》The question is not whether men are a risk to every element of the stabilized society. They were, they are. They always will be. The question is whether the pleasures they bring are worth the risks."

The year is 2099 and the population is a 100% women. 50 years ago, an experimental influenza virus accidentally killed all men on Earth but currently there is a controversial scientific project called The Lazarus Project going around which its main goal is to bring men back. But there has been a problem, the men genome has been stolen. And the main suspect of that crime is Athena Vosh, a regular 19 year old teenager who occasionally wonders to herself what would life be like if men were still alive.

The premise sounded waay too good for not to read this book! Lately I’ve been so drawn to dystopian books where the world is populated just by women and this book wasn’t the exception.
Even though it reads as a light YA scifi, the society created by the author is way more complicated than I was expecting, but in a good way; It was so well explained and well executed, and so easy to get engaged in the story.

I love it when science fiction books have segments from different mixed media (real or fiction). In this case, in this book, we can appreciate scientific articles, reports, school presentations from different characters, adds for different technological products, AIs moral laws, and so on. I think this give the reader a better idea of the world building in such a unique way!

I also really liked the self-discovery journey that Athena goes through the entire book and the cryptic dreams. And that final plot twist was everything!!

I understand the story takes part in the post man-world, but I was expecting getting in the lives of other women missing their men relatives, grieving for them, and stuff like that. Like I said, maybe we, as readers, didn’t get that because this story happens 50 years after men extinct but still, I was expecting to see a little bit more of that.

Talking about the lgbt+ aspect of this book… I have mixed feelings. At first, I was a little bit confused about Athena and Naomi’s relationship, which is fine, we don’t need a label for everything If the characters don’t need them. Then it was more explicit, I was grateful, because I started to understand their dynamics. But my only issue is that I was expecting more queerness? Being in a women-only society, I would have expected that many more women would show their queerness. But that’s just an observation. I think this book is way more than that. It’s about women, it’s about feminism.

But it also talks about religion and its place in the life of scientists. It also talks about gender and the difference between women and men; I really, really loved that chapter where the characters (I can’t recall know who) talk about statistics about crime and compare both genders. It’s pretty terrifying (and true) that the majority of crimes are committed by men and that we, women, are constantly living in fear.

Like I said at the beginning, dystopias with a female world are right up my alley, but I don’t think this is reads as a dystopia, at least not a 100%. I think this can be consider a dystopia as well as utopia. It’s a thought-provoking light scifi read with its main focus on feminism which I highly recommend. Like the author says in the epilogue, this book is about a society where the human genome has been altered in a way that the ego gen has been suppress, whether that can end up being good or bad, I think is up to debate, if the only way to do so is to eliminate men from the Earth… 

The audiobook is pretty simple but it’s perfect that way. I would also highly recommend it since the author’s style is easy to follow and the narrator does a great job acting the voices of each character.

Overall, an easy and entertaining scifi read with an important message that I would recommend to anyone who likes to read scifi and specially to those who enjoy reads with a feminism focus.

I would like to thank Net Galley and the publisher for providing the audio version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this sci-fi, futuristic story about a time when men had been wiped out by a virus (fitting time to be reading it too during COVID). 
I liked the little snippets from articles and how the mystery weaved together. I did find it a bit slow going in parts and had to work to piece all the players together, but it all came together in the end and and for the last few chapters I was really engaged. But the ending was weird. 

I listened on audio.

A very unusual story and not something I would have thought of picking up to read. However I did enjoy reading it snd warmed to the main character.  I found myself wanting to read more and more as I wanted to know what was going to happen.

The storyline for this book had a lot of promise. I love a good who-dun-it. Sadly, the writing style and side stories muddled the main story. My biggest issue with this story is that there is more telling than showing. The character wakes up and you get a rundown of everything in their room, rather than letting it happen naturally. There is a lot of "her hair was brown, and her eyes were green," rather than "she ran a brush through her long brown hair, and looked into the reflection of her green eyes."

Also, there was a lot of head-hopping, which is where you suddenly know what one character is thinking or feeling., despite not being the main character. Finally, as far as the writing goes, there was a ton of mixing of the timelines. We get memories randomly thrown in at the end of chapters, past ads, current ads, and a lot more. It seems there is something from a different timeline or from the present at the end of every chapter, and often it doesn't seem to fit with the book. This left me trying to keep track of too many loose ends to see how they all tied together in the end.

As for the actual story. I really enjoyed it and the narrator of this audiobook was fantastic. There are a good bit of futuristic elements mixed in with the expected good old cop work that one looks for in a who-dun-it. And as far as I can recall the story wrapped itself up nicely. The mystery was solved, but the storyline felt incomplete and as if it ended abruptly. The author left us with a note saying that this book is set in the future and determining that future is up to us. Which just left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt like a lazy way to wrap up all of the loose ends.

