This was an excellent book read by a great narrator. The whole concept of a world without men is very interesting. Athena is a wonderfully developed character and the entire story was well thought out. I laughed, I was shocked, I was ready to shed a tear, the book was able to get me just the right way to provoke emotions. The audio book narrator seemed a little over the top at times, but it made the story more interesting in the end.

Athena's Choice is a sci-fi in which we follow a 19 year old girl living in 2099, a time where men have gone extinct. The Lazarus project is intended to bring them back, but it gets stolen and somehow Athena is the only one that can help restore it.
This book reminded me of the reasons why I love sci-fi, they explore very interesting themes, and in this book we explore whether the world would be better or worse without men.
Characters are not the strong point in this novel and they could use a little more going deep into, however I didn't find anyone unlikable or unbelievable. Athena was torn between 2 decisions, and it was pretty clear to me that she didn't have much stakes on one of the answers, so that could have been an area of opportunity.
I can see the author put a lot of thought into the world, the descriptions were quite detailed and a couple of times they brought me out of the story. They were some excerpts that at first felt info-dumpy (and quite some telling instead of showing), but then I got used to them.
The prose was a little bit robotic and combined with the voice actor's AI like voice made a curious product, that I ended appreciating in the long run.
There is a project called happiness profile that is introduced in the story I thought it was quite interesting because I myself have noticed that a lot of people try chasing after what they think is happiness and end up being miserable afterwards.
I really started to grasp the theme and to get excited about the ending at around 85% and a lot of the dilemmas and questions that the book presents left me thinking, this could be a good book for a book club. I also wonder what a man would think reading this.
Although I didn't love the very ending and epilogue, I could understand the intention and appreciate it more in the long run.

In regards to the audiobook I really like the actress' voice, I think she did a good job with the character's voice, but the way she played male voices was a little comical and took me out of the story. I wonder what this book would look like printed specially for the excerpts through out it.

Disclaimer: I got this book as an ARC on Netgalley.

This books makes you think. Good but also disturbing idea: a world without men...
Liked some of the things that could be in the future, but hopefully not all of them will come true.
I liked Athena and Valerie, was a bit in doubt about Nomi but understood her in the end.
3.5 stars but rounded it up to 4


Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Athena's Choice is a sci-fi book.
I loved the book. It was so interesting and mysterious.
The author did a good job in explaining things that are not obvious to the reader. Some of these things are not even that far in the future...
I was personally attached to the book. I will not give any spoilers but yeah do read this book once in your life.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy of this book.

This is the best kind science fiction. The kind that makes you think while simultaneously entertaining you. The question at the center of the book is presented in a way that actually has me coming out against my own gender. While it’s difficult to review this book without giving too much away, I can still say the author makes a very convincing case against men. The audiobook is well produced and the narrator does a respectable job at portraying each of the characters. However, I felt that the acting could be a bit better.

The year is 2099 and the world is populated by women. Men have been wiped out by a virus created in a lab in order to rid the Earth of their "destructive" influences. In this current timeline, science has embarked on a project to bring men back but the genome has been stolen and the main protagonist, 17-year-old Athena, seems to be the only one who can find it.

While this book veers into the realm of young adult fiction, a style I generally steer clear of, the plot was strong enough to carry me through this one.

I really enjoyed learning about this future world despite the occasional clunkiness in how it was delivered. As an author I imagine it would be challenging to speak about complex, fictional technologies in a way that doesn't derail the plot. The way characters consume and prepare food is important to set the scene, of course, but in my opinion it shouldn't take center stage and compete with the plot itself. A prime example from Athena’s Choice is this passage:

"In the farthest corner of her room - taking up ample wall space that Athena believed could have been better used for more artwork - stood a massive, boxy piece of black furniture. Beside it, clumped into a pile, lay a mismatched heap of once-worn dresses, pants, blouses, and skirts. Frequently, Athena swore to herself that she would get around to organizing that pile of clothes. She needed to decide which discarded outfits to keep for wearing a second time and which to dump back into the boxy, black clothing-printer so that they might be rewoven into something new."

What an incredibly wordy way of saying this imagined future uses clothing printers that recycle garments!

