Science fiction is not my normal genre but I like to read standalone books from the genre sometimes because I can usually keep up to an extent with the world building required (not even sure that is the right term, but you know what I mean, I hope!). In The Mother Code by Carole Stivers, scientists race to preserve human life on earth after a bioweapon causes an epidemic (are we ready to use the term epidemic, yet?).

Broken into two parts, The Mother Code is a surprisingly emotional book that fed into my fear of artificial intelligence taking over life, to an extent. In the first part of the book, the story moves back and forth in time, and later ties the stories together in the second part.

A boy named Kai is born to Rho-Z, a robot who is able to incubate and give birth to human babies. Though Rho-Z is a machine, her instinct is still to protect her child. Fifteen years earlier, there was a failed biowarfare experiment by the United States that cause a global epidemic. Experts from a variety of science and technology fields come together in a covert operation to alter human DNA enough to make humans immune from the disease.

The team is unable to produce enough antidote for everyone, and so they focus on these robotic Mothers giving birth to a new generation with built-in immunity who will hopefully survive and repopulate the human race. Meanwhile Kai meets a girl named Misha who was also born to a robot Mother, but has been saved by humans after her mother is damaged.

As Kai, Misha, and other children born to this new generation through Mothers come of age, the Mothers are also transforming. As the humans of this generation are pushing to destroy the Mothers, Kai is faced with the difficult decision of his bond with his own Mother, Rho-Z. How far will he go to save her?

The book has an obvious post-apocalyptic setting that works well for this story. The human race is largely this new generation who were birthed by the Mothers and are able to be immune to the virus that took the lives of the generations before them. The story also focuses quite a bit on the team of scientists and researchers who are working to tackle the problem of immunity and create the Mothers that will later save the human race, if they don’t also destroy them. I actually found their story more compelling in some ways, perhaps because it felt more tied to something I could relate to experiencing than that of Kai and the other children.

A clear theme of this book is to what extent machines can think or feel independently. Machines can learn, but that is a separate question from whether they can think. The Mother Code from the title is the code that represents each of the Mothers that were created. It was designed to preserve the essence of the true biological mothers (humans) to the children. In other words, each Mother has unique AI just as each human has unique DNA.

Giving each Mother the characteristics of the biological mother was intended to offer the connection in raising a child that a human mother would offer. The Mothers have heritage, history, and experiences built in that are designed to represent what the biological mother would have. Overtime, it becomes clear that the Mothers also learn from the children. They aren’t simply a robot built on someone’s past, and at a certain point they are evolving independent of the scientists who created their code.

There are some surviving humans, in addition to the new generation of children birthed by the Mothers. These humans are searching for their children, but the Mothers are trying to prevent them from getting close. They are designed to want to protect their children, but this also causes other unintended effects.

This book surprised me. The concept seemed too far fetched at first, but later I grew to become very invested. This is largely credit to Stivers, who explained complicated technology and concepts in a way that I was able to understand and appreciate.

Thought-provoking and gripping!

The Mother Code by Carole Stivers started out as a very intriguing read for me. Reading a book about a mysterious (or perhaps not so mysterious to many of our characters) disease spreading throughout the globe leading to the decimation of the world’s population while actually living in a global pandemic is a thought-provoking experience, to say the least. Regardless, the content of this novel in light of the current state of the world may be triggering for some, which is definitely an important caveat when reading this book. This sci-fi and nearly-postapocalyptic story explores interesting questions of humanity and technology in a world struggling to stay alive in the hands of genetically modified children with robots for mothers and the few remaining survivors who created them.

I really did enjoy the way the Stivers created the structure of the book in distinct timelines. The Mother Code bounces back and forth between the children created to be immune to the disease in the future and the minds that created them in the past. As the stories progress, eventually the timelines to do merge together. I think this was done very well and created so many layers to the story and complexity that benefited the overall book. I will say, pay attention from the beginning to the years given at each chapter, that will help you to better conceptualize where (or more so when) the characters are in reference to each other.

I thought that the question of humanity and technology was an important avenue that was explored at the beginning of The Mother Code with the scientists who were all involved in the creation of these children and their bot mothers. Unfortunately, I think that discussion took an odd turn towards the middle to end of the book that felt unfocused. I’m not sure if that was because at this point these questions were addressed from the point of view of children and the mother bots.

