Helpful Score: 1
The year is 2076. Most of mankind is dead. Years ago, the Partials were created, part machine and part human, to help win the Isolation War. They were successful and the Partials returned home. But the Partials were treated as outcasts, they were different, and they became angry. They wiped out most of humanity, not only by killing them but by releasing a virus, called RM that not only killed, but prevented anyone from procreating.
Kira Walker is only sixteen but she is a medical intern. She works in maternity, observing everything when a new baby is born. The infant never lives, the virus takes immediate possession and the babies are always dead before they are three days old. The Senate has passed The Hope Act, a law that demands that any female eighteen or older must be pregnant. The Senate figures the more babies they have, eventually they will either get one who is immune to the virus or someone will find the cure.
Kira believes that to cure RM, they need to go to the source. But going into Partial territory is a death sentence. Not only would they possibly instigate a new war, but no one has seen a Partial in eleven years and it is certain death. Kira, though, when she finds out one of her best friends is pregnant, decides to take matter into her own hands. Although she has been forbidden to go, she and a group of friends go anyways. They are successful to a degree, but fail in other areas. Some of the group dies on the journey, but they do bring back a Partial. However, the Senate wants it disposed of before Kira can perform her tests. Will she be able to convince them to let her try? Or will they kill the Partial and take with it every possible chance they had to prevent their species from dying out?
I have to say I absolutely loved this book! Kira is a great heroine, but her circle of friends makes her better. The world in 2076 is rugged, dangerous and believable. Dan Wells spins a yarn so filled with detail; you can picture it in your mind. With romance, conspiracy, politics, adrenaline-charged action scenes and a heroine with a heart of gold, Partials is a wonderful addition to the apocalyptic dystopian genre. I hope there is a sequel!
Kira Walker is only sixteen but she is a medical intern. She works in maternity, observing everything when a new baby is born. The infant never lives, the virus takes immediate possession and the babies are always dead before they are three days old. The Senate has passed The Hope Act, a law that demands that any female eighteen or older must be pregnant. The Senate figures the more babies they have, eventually they will either get one who is immune to the virus or someone will find the cure.
Kira believes that to cure RM, they need to go to the source. But going into Partial territory is a death sentence. Not only would they possibly instigate a new war, but no one has seen a Partial in eleven years and it is certain death. Kira, though, when she finds out one of her best friends is pregnant, decides to take matter into her own hands. Although she has been forbidden to go, she and a group of friends go anyways. They are successful to a degree, but fail in other areas. Some of the group dies on the journey, but they do bring back a Partial. However, the Senate wants it disposed of before Kira can perform her tests. Will she be able to convince them to let her try? Or will they kill the Partial and take with it every possible chance they had to prevent their species from dying out?
I have to say I absolutely loved this book! Kira is a great heroine, but her circle of friends makes her better. The world in 2076 is rugged, dangerous and believable. Dan Wells spins a yarn so filled with detail; you can picture it in your mind. With romance, conspiracy, politics, adrenaline-charged action scenes and a heroine with a heart of gold, Partials is a wonderful addition to the apocalyptic dystopian genre. I hope there is a sequel!
I've been on apocalyptic trip lately; I think the last 5 YA books that I have reviewed have been an "after the world ends" novel. This will be the last one in this category for a little bit I think. I enjoyed Partials, but it was way longer than it needed to be.
Summary: Kira is a medic working in the maternity ward. She's only been there for a little while and has already seen the death of several babies. Since the Partial war and the release of the plague virus RM, new births have not been possible. The only survivors have some immunity to RM, but the babies do not. The council is doing all that they can to increase the chances of survival for the human species, but their actions have consequences. The HOPE act has been put into place forcing all women over the age of 18 to become pregnant as often as possible. This has caused unrest in the community, and a new group called the Voice has begun to rebel. As the council begins to contemplate lowering the age of pregnancy to 16, the Voice pushes harder blowing up buildings and generally causing unrest. Kira also has an idea on how to research a new cure for RM. She wants to go into New York city and capture a Partial to test on. Backing up slightly, a partial is a manufactured humanoid that was developed to be a war machine. They look exactly like a human, but are virtually unstoppable. After their job was done in the war, they ended up turning against humans and causing the Partial war. At this time, RM was released and wiped out most of the human race. Fast forwarding again, Kira and a group of friends travel to Manhattan to get a test subject to cure RM and save the human race.
My thoughts: I already said this, but this book was REALLY long. Overall, it was not that there was a lot of pages, it just seemed like there were several story lines that were introduced and then solved. I am very certain that this is going to be a serial book, so why shove so much in the first one? Kira is a likeable character. She is very intelligent and trusting. I like the fact that she reveals prejudice and fights against it. I think that is a very positive message throughout the book. I don't like how the adults are all bad or killed off. Any time that a new adult was brought up, you could bet that they were evil or going to die. After the first couple of pages, this was evident.
