Book Review: Organic (The Kepler Chronicles Book 2) by Jadah McCoy

 
 
Upon finding that Syl's old home in the sewers of Elite has been attacked by Cull, they head out to find the survivors in order to warn them of Lexion's plans to kill them. But not everyone they find is welcoming of them, and the leader doesn't heed Syl's warning that they need to move. Syl and Bastion grow closer amidst all the turmoil, but that won't matter if Lexion finds them...

Book Review: Organic (The Kepler Chronicles Book 2) by Jadah McCoy | reading, books, book review, science fiction, cyberpunk, androids
Title: Organic
Author:
Book Number: Book 2
My Rating: 3 Stars
More Info: Goodreads, Amazon, Publisher
 

Review:

*I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher. This has not influenced my review. Quotes used are from an ARC and may be different in the final copy.*

I don’t know if it’s that my tastes have changed since I read Book 1, if I just read this when I wasn’t in the right mood for it, or if the book really was different from the first, but overall I kinda found the book not bad but lacking.

For one thing, all that happened for the first 20% was that Syl and Bastion walked through the jungle.

For another thing, Syl’s and Bastion’s inner voices, the thing I loved most about the first book, didn’t seem as strong this time. Instead of being gritty, Syl seemed to jump from one extreme emotion/thought to another. And Bastion, instead of being sassy, kind of annoyed me with how he was worried about fashion and constantly making jokes while in danger.

There were also lots of things that didn’t make sense or that seemed inconsistent. Like, I couldn’t grasp how the androids worked. They had some human functions, like pain, but not others. And they only seemed to have certain types of pain. It seemed random (but honestly it might’ve been explained in Book 1 and I’ve just forgotten). Also, why would Blalock immediately trust Syl and Bastion more than she trusted any of her own people when not only were they newcomers whom she didn’t know at all, *SPOILER (for Book 1)* they were androids—the creatures she hated? *END SPOILER* And how would Lexion have even known that Sanders was someone from Syl’s past (he didn’t know who she was until recently, and Sanders died before then), and what are the odds *SPOILER* he would also just so happen to have Sanders’s body? *END SPOILER*

The Glitch thing didn’t make sense to me either. Ok, so, Androids don’t feel emotion. Glitches are androids who do. I was a little confused about this in Book 1 because it seemed that all the androids displayed some emotions, but I figured by “emotion” they just meant care, compassion, love, that sort of thing. But then in this book, they discovered another Glitch, and Syl figured it out because she realized he feels happiness—not compassion, just happiness, and that makes him a Glitch. Ok… but then I feel like every android should be a Glitch. I mean, I’m pretty sure Lexion give a speech to rally all the androids in Book 1, so weren’t they feeling some sort of emotion if they were rallying? And why would they need sex workers, like Bastion, if they didn’t feel? Like, what are the reasons people have sex, other than reproduction (since obviously androids aren’t using sex for that purpose)? Love, lust, boredom, loneliness, stress-relief, distraction because they’re worried about something else—I don’t know, there are probably a million reasons people have sex, but apathy is not one of them. Maybe they do it just for the physical pleasure it brings? Ok, but then, that means they enjoy the pleasure, it brings them happiness or some sort of emotion. So I’m just really confused as to what emotions, exactly, are the ones that qualify an android as a Glitch because it seems to me they ALL feel some sort of emotion. Plus, if they had no emotions at all, they’d have no desires or goals and wouldn’t even have a drive to do anything. They’d all just stand and do nothing, and that’d be it, there’d be no city of androids

But there were some good things in the book too. It was interesting to see some of the differences between a human and android body that I never would’ve thought about, things that would feel so weird, especially the types of involuntary bodily reactions humans have that we use to read other people and figure out what they might be feeling, or even to read ourselves and figure out our own feelings. For example, tears/crying, knees buckling, hands shaking, heart skipping a beat or racing, etc. Androids don’t have those cues to signify emotions.

Oh, and I liked the android flirting 😛

“I bet you could use a good oiling, old man.”

I lean in close to her, tugging a strand of blonde hair. I wink when she looks at me. “Does that mean you’re offering, then?”

So overall, I found the plot kind of slow up until around 70% and didn’t love the characters the way I did in Book 1, but the android aspect was still interesting and the book itself was still a pretty violent and gritty dystopian/cyberpunk portrayal that people might enjoy.

 

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Talk to me!

Have you read Organic by Jadah McCoy?
Have you ever read a sequel and wondered whether it was you or the book that had changed?

 
 
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16 thoughts on “Book Review: Organic (The Kepler Chronicles Book 2) by Jadah McCoy

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  1. Greg

    Oh I like that cover a lot! Very cyberpunk/ dystopianish. And yeah I’ve had books that I loved and when the sequel, came out I just wan’t feeling it. Kinda sucks. Sorry that happened her somewhat… I think the Glitch thing/emotions does seem inconsistent, the author may know where the line is but maybe it’s just not entirely clear to the reader? I don’t know, I remember almost getting the first one when you reviewed it, but this one makes me wonder. If they go on sale I might snap em up.

    1. Kristen Burns

      These books do have good covers. I mean, you might like this one more than I did. I’ve seen other reviews from readers who loved it. But idk, maybe I’m just not understanding what qualifies as a Glitch or something.

  2. Lampshade Reader

    Interesting concept to say the least. I’m assuming that there are non-glitch androids in the story? It sounds a bit weird, but cool too. Sorry it wasn’t as good as the first one, but maybe the next book in the series will shed more light on the issues?

  3. Evelina

    It’s strange, but you always seem to choose books that have covers that match your blog theme 😀 how does that even happen 😀 And so you do read scifi! Just check out Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom then. JUST DO 😀

    1. Kristen Burns

      Hahaha I have to admit that I love it when a book ends up matching my theme. I also love when the three posts in the “related posts” section end up being matching colors lol. I’ll check out that book!

  4. verushka

    Heh, Android flirting is indeed cute! The thing that struck me in your review is that book did manager to manage to surprise you with it’s androi vs human reaction how diverse your reading tends to be, that’s kind of impressive, lol

    1. Kristen Burns

      I’ve never really considered my reading diverse in the sense that I really only read two genres (sci-fi and fantasy), but I suppose it is in some ways! And I had never thought about those human reaction kind of things, so I thought that was pretty cool.

  5. Lola

    Sorry you didn’t enjoy this one as much as book 1. And that’s just sad when one of the thins you loved most about book 1 didn’t work as well here. It also sounds a bit confusing with the things that didn’t quite make sense. The differences between androids and human do sound interesting to read about, but yeah that part about what makes a glitch and if the others really don’t feel emotions at all does seem a bit weird. Great review!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yeah, it was disappointing when I liked those things so much in the first book. And I still don’t quite understand the glitch thing. But at least the human/android differences were interesting. Thanks 🙂

  6. Dragonfly @ Our Familiarium

    I wanted to like this series so much! because man! : Cyberpunk, Dystopian, Genetic Engineering, Science Fiction??? what a mix huh. BUT book 1 was a DNF and I see that Book 2 didn’t make much more sense either 🙂

    1. Kristen Burns

      I don’t know if I realized you DNFed the first book? I really liked the first one, but I don’t know if I’ll continue the series now after the second one. I just don’t feel that invested in the characters.