I enjoyed the slight cultural aspects that were present in The Mother Code, with the roles of the Hopi Native Americans and references to banyan trees and Hindi culture. I thought this would have been an even more interesting aspect for Stivers to focus on. With much of the conversation being centered on the concerns of the humanity of the mother bots, leading to culture being imprinted into them, it seems like this part of the mother bots should have been discussed more.

I’m still undecided on the characters that were in The Mother Code. I felt that to a certain degree, in the beginning, many of the adult/pre-disease characters had actual personalities and things that made them unique. Eventually, however, I felt like that attempt at characterization fell to the wayside. Also, I was not compelled by the childrens’ characters. I’m not sure if that is just because they are young and mostly socialized by robots, though. So that is why I’m left undecided.

Overall I did like The Mother Code, the basis for the story is interesting (if not eerily familiar) and I enjoy how Stivers created her narrative structure. The beginning of The Mother Code, was very strong and set the stage for an awesome sci-fi tale. Unfortunately, I felt that the plot dwindled as we got closer to the end and I was left with a “huh, I guess that’s it” feeling.

I really liked the premise of robot mothers raising kids, and being all motherly and protective over them with their incredibly lethal lasers. And going into the book, I made the assumption that most of the book would take place after the eradication of humanity, this was not the case. Instead what we have are two stories being told simultaneously, one in the past as the virus begins to spread, and one in the present, as the children survive in the wastelands with their mother robots. This was definitely an interesting read.

The timing for this book was very hard - it wasn't something I was ready to take on until more recently. So yes, I'm late to the party, but am I ever glad I finally made it! This was a great book and I really enjoyed the sci-fi aspects. I would recommend this book to a science lover or a serious sci-fi fan, but probably not as a first introduction to the genre.

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2020
In 2049, the government set an allegedly non-viral agent loose in Afghanistan in order to kill select enemy combatants. When the virus doesn’t behave like the biowarfare scientists thought it would, it turns deadly. Kai is one of 50 genetically engineered children placed in robotic incubators in the deserts of America who are supposed to survive the global pandemic. That, too, doesn’t happen. Kai’s robotic mother nurtures and teaches her son how to survive as do the other robotic mothers. The remnants of the surviving government decide the mothers are no longer behaving “correctly” and must be destroyed. But will Kai and the other surviving children allow that to happen?

This book has it all – science, robotics, two story lines, drama, biowarfare, engineered genetics, etc., and love. Carole Stivers, a scientist herself, puts the word science back in Science Fiction, but, as a reader, you don’t have to be a scientist to understand what’s going on in her stories because she gives you enough information to understand the events taking place in both stories. The author wrote this book before the Covid-19 pandemic, but it could have easily fit right into this book.

Stivers’ world building is outstanding, her character development is equally impressive, and the two stories come together seamlessly. You may find yourself liking one story line better than other, but then the two stories merge and Stivers gives us something more to focus on. This book will stay with you for a very long time because, while a year ago what happens in this book would have seemed farfetched, now it seems all too possible.

If you like your science fiction full of science with believable story lines and well-drawn characters, you’ll love this strikingly well-written book. It should be at the top of your to-be-read list.

I admit I didn't finish this book. I read about half and gave up. I was intrigued by the premise -- about 40 years in the future a biological weapon has been released and as it mutates in its victims the virus spreads rapidly. Scientists are trying to manufacture an antidote and at the same time prepare for the worst. AI "mother" bots are developed to hold embryos/fetuses/babies who are immune and will be nurtured and raised to restore the human race.

Intriguing, but (honestly) a bit boring. Cleary Stivers knows what she's talking about. The science is believable, if incomprehensible by the average reader. There was just too much time spent explaining the science behind the development of the mutating virus and the cure. I lost interest. There are multiple stories and, frankly, I couldn't keep track of all the players. I was especially interested in the children and their bots (the story switches time periods so we get to see the "present" and 8 years in the "future"), but not enough time was spent on them for my taste. Great premise -- intriguing issues to explore -- just too much scientific explanation to maintain my interest.

I really didn't like this! The characters weren't very interesting, I thought many characters were pretty fetishized, it had a weird level of glorification of the military for a novel about them destroying the world for humankind, and the gender essentialism was completely off the charts.