----SPOILER ALERT----
I wanted the book to end once the kids escape with the Partial. I felt like that was a natural end to all of the adventures that they had gone through. Then, the development of the activities that happen with the other Partials could have been detailed within their own book. I would have liked to have more insight into the Partial world once Kira is captured, but if it was incorporated into this book it would have been upwards of 700 pages. This is really what drew me away from the second part of the book. There were just too many beginnings and ends for me.
Summary: Kira is a medic working in the maternity ward. She's only been there for a little while and has already seen the death of several babies. Since the Partial war and the release of the plague virus RM, new births have not been possible. The only survivors have some immunity to RM, but the babies do not. The council is doing all that they can to increase the chances of survival for the human species, but their actions have consequences. The HOPE act has been put into place forcing all women over the age of 18 to become pregnant as often as possible. This has caused unrest in the community, and a new group called the Voice has begun to rebel. As the council begins to contemplate lowering the age of pregnancy to 16, the Voice pushes harder blowing up buildings and generally causing unrest. Kira also has an idea on how to research a new cure for RM. She wants to go into New York city and capture a Partial to test on. Backing up slightly, a partial is a manufactured humanoid that was developed to be a war machine. They look exactly like a human, but are virtually unstoppable. After their job was done in the war, they ended up turning against humans and causing the Partial war. At this time, RM was released and wiped out most of the human race. Fast forwarding again, Kira and a group of friends travel to Manhattan to get a test subject to cure RM and save the human race.
My thoughts: I already said this, but this book was REALLY long. Overall, it was not that there was a lot of pages, it just seemed like there were several story lines that were introduced and then solved. I am very certain that this is going to be a serial book, so why shove so much in the first one? Kira is a likeable character. She is very intelligent and trusting. I like the fact that she reveals prejudice and fights against it. I think that is a very positive message throughout the book. I don't like how the adults are all bad or killed off. Any time that a new adult was brought up, you could bet that they were evil or going to die. After the first couple of pages, this was evident.
----SPOILER ALERT----
I wanted the book to end once the kids escape with the Partial. I felt like that was a natural end to all of the adventures that they had gone through. Then, the development of the activities that happen with the other Partials could have been detailed within their own book. I would have liked to have more insight into the Partial world once Kira is captured, but if it was incorporated into this book it would have been upwards of 700 pages. This is really what drew me away from the second part of the book. There were just too many beginnings and ends for me.
I have been wanting to read this book for a long time and finally my library got a copy! It wasnt as good as I had anticipated it would be, but its a clean YA book with lots of action. There is a lot of violence and drama in the story, but nothing gory. I really thought of the book Uglies (one of my fave YA books) with Partials even though they are very different stories. Partials is a dystopian novel thats part of a series although it can be read as a stand alone (I havent decided if I will read the sequel or not, Fragments).
Partials went to war with humans and even though the Partials were winning, they decide to release a virus that comes from their body that ends up sweeping over the entire world killing MOST humans. I was never very clear on that part of the plot because later it turns out that Partials worked for humans, but were mistreated and abused. Then the war started because their conditions did not get better and humans were too inhumane and greedy to give Partials fairness or equality. Maybe that subplot will be explained further into the sequel.
The entire book is from Kiras perspective. Kira is a teen girl and newly appointed medical intern who quickly gets transferred into the research department. Shes a brilliant young scientist/medic who gets a golden opportunity to study a live Partial to determine a cure for RM, the virus that killed most of humankind. Oh, one other little problem. Since the war ended 11 years ago, not one infant has survived. Then one of Kiras best friends gets pregnant and Kira decides its time to find a cure and preserve human existence. Many babies die while Kira is interning, but only one death is described and its heartbreaking. I was in amazement at the risks Kira takes to find a Partial, she is such a fearless girl who is willing to give her life to find this cure. Her boyfriend Marcus, also a medic, wants to get married and have a family with her. He was sweet in the beginning and made me laugh more than once, but by the middle of the book he got to be really annoying. Marcus and Kira do not have a strong relationship and when she decides to break the law and find a Partial, she realizes that despite her feelings for this guy she has much more important plans than getting married. Marcus turns out to be a great friend and ally in the story, also risking his life to help Kira at the end. Im hoping that Kira will hook up with Samm, the Partial she ends up befriending while studying his blood work. Also, Partials are considered not human but weapons and they have superhuman abilities. They dont age, are faster, stronger, heal very fast, have linked minds, trained for war/fighting, and they have superior technology, but they look like humans and can blend in without being detected. Their only weakness is that they cannot reproduce.