My final note is that there is an unnecessary orgasm scene with a minor, so maybe don't read/listen to this book if that is something that makes you uncomfortable. It was out of place and didn't really fit in anywhere else. I think the relationship between the two could have been established in another way without detailing the orgasm of a minor.

I was intrigued by this novel's summary because I love to read any feminist dystopias, and although I was skeptical that a male author could write one well, I was willing to give it a shot since it was available as a Netgalley audiobook. Yikes! I rolled my eyes when I realized the tone and style was YA (I believed this was adult fiction when I requested it.) I was bored with the endless descriptions of food and clothing being printed on demand, and frustrated with the handling of non-binary characters affected by the virus, but when the protagonist started dreamily detailing how she wanted to feel her sexual power over men and have their hands on her-- the nail in the coffin. If you want to read a feminist dystopia from that guy in your timeline who's always saying #notallmen, then this is the book for you.

I really liked this book! I gave this a 4 star rating.
I found this a very character-driven book, however I would've liked some more depth to them and some more exploration of the relationships.
The world and atmosphere was enough, however, I really like world-building and even though it was clear that this was the future, I found it hard to imagine the world in my mind. I really liked the AI and sciencey stuff but maybe would have liked some more descriptions of objects or cities.
I did really enjoy the writing, I really liked that every chapter ended with an article or a Wikipedia page. That kind of compensated for the lack of world building for me.
The plot could have been a lot better because I honestly didn't really care about it a lot. I thought this book was more about the characters and how each person had their own opinion about men and what happened/should happen to them. I found it really interesting to think about who I would relate to most. So even though I didn't find the plot very interesting, it was compensated for me. This is also why logic got a pretty high score, as it's hard to not find logic in the thoughts of actual people. As the author said, there's nothing in this book that can't actually happen to us, so that makes it a lot easier to relate to them.
Intrigue and enjoyment were both pretty good, as I never really had the feeling I didn't want to continue this book. However, a stronger plot would've made this book even better.
Overall, this was a nice read which gave me a lot to think about!

[I got an audiobook arc from NetGalley]
[I used G from Bookroast's rating system called CAWPILE to rate this novel. For more information, visit her YouTube channel.]

I liked the first half of the book, where they describe the world, and Athena tries to figure out what is going on and why she was summoned to help find the missing genome. Then at some point the book turns into a wild proclamation on how all men are bad and only want to rape and kill, with more and more long passages on the subject. The actual choice from the title was to resurrect some maybe modified men, or to throw away all the research and maybe modify women so they wouldn't want men anymore. The author couldn't decide for himself, and it didn't really feel like Athena herself was up to the decision. 
The mystery part was subpar, with the supercomputer sending clues to Athena in the form of dreams. They did make three men but hold them in a dream state? Why?! Creepy massage implants, anyone?
I listened to the audiobook version. The narrator was mostly OK and easy to follow, I liked how each of the characters was given their own voice.

I received a digital copy of the book from NetGalley

This to me was such a poorly written book, I found it to be a little problematic and as such I had a problem finishing this audiobook..

This book is a wild ride of a book for 2020.  There has been a worldwide pandemic that killed all the men of the population.  Would a Matriarchal world be better than a patriarchal one? Although an Amazonian type society look like?   Well for the next generation there hasn’t been enormous changes.  Teens still do what teens do—chat online, use Wikipedia and struggle with plans of the future. Women have been the only survivors for decades the next generation is coming into its own.  Project Y is attempting an experiment to bring men back and a saboteur has stolen the scientific materials. Athenas been wrestling with thoughts, feelings even dreams curious about men....now she’s been brought into the criminal investigation by the all-knowing AI that Is the “unbiased” overseer of society.  This is an excellent book that explores many philosophical issues about gender and sex without being preachy.  The Narration was very good.  I think she did a great job with so many female characters creating unique and distinct voices.  

I requested this book to review through #Netgalley and leave review freely.

It is the year 2099 and all men are dead. There was a Y virus that killed them all. But now some of the women want to bring men back and have a Lazarath genome that they are doing research on. 

Someone as stolen the Lazarath genome. Athena, as been having strange dreams and the AI that lives in their world, has said that Athena can help find it. She goes with the special police to help find out who has taken it and why. 

I thought this was strange to ask a random person to help out in a police investigation but went with it. Their first stop is to talk to the doctors who created the genome and all their contacts. Athena's dreams seem to be telling her where to look for answers, which was also strange, but it all becomes clear in the end. 

