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

Like (TV series) "Revolution"? You may like this.

After a slow start, Dan Wells hooked me in and I'm now hanging out for the sequel so much so that I may have to purchase an actual book instead of buying it from Audible! ('Fragments' the sequel doesn't appear to be on audio book yet *sadface*)

The beginning felt a little weighed down by backstory and medical jargon. But I'm glad I stuck with it. The quality of the writing kept me going at first and then the story kicked up the action and I was hooked. Keira, the main character annoyed me at times but by the end of the book I'd grown to love her.

My one complaint would be a lack of romance. All the connections are there but I feel like the author fails to give us any really satisfying romantic connections. Still, it makes for good tension and I hope there is some pay off for romantics in book two.

As for the performance by Julia Whelan - it was my favourite so far of the books I've listened to on Audible. She had just the right tone, I enjoyed her voices and her intensity was spot on. I will look out for more reads by her.

Overall, a good story about an intriguing world. If you like the new TV series Revolution, you may just like this.

Highly recommend

Where does Partials rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Upper 1/4

Who was your favorite character and why?

Samm

Which character – as performed by Julia Whelan – was your favorite?

Kira

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

Not at first, but it got a lot more interesting the second half and I couldn't put it down.

Any additional comments?

This is a very clean book. There is no sex, foul language, or gruesome descriptions of violent acts. I highly recommend this book. It's a great read. I really hope they come out with a second book.

Got distracted...

Simply coudn't get hooked by this story. Made it about 6 or 7 hours in, and was still sort of ...meh...