So how is Partials like Uglies? One teen girl decides to go against her government in order to do the right thing for humanity even though the odds are completely against her. Also, in both books the government is corrupt and untrustworthy. In Uglies, the parents were not available or involved in Tallys life. In Partials, they are deceased or unknown. Supposedly, the Partials are now looking to make peace with humans because they need help and they have the means to cure RM.
Even though I did enjoy the book, it really didnt grab my attention until 10 chapters in and then I had to find out what happened to Kira. I didnt like how much shooting goes on at the end, but once you get into the story its nearly impossible to put away. I also liked how the author shows the enemy in a new perspective. Throughout the book you read how Partials are barbaric monsters after what they did to humanity, releasing this horrific virus and all, but then Kira encounters one personally and she doesnt have the stomach to torture him and then she realizes theres so much more to Partials than what she has learned. And the Partials in the story are not terrorists, the humans are. Its a happy ending, but it ends in such a way that you know there will be a sequel.
Partials went to war with humans and even though the Partials were winning, they decide to release a virus that comes from their body that ends up sweeping over the entire world killing MOST humans. I was never very clear on that part of the plot because later it turns out that Partials worked for humans, but were mistreated and abused. Then the war started because their conditions did not get better and humans were too inhumane and greedy to give Partials fairness or equality. Maybe that subplot will be explained further into the sequel.
The entire book is from Kiras perspective. Kira is a teen girl and newly appointed medical intern who quickly gets transferred into the research department. Shes a brilliant young scientist/medic who gets a golden opportunity to study a live Partial to determine a cure for RM, the virus that killed most of humankind. Oh, one other little problem. Since the war ended 11 years ago, not one infant has survived. Then one of Kiras best friends gets pregnant and Kira decides its time to find a cure and preserve human existence. Many babies die while Kira is interning, but only one death is described and its heartbreaking. I was in amazement at the risks Kira takes to find a Partial, she is such a fearless girl who is willing to give her life to find this cure. Her boyfriend Marcus, also a medic, wants to get married and have a family with her. He was sweet in the beginning and made me laugh more than once, but by the middle of the book he got to be really annoying. Marcus and Kira do not have a strong relationship and when she decides to break the law and find a Partial, she realizes that despite her feelings for this guy she has much more important plans than getting married. Marcus turns out to be a great friend and ally in the story, also risking his life to help Kira at the end. Im hoping that Kira will hook up with Samm, the Partial she ends up befriending while studying his blood work. Also, Partials are considered not human but weapons and they have superhuman abilities. They dont age, are faster, stronger, heal very fast, have linked minds, trained for war/fighting, and they have superior technology, but they look like humans and can blend in without being detected. Their only weakness is that they cannot reproduce.
So how is Partials like Uglies? One teen girl decides to go against her government in order to do the right thing for humanity even though the odds are completely against her. Also, in both books the government is corrupt and untrustworthy. In Uglies, the parents were not available or involved in Tallys life. In Partials, they are deceased or unknown. Supposedly, the Partials are now looking to make peace with humans because they need help and they have the means to cure RM.
Even though I did enjoy the book, it really didnt grab my attention until 10 chapters in and then I had to find out what happened to Kira. I didnt like how much shooting goes on at the end, but once you get into the story its nearly impossible to put away. I also liked how the author shows the enemy in a new perspective. Throughout the book you read how Partials are barbaric monsters after what they did to humanity, releasing this horrific virus and all, but then Kira encounters one personally and she doesnt have the stomach to torture him and then she realizes theres so much more to Partials than what she has learned. And the Partials in the story are not terrorists, the humans are. Its a happy ending, but it ends in such a way that you know there will be a sequel.
Post Apocolyptic Teen Fiction. Life-like, artificial human soldiers were developed, to fight a war for the United States. When the war was over, the soldiers weren't welcome in Society. Then humans started dying from a virus, presumable created by the artifical humans, or "partials." Ten years later only a small population of humans survive on Long Island. Every baby born, dies of the virus. Kira, a medic is tired of watching babies die, and thinks that saving humanity depends upon studying a partial.
When Kira does meet a Partial, everything she thought that she knew about her life and her world quickly changes.
The book started off a little slow, but gets much better. Now, I can't wait to get my hands on the second book.
When Kira does meet a Partial, everything she thought that she knew about her life and her world quickly changes.
The book started off a little slow, but gets much better. Now, I can't wait to get my hands on the second book.
SUSAN S. (susieqmillsacoustics) -
Wow! A great read! A very frightening world and a devastated human race. There are surprising twists in this page-turner. It made me grateful for many things in our world, but made me think of some things differently. It is one scary future, but also a tale of hope. I loved it and can't wait to read the next book!
I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This was a very well written book, with a wonderful background, and great characters fighting to save humanity from extinction.
