Review: Genesis

Genesis by Brendan Reichs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reichs returns in the middle entry of his gnarly, supernaturally deadly, seriously dangerous Nemesis trilogy. Going forward, I do have to drop major spoilers for Book 1 - or do I? I mean, the dust jacket blurb does a terrific job of not being too spoilery in case someone picks this book up by accident without having read its predecessor.

But I'm not writing dust-jacket copy. I'm writing a review for Genesis and, maybe just a little, hoping it manages to blow up my blog stats a bit and become one of my top 10 posts just like my review for Book 1.

So I'll spoil Book 1 going forward. Just not Book 2, as best I can.

I can tell you that while Genesis does suffer from one or two of its predecessor's same flaws - namely its oddly slow start - being decidedly more post-apocalyptic and Matrix-y than Book 1 is a major help. And also more Maze Runner and Lord of the Flies than ever. Noah and Min are at such odds throughout most of the story that it's downright maddening, and then when various other characters start showing signs of turning morally grey if not outright evil, one has to wonder exactly how far down in the depths of human nature Reichs is willing to plumb. It all plays out in a scarily Hunger Games-like scenario too, where only a certain number of the Fire Lake sophomores can move forward, but then the ending.

That ending.

Reichs, how many times did you read Cixin Liu's books? They must've inspired you a great deal.

Just like the first book, Genesis reads, to me, almost like someone threw my own books into a blender with those of Michael Grant and hit "chop." And I'm totally here for it, especially as long as I keep using Nemesis as a query comp title.

Speaking of which, I need to get back to querying. If you'll excuse me, I'll be back in my cave again. Querying, and maybe writing into my book a shoutout of some kind, just like Reichs shouts out so many other giants like Star Wars and Warcross, to name a few.

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