Graham Downs reviewed Genesis Code by Eliza Green
Review of 'Genesis Code' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It reminded me in parts of Planet of the Apes, Avatar, and the TV show Terra Nova.
The basic premise is that, in the distant future, Earth has become a harsh, near inhospitable environment. Twenty billion people still occupy the planet, but they live under an autocratic, despotic World Government, and pollution has gotten so bad that going outdoors requires you to wear a special portable mask or risk suffocation.
There is another planet, Exilon 5, which has just recently been terraformed, and most people on Earth long to go there. It's still very early days, though, so only a couple of thousand humans live there, and the government carefully controls whom it allows to emigrate.
It's a well thought-out story, with real, believable tech and characters, and it gives you lots of food for thought and tough questions to ponder. It's billed as "Dystopian …
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It reminded me in parts of Planet of the Apes, Avatar, and the TV show Terra Nova.
The basic premise is that, in the distant future, Earth has become a harsh, near inhospitable environment. Twenty billion people still occupy the planet, but they live under an autocratic, despotic World Government, and pollution has gotten so bad that going outdoors requires you to wear a special portable mask or risk suffocation.
There is another planet, Exilon 5, which has just recently been terraformed, and most people on Earth long to go there. It's still very early days, though, so only a couple of thousand humans live there, and the government carefully controls whom it allows to emigrate.
It's a well thought-out story, with real, believable tech and characters, and it gives you lots of food for thought and tough questions to ponder. It's billed as "Dystopian Fiction", and technically, that's true. The problem with that description, though, is that today, "Dystopian" usually conjures up images of angsty Young Adult Hunger Games clones. You'll be pleased to note that this book is NOT one of those.
My only real issue with this story is the ending. And it's tearing me apart, because as I type this, I still don't know whether to give this book three stars or four.
If you know me, you'll know that I absolutely, positively despise cliffhangers. I've been known to drop a five-star review all the way down to one, just because a book leaves a character in a life-or-death situation and forces me to buy the next just to find out what happens.
Well, to be fair, the ending of this book isn't exactly a "proper" cliffhanger. No-one is in imminent, clear-and-present danger. It's just that it leaves way too many threads unresolved. Certain characters still need to find each other, someone is desperate to know the truth about something, still another is left stranded. It'd be nice if those questions were answered in this instalment, so the next episode would feel more like a complete story instead of just a continuation of this one.
Having said that, I am going to read the next one. So that's not a two, at least... Nope, I think this is, in fact, a three-star review, after all.