The humans made the Partials to fight wars for them. The Partials made the RM virus to wipe out humanity. As a side effect of the RM virus no human babies live longer then a few days. Kira is trying to cure RM by working in the maternity ward. When Kira decides the cure may lie with the Partials (enemies of humanity) she goes against all the rules of their society to do what is needed to find a cure.
This was an intricate world filled with well developed and interesting characters. The background story about a human invention, the Partials, becoming more adaptable than humans themselves and taking over humanity is a science fiction theme thats been explored before. It is still really well done in this book and the Partials are so human-like that it makes the story even more interesting.
The characters make this interesting as well. You have two split generations forming this society. The first are the adults that survived the RM virus, the second are the plague babies...the people who were very young when the virus wiped out the majority of humanity. These two generations have very different ideas on how things should be done.
Kira is an excellent heroine. She is smart, incredibly driven, and determined to do what she thinks is right for humanity. She doest let anything stand in the way of achieving her goal. All of the characters surrounding her are just as interesting and have just as much history as she does.
The Partials are an interesting enemy as well. They remain very mysterious for most of the book. When we are introduced to them in person, we find out they have some interesting capabitlities...including a very borg-like hive mind ability.
The plot is fairly complex and full of conspiracies. The elders of Kiras city are trying to keep control of the city no matter what the cost; there is the Voice, a rebel splinter group of humans, and of course the Partials. There are lots of twists and turns and at times Kira doesnt know who she can trust.
The book explores lots of questions around human rights versus human survival. One of the pivotal issues in the book is a law requiring girls to get pregnant starting at age 16 to ensure the survival of humanity. There are many other issues of personal rights and privileges when faced with the extinction of your race.
The writing style was easy to read and very well done. I enjoyed reading this book and found it hard to put down.
Overall an excellent YA dystopian book. I didnt like it as much as Hunger Games, but it was still a great book with an intricate world, engaging characters, and interesting issues to be resolved. I am excited to read the second book in the series, Framents, when it release in Feb of 2013. Highly recommended for fans of the dystopian genre.
The humans made the Partials to fight wars for them. The Partials made the RM virus to wipe out humanity. As a side effect of the RM virus no human babies live longer then a few days. Kira is trying to cure RM by working in the maternity ward. When Kira decides the cure may lie with the Partials (enemies of humanity) she goes against all the rules of their society to do what is needed to find a cure.
This was an intricate world filled with well developed and interesting characters. The background story about a human invention, the Partials, becoming more adaptable than humans themselves and taking over humanity is a science fiction theme thats been explored before. It is still really well done in this book and the Partials are so human-like that it makes the story even more interesting.
The characters make this interesting as well. You have two split generations forming this society. The first are the adults that survived the RM virus, the second are the plague babies...the people who were very young when the virus wiped out the majority of humanity. These two generations have very different ideas on how things should be done.
Kira is an excellent heroine. She is smart, incredibly driven, and determined to do what she thinks is right for humanity. She doest let anything stand in the way of achieving her goal. All of the characters surrounding her are just as interesting and have just as much history as she does.
The Partials are an interesting enemy as well. They remain very mysterious for most of the book. When we are introduced to them in person, we find out they have some interesting capabitlities...including a very borg-like hive mind ability.
The plot is fairly complex and full of conspiracies. The elders of Kiras city are trying to keep control of the city no matter what the cost; there is the Voice, a rebel splinter group of humans, and of course the Partials. There are lots of twists and turns and at times Kira doesnt know who she can trust.
The book explores lots of questions around human rights versus human survival. One of the pivotal issues in the book is a law requiring girls to get pregnant starting at age 16 to ensure the survival of humanity. There are many other issues of personal rights and privileges when faced with the extinction of your race.
The writing style was easy to read and very well done. I enjoyed reading this book and found it hard to put down.
Overall an excellent YA dystopian book. I didnt like it as much as Hunger Games, but it was still a great book with an intricate world, engaging characters, and interesting issues to be resolved. I am excited to read the second book in the series, Framents, when it release in Feb of 2013. Highly recommended for fans of the dystopian genre.
First in the Partials Sequence trilogy, YA post-apocalyptic story. Liked the concept a lot, liked the science aspects. Kira is a good protagonist, the other teens are fairly nondescript - I barely remembered who each of them were during the book. The adults are only there to get in the way of the kids, no character development at all. I liked Kira's determination to find a cure but it would have been better to know why she had any chance of succeeding after 11 years of failure from the establishment. Her reasoning seemed very obvious, so you wonder why the adults never tried it. Liked the interaction with the Partial. As a YA book I think it succeeds, but as an adult who's read a lot of these, I wasn't excited enough. Wells gives us a nice plot twist toward the end, but I decided I'm not into it enough to go on.
