone thinking that a husband murdered his wife; A mention of execution (being illegal); A mention of someone being “spaced” (murdered/exiled); A mention of arrests; A mention of illegal drugs; A mention of a woman’s nails looking like they were dripping blood (nail polish);
Sexual Content- Two hand/palm kisses, seven forehead kisses, a not-detailed kiss, two barely-above-not-detailed kisses, and two semi-detailed kisses; A few kisses on-page in side characters’ chapters (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Nearness, & Smelling (including sitting in a guy’s lap, up to semi-detailed); Wanting to kiss, touch, embrace, & hold hands (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes; Noticing & Staring (barely-above-not-detailed); Marriage is not a concept in this world, but people have “contracts” and become “partners” (there are mentions of permanent contracts and some thinking others are odd for wanting to be with the same person for the rest of their lives); A hint to a contracted couple sharing a bed/room; Seeing couples kiss, embrace, & hold hands (barely-above-not-detailed); Four ‘babe’s; *Spoilers* As hinted in the prior book, a side-character is pregnant out of wedlock; She finds out the older man she’s been dating has an “open but exclusive contract” with another woman (allowing affairs but not another partner) and does not care what the side character does with the baby, thinking that gifting isn’t a bad decision; She calls his partner the “older, cast-off model”; He says that he loves her but also adds that “love is a complicated construct when we are but biological machines with chemical responses” adds that the pregnancy is her mistake as she’s the one in the “predicament”, and has already gotten what he wanted from her; She goes on her student trip in the early stages of her pregnancy and a friend wants to offer her a contract, but she doesn’t want a pity contract; She keeps her baby at the end *End of Spoilers*; Nathaniel comments on Recorder looking nice & noticing her legs when she’s just wearing a nightshirt; Mentions of the assault & forced kissed that happened without Recorder’s consent (Book #1); Mentions of couples, hand holding, embraces, & kissing; Mentions of boyfriends/girlfriends, dating, dates, & break-ups (some of these terms aren’t used but the idea of them are); Mentions of liking someone & crushes; Mentions of blushes & winks; A couple mentions of a forbidden love between a citizen and a Recorder; A bit of love, being in love, & the emotions;
*Note: *Spoiler* The Consortium has made sure that Recorders cannot have children *End of Spoiler*; A young woman asks a side character if he would still love her if she was fat (she asks this because her father canceled their contract when her mother got fat); A few mentions of using a drone to find the pheromone levels (breeding areas) of the cockroaches; A few mentions of guys’ muscles; A couple mentions of shockings from a drone possibly harming someone who is pregnant; A mention of a man not knowing about the existence of his daughter.
-Recorder, age 24-25
POV switches between Recorder (1st person) & flashbacks to others’ POV (Tia, Alec, Elliot, Julian, Kyleigh, and another all in 3rd person)
Sci-fi
412 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
{ Older Girls who enjoy sci-fi books may enjoy this book more and could add a full star to that rating. }
That ending was all great and good but was sorely missing a lack of fire. Of buildings on fire. Particularly government buildings on fire. Where’s the narrowing eyes emoji when you need it?
This trilogy ended up being my hurricane buddy, the series I binged as we went through a hurricane prior, during, and after when I had no Internet. It definitely sucked me in and I wanted that in a series. I have to say, though, that it didn’t meet the expectations I had for it. Which could totally be partially my fault and hyping it up in my head and comparing it to the “Anomaly” series by Krista McGee, but it wasn’t what I thought it would be. It’s still definitely had its good moments, and obviously I’ve binged the series so I definitely was interested in it, so I don’t wanna make it sound like it was bad, but I was disappointed by the ending. I suppose I am too 21st-century American because I wanted certain political and government events to happen. I guess I’ve come to expect when there is a corrupt government doing evil things, we’re going to burn it down. And I get highly disappointed when that doesn’t happen. The ending was good and very practical for this world, so I cannot fault the author for going in that direction. I still just have problems with certain elements.
This being really the first full series I’ve read that would be under the sci-fi genre, I’ve come to the conclusion that sci-fi is just weird. There’s giant bugs for some reason, outer space stuff, and other such things. It’s not my kind of read as someone who never was interested in wars in space nor tracks through the stars, so I’m a little shocked that I became so interested in the series, but I think it was mostly because answers were not given in the first book and I wanted those answers. There were different things I really thought that would’ve been revealed or happened that ended up not happening in this third book, which was interesting. It ends in an almost open ending way where the author could write a spin off series or a companion novella down the line.
This is definitely been a series that while I enjoyed the adventure this book puts you through and I felt many emotions from tears to suspense, I didn’t like every element of it. It’s not going to be one I’ll probably talk about or recommend often, unless you really, *really* like science fiction. I wish there would’ve been more faith content throughout the story especially because while it’s clean fiction I feel like those who read secular science fiction books would probably say it wasn’t “edgy” enough.
I’ve binged the series and yet I didn’t give them high ratings. That may really confuse a lot of people, but that just means is I need answers and I don’t handle not getting them well. This series has fans for it but I couldn’t just Google my answers to find out like I could for a major secular series, so I was invested in finding out the answers. Particularly I wanted to know what name she would pick.
Overall thoughts? I don’t know. This has been an interesting one to read and review, for sure. I think it goes back to you if you’re an older teen that really likes science fiction books and do not mind giant man eating bugs, you may really enjoy this book. It’s not what I’m going to recommend here on Books for Christian Girls, though, because of the lack of faith content. If you’re looking for a clean fiction read that is completely out of my norm (it might be your norm), you could see about it.
See y’all on Monday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
No comments:
Post a Comment