I’d watched HBO’s Raised by Wolves last winter, and remembered the show when I saw The Mother Code on NetGalley so I requested it. I thought it’d be interesting to see the “precursor” (where they design and build the “mothers”) to the show (where the androids are the “mothers” – and “fathers”).

In Stivers’ world, humans have really made a mess of things, and accidentally (because of course it’s by accident) brought about the end of mankind. In a race to save the future, scientists are assigned to different groups, each unaware that their projects are parts of a whole. And so we have giant robots carrying embryos to term and bringing up children, all based on AI and code.

What was really interesting about The Mother Code was how real the characters were, from those in charge of the projects to those who were charged with putting the pieces together – and their struggles with the secrecy and the looming doomsday. Even the children, born in different areas of the globe, raised by robot-AIs, have individual personalities (though we really only meet 4 of them) and drives. It’s fascinating what one can conceive of for future human-AI interactions.

The Mother Code is definitely an interesting look at a science-based response for how the human race survives an apocalyptic event (that doesn’t revolve around destruction of our habitat). Some of the science is very science-y, as in over my head, but that’s ok – there’s a reason I’m not a scientist lol. And the children show shades of Lord of the Flies when they’re abandoned by their “mother”s and left on their own.

So, what do you think about robot-AI-“mothers” bringing up children? Is it nurture or nature? And when nature is programmed, can they serve the same role as true human parents?

drey’s rating: Pick it up!

I remember seeing this book when it was released last year and thinking it sounded interesting, but as I was in the middle of a kind of reading slump I decided not to buy a copy. So I was excited to get the chance to review the paperback’s release for the blog. I found The Mother Code by Carole Stivers to be a fun and exciting read, even if it was just a little bit scary (In the “this could easily be us one day”, kind of way). I didn’t make it more than a few pages in before I was sucked into the story and kicking myself for not buying it back when it first release.

When I finally got the time to sit down and read The Mother Code I honestly thought it was just going to be some kind of post-apocalyptic book about robots raising kids and those kids trying to survive in the world. And while it was definitely about those things, I didn’t realize a large part of the story was going to be about a bioengineered virus causing a worldwide pandemic. I was not quite prepared to read about that while we are living through our own real-life pandemic, but it totally made the story that much more realistic and believable to me. One of the things that really stood out to me in this book was how realistic the virus was and how much detail went into everything about it, so I wasn’t surprised at all to find out that Stivers is an actual biochemist.

Something I really enjoyed about this book was the way it jumped back and forth in time and gave us some insight into both the creation of the virus and how they attempted to find a cure for it, as well as showing us what the world was like in the future where they obviously failed to stop it. Though, while I enjoyed reading about the past events, I didn’t really feel myself connect all that much with the characters in those scenes or have any strong feelings about any of them. I did however love (or sometimes hate) all the kids we get to meet in the future as I love reading books about kids or teenagers trying to survive in a world without adults.

All in all, I thought this was a great book, and while there was a lot of scientific jargon and information that flew completely over my head, I still felt like the author did a good job making things understandable to the layperson. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book to people and I’m already planning on buying the audiobook so I can “read” it again!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. Although, yes, it is about a pandemic with a virus that is killing everyone off and it might hit a little close to home right now, but the whole story isn't about the virus, its about how humanity decided to survive afterward.

The concept of the mother robots is not a new concept, but the way it is done in this story is wonderful and works well. I really enjoyed the relationship between the mother bot and Kai. It was a strange symbiotic connection that made my heart warm.

In the end, the story ultimately came down to total destruction brought on by the old dying adults of the world or salvation by these children who are genetically modified to be immune to the virus ravaging the earth.

This was a great read. Only took me a day to get through and I loved every moment of it.

My review will be live on my blog Book Confessions on 8-20-21.

When the U.S. military unleashes an unstable biological weapon, a team of scientists and engineers must figure out a way to stop the resulting pandemic — or barring that, sort out some way to create babies that will be genetically immune to the biological weapon. As their attempts to stop the rapid pandemic fail, all their hopes are pinned on the babies and a set of Mothers, robots who will incubate and care for the babies after the rest of the world has died.

This is an interesting premise for a novel, one that is particularly intriguing given the advances in artificial intelligence and robotics in real life as well as in the novel. That said, it's not particularly easy to care much for the adult humans who caused this whole mess, or even those who are attempting to clean it up. The relationships between the kids and their Mothers are what really make the book interesting.

