AE Warren

Elise, a Sapien from Thymine base, and her companions have successfully made their way to the secret base, Uracil. Those companions are Luca, also Sapien and the Companion to the Neanderthal woman, Seventeen; Kit, the Neanderthal also known as Twenty-One, whose Companion Elise was; Georgina, a Medius nurse who has become Elise's friend and also Companion to Seventeen's surviving baby girl, whom they have named Bay; and Samuel, direct supervisor of the Neanderthal project at Thymine, whom they believe is also a Medius.

At Uracil, they discover that Samuel was keeping more secrets than the existence of Uracil. His father was one of the founders of Uracil--and his father was a Potior. His mother was a Medius. He looks more like his mother; his sister, Faye, looks more like their Potior father.

Elise volunteers to become a spy for Uracil, gathering information from the four official bases, in exchange for her parents and brother to be able to join Uracil when they can be smuggled out. The first goal is getting the young Neanderthal woman, Twenty-Two, and a Neanderthal boy, Twenty-Seven, out of Cytosine. Samuel, Kit, and Luca will do that, while Elise carries out her first assignment, getting pictures of one particular lab inside Cytosine. What none of them know is that there is a malign force at work in Uracil, and there's a trap waiting at Cytosine.

Meanwhile, at Cytosine, the two Neanderthal, Twenty-Two and Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Two's Companion, Dara, and a young Sapien man named Ezra, are planning their own escape from Cytosine. Their planned destination is Thymine, in the belief that it's only four days' travel away, and that the former head of the Cytosine Museum of Evolution, Fintorian, who is fondly remembered by Twenty-Two and Dara, is now there.

This is, of course, all about to go horribly wrong.

The two groups combine and separate, and Twenty-Two and Twenty-Seven are rescued by Samuel, Luca, and Kit, while, Elise, Dara, and Ezra are locked up in "containment" in Cytosine. Elise can't remember anything from the last three months, and only gradually makes friends with Ezra and Dara. Theoretically, Elise and Ezra are serving two-year labor sentences to pay for their surgeries--appendectomy in Elise's case, and gall bladder for Ezra.

While they try to figure out how they're going to escape this time, back in Uracil, their friends are trying to figure out what's really happening in Uracil.

I'm not doing the book justice. These are smart, individual, determined people with their own strengths and talents. Uracil is a place where something is badly wrong, but founded on good principles and perhaps salvageable. Sapiens, Neanderthals, Medius, and perhaps Potiors will all have to work together.

An excellent read. Highly recommended!

I received a free electronic galley from the publisher and am reviewing it voluntarily.… (mehr)

Some unknown hundreds of years in our future, much of the human species has been eliminated by a plague, and the descendants of the survivors have developed a new, caste-divided society. The lowest caste are unmodified Sapiens. Sapiens are blamed for all the extinctions, disasters, the plague, and the collapse of the old society. And not in an abstract way. Sapiens live under the rules of Reparations, in relative poverty, in ecologically correct homes that blend into the landscape. They're only allowed to fairly basic jobs.

Medius, or or "Midders," are middle caste, considered definitely superior to mere Sapiens, and doing most of the interesting jobs that require real education. However, it's worth noting that Sapiens who can afford to do so, or who win the lottery for genetic modifications, can buy three genetic changes to their next baby, and that baby will be Medius, not Sapiens.

The ruling caste are Potior, or "Supes." It would take ten genetic modifications to make your baby a Potior.

Elise is a Sapiens, and she's tired of working the the Production Center. She wants more breadth and depth to her life, and she applies at the Museum of Evolution for the newly open position to the Neanderthal, called Twenty-One.

When she starts her new job, Elise finds many things are different from what she's been taught. The Neanderthal, who tells her his name is Kit, not Twenty-One, takes a while to trust her and open up, but proves to be just as intelligent as she is. Some of the Midders she encounters don't seem to be any smarter than the Sapiens are, and sometimes perhaps a little less. The Potior who is the head of the Museum is impressive, but despite his height, presence, and physical power, he doesn't seem to be all that perceptive about either the Neanderthals, or Sapiens, or even necessarily the Medius.

There are things going on at the Museum that don't necessarily conform to the claimed mission of undoing the damage Sapiens did.

And her weekly visits home make her aware of trouble in the Sapiens community, unrest at the frankly unfair rules they live under.

Meanwhile, Elise has secrets of her own that could undo her hopes of a career at the Museum, and learning more about the world outside their immediate settlement. She does have a few friends at the Museum. Luca, the Sapien companion to the other Neanderthal at the Museum, Seventeen, who is pregnant by artificial insemination. Georgina, the Medius nurse who treats her injured arm after a mistake that could have ended her career on her first day. Samuel, the Medius supervisor of herself and Luca.

Over the next months, she learns a great deal about friendship, secrets, treachery, and the real history of her world.

The characters are interesting, complex, and have a human mixture of good and bad intentions. I have lots of questions about the future Earth we're presented with, but they're questions we're intended to have. It's an intriguing and satisfying book.

Strongly recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book, and am reviewing it voluntarily.… (mehr)

In THE BASE OF REFLECTIONS, by A.E. Warren, Elise and her companions have escaped the confines of the museum and made it to Uracil, a place where much of the societal structures in their world are ignored, particularly the class system. Elise has agreed to become a spy for Uracil and her first assignment is part of the team heading out to rescue Twenty-Two, another Neanderthal. When the escape plan breaks down and Elise is captured, secrets are revealed and true motives are uncovered which all lead to an exciting climax.
Warren has created a unique dystopian future like none I have read before. There are three classes, as well and the artificially recreated Neanderthals, which all bring their own perspective to each situation. The sci-fi conventions within the book are well thought out and clear to understand and they add nicely to the story. Often, within the group we are following, the characters attempt to think beyond their status to better understand those around them, which is enthralling and interesting to read about. As the main group is merged and separated and reformed and split again, Warren does good job of keeping the reader informed during various moments that could easily be confusing if not crafted properly. The climax of the story is shocking and rewarding at the same time(I audibly cheered at one point), while also doing a good job of setting up the next book.
A wonderful mix of sci-fi and class struggle, THE BASE OF REFLECTIONS stuck in my head long after finishing it and I look forward to the next book in the series.… (mehr)

Museums and curators don’t have enough of a place in fiction in my opinion, unless they’re doing something frankly unlikely, like hunting down relics in the Amazon. And so I pounced on this novel about a post-apocalyptic future in which a new society is doing its best to overcome the tragedies of extinction – but at what cost? It starts with a young woman getting her dream job. Unlike other Sapiens teenagers at Thymine Base, Elise Thanton isn’t going to spend her life slaving in the manufacturing factories. On the contrary, she’s about to become the Companion to one of the exhibits at the Base’s Museum of Evolution. Her experiences will lead her to question the justice of the world in which she has grown up, and to confront the very nature of humanity itself...

For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/04/09/the-museum-of-second-chances-a-e-warren/… (mehr)