There were a few shocking moments that I wasn't expecting, and really like how things were revealed to us. The last few chapters were really gripping. 

3.5/5 stars.

This was a really good read, I really liked it. I listened to it on audio book and had trouble with the audiobook a couple of times but that is nobody's fault. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley!

Athena's choice by Adam Boostrom. Narrated by Alex Ford.  
I liked listening to this audiobook.  It was different as it was set in the future. I liked Athena's character. I liked the narrator too.  Different but good.  4*

Athena Vosh lives just like any other teenager from the year 2099. She watches reality shows with her friends, eats well, and occasionally wonders to herself: what would life be like if men were still alive?

It has been almost 50 years since an experimental virus accidentally killed all the men on earth. However, a controversial project is currently underway to bring men back. There's just one catch. The project has been sabotaged.

So begins Athena's Choice

In the aftermath, women have built what appears to be a utopian society. Through scientific breakthroughs and frozen sperm replication, they are still procreating, have quite nearly eliminated maternal and fetal deaths and have found cures for nearly all diseases.This is a bit more YA, perhaps because of Athena’s age and narration, but never the less, I found the story completely captivating. The Science Fiction portion of the story was mesmerizing and, upon further research, I discovered that nearly everything mentioned in the book, we are on the cusp of having – if only funds weren’t diverted elsewhere, namely WARoverall, I really liked listening to this. Everything from the plot, to the ingenious inventions, to the narrator's soothing voice made for a great audiobook experience. I liked this a lot, and if you love all sci-fi, you'll probably love it. I think this author is tremendously promising and I am definitely going to read whatever he comes up with next



Thanks to Adam Boostrom, NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio for the advance copy of this really thought-provoking and original audiobook. My opinions are honest and my own

Very interesting premise but it ended in just good expectations... I'm a bit disapointed about it. It was entertaining but I was expecting so much that ended very fast in a simple adn weird way. Yeah, the word is disapointing... and not believable

DNF @ 50%. 

When I read the synopsis of this book I thought it would be right up my alley. Future dystopian world where the male race is wiped out by a fever pandemic, um yes please! BUT. 

I kept wanting to enjoy it but just couldn’t get into it. This book seemed so scattered. There were too many timelines for me and I found myself confused about which part I was in. There was also news articles scattered in from additional years. And it was just too much. At 50% I still had no idea where the story was going and I hate to DNF a book but I couldn’t put in anymore time with this one.

Audio edition reviewed.  Narrator Alex Ford credibly and clearly voices multiple characters, including the non-human ones, and maintains a good pace for keeping the story moving with good pacing.

I enjoyed the author's depiction of the world, and North America in particular, in the year 2099, with flashbacks to mid-century events.  The technology in genetics and sensory implants, interactive communication, transportation, use of 3D printing for an individual's on demand food and clothing production were intriguing and within the realm with what I could imagine exists by that point in time.

The choice entrusted to Athena is connected to the entirely female world population's struggle to decide whether to resurrect human males, who were wiped out decades earlier by a targeted virus.  In news flashbacks and through 2099 conversation among influential scientific and governmental leaders, we hear pros and cons that reflect our present day and historical perspective of the role of men in society, business and in interaction with females.  

It is difficult to imagine expressing my opinion in an age where the world is still dominated by males, however the impassioned arguments put forth by characters in the story gave me much to consider.  I recommend the book for that point, and also for depicting the envisioned technology as a backdrop enhancing characterization and plot.
#NetGalley, #

The premise behind this one really intrigued me so I gave the audiobook a listen. The narrator was okay, but I wish I would have read this one instead. I had a lot of trouble getting in to this one and the flashbacks and timeline changes were really confusing and difficult to follow when listening. I remember parts of this book but if you asked me to tell you about it, I couldn’t. I would maybe give reading this one a try if I was in the mood in the future. This one gets 2.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thinker Books for the audio version. Narrator did a great job giving each character their own voice. The book itself takes you for a ride into the future.

A great story but not what I expected. I found this to be different from what I’d imagined it to be but still just as thrilling and felt suspense that they experienced.

This book really took me by surprise!!  The storyline was totally shocking and intensely compelling.  The futuristic descriptions and inventions were mesmerizing and thought provoking on their own but to have a nice plot and captivating characters was a true treat!!! Athena Voss is a teenager in the year 2099 who’s really trying to find herself, she’s feeling like she hasn’t contributed and wants to be an artist but that is still just a dream.  All the men have been gone from earth almost 50 years, killed off from a virus, and a project to bring them back has Athena right in the middle and she isn’t sure what is happening!! Athena has some hard questions to answer and some interesting data to process..will she bring them back???#NETGALLEY#ATHENA’SCHOICE