10% First Impressions: Athena's Choice by Adam Boostrom
This will be my second entry into my series of posts, 10% First Impressions. This time I'm documenting my first impressions of Athena's Choice by Adam Boostrom. Athena's Choice is another book I was able to receive through NetGalley. The eBook I received is 230 pages long, so I'm reading the first 23 pages. With the first chapter starting on third page, I'll be reading to page 26. If ever my 10% is in the middle of a chapter I'll finish that chapter. If I give myself more to do at once I'll finish my task earlier than expected.
The book was published early this year in January and follows our protagonist, Athena, in her futuristic world in 2099, when all the men have died. Efforts to bring back the men have been sabotaged and joining the hunt for the saboteur, Athena learns truths she did not know! Wow. The cheese. I imagine what attracted me to this book, via its summary, was the idea of gender politics and identities and a discussion thereof in a sci-fi setting.
So immediately I have questions. Proceeding in the story we learn that, via virus, the government killed all the men. But according to the book description it's been 50 years since the men died. And apparently the women have been having children via insemination. How long does the sperm in sperm banks last? 50 years? When was the last time someone had a child? I don't consider these spoilers as one could logically gather them to be the circumstances of a world without men. Is that going to be part of the big reveal, the big drama of the story? Something to do with how the children of this are born/created/inseminated, whatever? Are they clones? Is that it?! Also, parsing through its description, this future isn't as eco-friendly as it one might imagine it should be. But alas, I'm nitpicking. Wait, were the men turned into women? Anyway, let me stop guessing.
The one quote I will highlight here is one that, again, isn't spoilerific. Okay, it might be a tad spoilerific. Skip ahead if you don't want to read it. It follows:
Moving on from that, there are points on either side of an argument to bring men back into a world from which they have been gone for decades. Reproduction is probably the first argument, but then we get into sexual orientation too. And this isn't a world where no one has seen ever a man. Wives and mothers lost their husbands and sons. The older generations were the ones who suffered that loss. It's fitting then that the book takes on the narrative of someone who has never seen a man in her life.
Individual chapters are short and sweet. Supplemental texts are interspersed regularly to drive along the story and provide additional context to the main story. The pacing feels about right and the story doesn't yet feel incomplete. As the author is a man writing female characters in a world without their male counterparts I'm likely to stay vigilant and doubtful as the story progresses, but so far I'm liking the story and where it's going quite a bit. With 4 stars on NetGalley and 4.5 on Amazon the consensus seems to be a fairly positive review. I guess I'll see when I finish the book.
The book was published early this year in January and follows our protagonist, Athena, in her futuristic world in 2099, when all the men have died. Efforts to bring back the men have been sabotaged and joining the hunt for the saboteur, Athena learns truths she did not know! Wow. The cheese. I imagine what attracted me to this book, via its summary, was the idea of gender politics and identities and a discussion thereof in a sci-fi setting.
So immediately I have questions. Proceeding in the story we learn that, via virus, the government killed all the men. But according to the book description it's been 50 years since the men died. And apparently the women have been having children via insemination. How long does the sperm in sperm banks last? 50 years? When was the last time someone had a child? I don't consider these spoilers as one could logically gather them to be the circumstances of a world without men. Is that going to be part of the big reveal, the big drama of the story? Something to do with how the children of this are born/created/inseminated, whatever? Are they clones? Is that it?! Also, parsing through its description, this future isn't as eco-friendly as it one might imagine it should be. But alas, I'm nitpicking. Wait, were the men turned into women? Anyway, let me stop guessing.
The one quote I will highlight here is one that, again, isn't spoilerific. Okay, it might be a tad spoilerific. Skip ahead if you don't want to read it. It follows:
" 'No body of women on earth has the authority to resurrect a species that was responsible for causing its own extinction.' "Ooh, that's deep bitch. We're getting deep. Let's think about that for a moment. With what authority does a small group act to make such a drastic change to the world?
Moving on from that, there are points on either side of an argument to bring men back into a world from which they have been gone for decades. Reproduction is probably the first argument, but then we get into sexual orientation too. And this isn't a world where no one has seen ever a man. Wives and mothers lost their husbands and sons. The older generations were the ones who suffered that loss. It's fitting then that the book takes on the narrative of someone who has never seen a man in her life.
Individual chapters are short and sweet. Supplemental texts are interspersed regularly to drive along the story and provide additional context to the main story. The pacing feels about right and the story doesn't yet feel incomplete. As the author is a man writing female characters in a world without their male counterparts I'm likely to stay vigilant and doubtful as the story progresses, but so far I'm liking the story and where it's going quite a bit. With 4 stars on NetGalley and 4.5 on Amazon the consensus seems to be a fairly positive review. I guess I'll see when I finish the book.
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