Partials

Partials, Book 1

By: Dan Wells

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Dan Wells, acclaimed author of I Am Not a Serial Killer, takes readers on a pulsepounding journey into a world where the very concept of what it means to be human is in question - one where our humanity is both our greatest liability and our only hope for survival.

©2012 HarperCollinsPublishers (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

love it!

easy to listen to and to follow. I enjoyed the narrator as well! excited to listen to the next one!

Fun

Took a little bit to get into the story, but as it went on, it was very entertaining.

LOVED THIS!!

This story is worth the 14 hour listen time, especially because Julia Whelan (the narrator) is AMAZING!! She reads with emotion and has an array of voices that identify each character individually!! I picked this book because I was already a fan of Julia Whelan after "The Witness" and "Educated", she did not let me down!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

Good but not great...

I'll admit the main reason I picked this book up was because I love Julia Whelan and she didn't disappoint! The story, however, ended up feeling rather lacking to me by the end. I typically enjoy YA dystopian fiction but this one missed the mark for me. If I could give it half stars it would be 3.5/5.

My main issues are these (no spoilers, but I will reference parts of the book in vague terms): almost every character except Kira felt extremely one-note and flat (especially adults), and Kira herself is SO MUCH smarter, cooler, and more athletic than anyone else. She proves herself to be more observant than trained military people, and she's the most brilliant virologist in their tiny town despite being only 16. If "more athletic" seems like an odd complaint, keep in mind this girl is a researcher and never in the book does she do cardio...yet on a day where she is running for her life, she has no problem keeping up with the most athletic of her companions--despite having a leg injury which would be crippling to most people. Wells sort of halfheartedly explains this away with medications that would knock an average person out and a "twist" that I saw coming from hour 2, both explanations feeling wholly unsatisfying to me.

The premise itself was interesting and I didn't hate the book, but I don't know if I'll pick up the rest.

Loved this!

If you enjoyed divergent or the host you'll love this. Great narration as well. Very well written, had me interested the entire book.

Mix of Handmaidens Tale and Zoo

Great storyline.... futuristic story of humans just trying to exist bringing science and Robotics into it in a nice twist. I would definitely recommend and I'm getting ready to start book 2. the narrator has a great inflection in her voice she's easy to listen to one of my favorites!

enjoyable

loved the characters and the book ended strong it took a while to get hooked

Definitely Young Adult

I rely heavily on reviews because I listen to a lot of books on tape. If you are a young adult or teen then this is probably right up your alley. Not on par with hunger games or divergent. Sorry.
You have to suspend a lot of disbelief. I just can't believe a 16-year-old girl would have that kind of medical knowledge, ability to understand those medical concepts. A nice piece of fluff but not for grown adults.

It's Okay

Would you listen to Partials again? Why?

I don't consider this first novel as gripping as some but it does have it's moments. So I am not drawn to listening to it again.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The story is based on a trilogy so there really is not an ending only a beginning to the next phase of the overall story. The author should have done more to create a cliff hanger but it's a nice transition to the next book.

What three words best describe Julia Whelan’s performance?

Good voice contrasting

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was not one of those for me at least. That said, I could never write a book as good as Dan Wells. Definitely a talented author but not as gripping as I would have liked. Character development I think is what really made the book drag on. Dan Wells had to establish a world and the characters in this first book so he could move on to the more interesting aspects of the story later on. Given it's average novel length this was a difficult task to do but he do okay with it. But this is what made the first book go a bit slow. Things definitely get more interesting in the second book.

Any additional comments?

You have to take all 3 books into context as an arch across the apocalyptic world created by Dan Wells. Be patient with the first book at builds on itself nicely.

Realistic, for Sci-Fi

I found this book to be a teat. It was short, sweet and left a good taste in my mouth. The characters were well rounded and their relationships to each other were realistic. The entire scenario itself was quite realistic too, for science fiction at least.
I will however wait a while to continue with the sequel.