What a fascinating and almost eerily relevant to the times. It’s kind of scary to read about a man-made bioweapon when you are living in a pandemic. I am also glad though that book didn’t rely solely on that but also added the artificial intelligence aspect to the plot. I liked how Mother Code alternated between the past and the panic that the bioweapon caused to the present where these robots are taking care of the next generation. The Mother Code isn’t typical in the action or fast paced, I found when you are with Kai and his “mother’ the pacing slowed down and became very character driven and more philosophical, questioning the permanent retirement of these mothers and their role with raising children like Kai. Overall, The Mother Code is a fascinating if at times disjointed read but does touch on some thought provoking subjects such as nature of motherhood.

DNF at 50%.

This book was too sci-fi for me and I really don't like sci-fi books. I think the description of this book should emphasize that this is more sci-fi.

The year is 2049 and a pandemic threatens to wipe out the human race. The solution is to create maternal robots to raise a new generation of children. It was an enthralling and original premise that seemed a little too on the nose for the times (global pandemic). For that reason, I was at first reluctant to read it but am glad I did and enjoyed it. This is an impressive debut novel and a fresh female voice in sci fi.

The year is 2049 and a deadly non-viral agent intended for biowarfare is spreading out of control. Scientists are scrambling to create a solution, but as more and more people become sick it seems a cure is impossible. These scientists begin working on a way to ensure the survival of the human race by putting a plan into place to genetically engineer children inside cocoons of large-scale robots. A future awaits where these children will be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. These robots are unique in that they contain an intelligence program that renders them to have individual personalities based on the women who have provided their embryos to the future of mankind. This is the Mother Code.

Carole Stivers dives into a eerily possible future with THE MOTHER CODE. This story follows a dystopian future where the human race is facing extinction and the only way to keep hope alive is to rely on machines. I absolutely loved the premise and the execution of this story!

The book kicks off with the start of the epidemic and weaves in sections from the future. The buildup to the climax of the epidemic coupled with the future passages were a great complement for each other and left me feeling an intense sense of anticipation, which ultimately made me want to read more and more. I felt a need to know what was going to happen and how things progressed to where we were reading about in the future. From there I also wanted to know what would come next for our characters, which is exactly what the reader is given once part two kicks off.

There are so many characters to learn about and bond with throughout THE MOTHER CODE that it can seem a little overwhelming when you’re first starting out. Stivers does a great job of fully forming these characters into unique individuals who truly shine throughout the story. I had some troubles with a few of the character’s decisions, but they were all valid based off of the personalities they had, so I never truly disliked anyone in this book.

If you’re not a typical science fiction reader, I will warn you that the first handful of chapters are going to hit you hard with a lot of jargon you won’t understand right away. Power through! It’s so worth getting over this hump and once you settle into the story those sciencey items will start to make sense.

THE MOTHER CODE is a great read for fans of science fiction, dystopian reads, or even just those looking to change up what they read!

Thanks to netgalle y and the publisher for an eARC of this book.
Interesting exploration in this time of pandemic of a way the human race might survive. Thought provoking and frightening.

The human race is nearly wiped out by a virus. The story slowly builds- scientists work towards a solution- building robotic mothers. What will that look like? Will this be enough for the children or do they need more human interaction? A unique story line and enjoyable read. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for an ARC copy.

What if—we fight terrorists holed up in a network of caves, where troops are at a disadvantage, with a bioweapon that will wipe them out instead? What if—that virus is man-made? What if—we discover we can’t control it? This is the setting for The Mother Code where the fictional IC-NAN coronavirus has already escaped its expected parameters. Coronaviruses are not new, we’ve been studying them for a long time. So it’s not surprising to see one as the subject of a science fiction book where we fans of the genre like to play the “what if” game.

I was attracted by the mental gymnastics of the concept. We know from current research that COVID-19 is not affecting children as readily as adults. Star Trek has a famous episode written by Adrian Spies in its first season where a pandemic only affects the “gr-ups” (grownups.) The children are the “onlies” or only ones left. Of course eventually, there will be no one left to take care of them as the older children age and die off. Unlike the pandemic afflicting the grups on Star Trek which would eventually kill everyone, The Mother Code asks if it is possible in the near future to develop an artificial intelligence capable of bonding with and rearing a genetically altered and immune biological child, in the face of a worldwide pandemic—a world with no mothers, adults, no other people—individual arks if you will.



