Review: Better than The Hunger Games.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 18, 2013
This is a real page turner, I read 13% of it the first night I bought it. It begins with Raine, the main character, she's born in a society where you're either a Cultivator, a Warrior or a Breed (a role also available for men). She chooses the path of the warrior and experiences incredible challenges, there's even a scene of child murder, reminiscent of the Nazis and their "following orders" ways. Raine is very courageous, because she lives in a society where women are expected to be baby machines or Wadiyahs, yet she wants more out of life than being a simple baby maker, specially in a society where mothers don't raise their own kids.The book explores issues of race, blood, and violence. Are we inferior for having blue eyes when everyone else has brown eyes? What happens when the common good is elevated above the individual good? Ayn Rand would have loved this book, because this is a nightmare of collective slavery. If you're a Cultivator (food grower), you're not supposed to hoard any food, but give it all to the leader who will distribute it among everyone. And if you're a breeder who's too old to breed and are eating more than your share, you can be exiled. If you're a soldier who refuses to kill one of the exiles, you can be killed. Like Brave New World and 1984, this is a horrible dystopia but with nicer colors and greater clarity. Great work.