Set just twenty-nine years in the future, this book is all about “Plan B” when the best minds in the world realize they don’t have time to find a cure for IC-NAN before succumbing to it. Younger readers will relate it to the computer game Plague Inc. If you’ve structured your virus correctly, you can’t pop all the blue balloons fast enough to save the planet. With her background as an actual biochemist, Stivers takes us vividly through how the virus spreads, attacks, and kills its victims, especially amid government protocols for secrecy. The story is slow to unfold, told from multiple points of view with a full cast of characters, each responsible for a small portion of the project. There are code writers, geneticists, engineers, psychologists, etc. We get a great deal of background information that felt irrelevant to the story except to elicit an emotion whenever that particular character finally went down. Unfortunately, I never felt very connected to any one of them in particular. I felt the story should have had a tighter focus on the children and their robotic mothers since that’s where the real story was to me. That’s where the fun of fictional speculation lives. My final criticism is the addition of an immune race of people that pops up near the end to help the story along with some adults who are not incapacitated. I didn’t appreciate the addition of new characters with some, but very little foreshadowing. In my opinion, it was a convenience for the author that wouldn’t have been necessary if she’d kept the focus on the relationship between the children and their AI mothers.

Aerial view of San Fransisco Bay Area

As a native San Francisco Bay Area girl, I appreciated the history refresher on the Presidio and that much of the last half the book is set in that location. People not familiar the area will be able to follow, but it’s more fun if you’ve even just driven up Highway 101 and across the Golden Gate Bridge.

This particular book has been getting a lot of buzz even though Stivers is a new author and this is her debut full-length book. It’s even coming out in the coveted hardback form first, something usually reserved for very well-established writers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this get the greenlight to be made into a movie. Speilberg’s Amblin Entertainment already has the rights. You would think that is because of the current crisis, but that is purely serendipitous timing and no doubt Hollywood will capitalize on it as soon as California lifts its lockdown. It takes a long time for a book to be written, edited, and finally distributed to beta readers and reviewers. It’s purely coincidental that the ARC of The Mother Code came to me just weeks before COVID-19 happened. It also made me feel the book much more deeply than it would have before shelter-in-place orders were in effect. By the time The Mother Code is actually released, Stivers’ readers will receive it very differently and read it through different eyes than when she wrote it.

My Rating: B+ Liked It A Lot

A deadly virus wipes out most of humanity. As the story unfolds, scientists race to create robotic mothers to protect and raise newborns that have been engineered to be immune. Are the robots human enough? Will they finish in time? An interesting and strange adventure awaits.

**I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Carole Stivers’ The Mother Code is a frightening cautionary tale about what can happen when government officials think they know more than scientific experts. When the story opens, the U.S. government has deployed a lethal bioweapon without waiting for their team of experts to give final approval for its use. As they quickly realize, there are serious flaws with the bioweapon and it should not have been deployed. It begins to spread well beyond the area it was unleashed in and increasing numbers of people start dying, to the point that the government fears they may have just doomed the human race to extinction.

An elite team of scientists is handpicked to try to find a way to stop the bioweapon, or if it can’t be stopped, come up with Plan B, a way to ensure the survival of the human race. Plan B is to create genetically engineered babies who can withstand the effects of the bioweapon and to have robots nurture and educate them that have been programmed with a computer code they’ve designed called the “Mother Code.” Their frantic efforts to save mankind become an intense race against the clock that had me riveted the entire time I was reading.

I did struggle with the story a couple of times along the way, mainly because it’s more plot-driven than character-driven. Since the characters took a backseat to the action of the story, I didn’t really connect with them all that much. I really like to connect with the characters I’m reading about so this was kind of a bummer. Also, this is science fiction that is very heavy on the science. That’s not a bad thing and thankfully the author explains the bioweapon and its fatal flaw in a very accessible way, but it definitely slowed me down as I absorbed and made sense of what I was reading.

Finally, I have to admit that I almost decided against reading Carole Stivers’ The Mother Code. Since I like to read to escape reality, reading a book about a manmade pandemic while we are actually going through a pandemic seemed counter-intuitive. I’m glad I decided to go ahead and read it though because The Mother Code is both a riveting story of survival as well as a thought-provoking read about science and ethics.