I get the feeling author Adam Boostrom enjoyed creating this fictional future world, and I will admit it was the little details that made the story immersive. I just wish the writing was a little more streamlined and elegant in places.

While I’m being my honest, incredibly finicky self, I was not overly impressed with the character development. While we spent a lot of time with Athena I never really felt like I knew her intimately. I was also frustrated that her performative relationship with Nomi remained largely unexplored, and I was left wanting more resolution on that aspect.

The plot was a procedural who-dunnit with strong futuristic themes and the twists were pretty well executed. I am a little tired of the ‘seemingly normal but actually incredibly special protagonist’ trope at this point, but it was a means to an end in this book.

The philosophical discussions around differences between men and women was thought-provoking and I was impressed the concept came from a male author. I would have liked a more nuanced exploration involving other expressions of gender including trans and gender-queer voices, though.

Athena’s Choice was a fun and solid read for me. I found it worth the listen and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the Scythe books by Neal Shusterman and The Themis Files books by Sylvain Neuvel.

I received access to this audiobook at no cost, to provide the opportunity to give an independent review, through NetGalley. This review does not include any explicit spoilers, but hints at aspects of the storyline that are not immediately apparent in the book.

This book is best enjoyed as a whodunnit, with elements of speculation about the future of design with regard to things like wearables, implants, autonomous vehicles, architecture, artificial intelligence, and urban design. From that perspective, the book is an enjoyable diversion with interesting world- building elements.

Unfortunately, the major plotline of the book hinges on a premise that is based on a radically oversimplified and distorted understanding of evolutionary biology and psychology. The kernel of truth from legitimate science that is used as a jumping off point for the main premise for the novel is strained to the point where it is outlandish and, at times, offensive.

If a reader can either suspend disbelief or look past this rather glaring flaw, the story was generally interesting, and nevertheless offered some thought-provoking questions for consideration.

By and large, I still recommend it, but come in spite of, not because of, the science.

Interesting concept especially for now. The total killing off of men, so maybe I'm a little confused or I might have missed it but how do they impregnate the woman who wish for babies? and why are all the babies girls? can't you put some boys back into the mix. Humm.. I'm left with more question then I care to have.

Athena’s Choice
The story is performed by a single narrator who not only narrates but also performs all the characters.
I believe she did overplay some characters. Most notable was Captain Bell, performed with too many long suffering sighs and long suffering snarky dialogue delivery. And other characters seemed inauthentic. For instance a junior staff member came to the door to let Captain Bell know her next appointment was coming up and the narrator made it sound as if, instead of informing the Captain as a secretary might, she made it sound as if the secretary was admonishing her not to be late for the appointment. This may have been as the story was written however. I did not have the text to compare. But I doubt it.
Much of her character dialogue, however, is very engaging. Each character is easily differentiated- convincing and appropriate to their personality or role.
I enjoyed her cadence or modulation and the tone of her voice. It allowed me to get into the book, at times not even realizing I was in the book, the whole reason for the performance.
Overall I enjoyed the performance and would recommend this audiobook to my patrons.

I enjoyed this book. I wasn't thrilled with the ending (no spoilers), but it was a fun fast read. I thought the premise of a world without men was very interesting, and the technology imagined was also really cool. I would recommend this book. I received a copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I was super intrigued by the premise portraying a future where all men have been eradicated by a pandemic, but I was also a bit wary, because the author himself is a man so I wasn't sure about the direction this book was going to take. Turns out I was worried for a reason and Athena's Choice turned out to be a huge disappointment.
To begin with, the story itself is just really poorly written. The world and the characters severely lacked depth and development, it felt more like an unfinished draft. But what bothered me way more was the sexism that was presented as "the natural order of things" or whatever nonsense. The idea that women are inherently more gentle, cooperative, empathetic etc., while men genetically are more aggressive, ambitious and self-serving may appear positive, but in fact it only adds to the existing gender stereotypes and is damaging gender equality. If you're still not convinced, just google "benevolent sexism".

A couple things that were a problem for me while listening to the audiobook was that I had to manually start every single chapter or it would skip one chapter ahead and the audiobook kept pausing if my phone was locked. These issues are probably a result of using the new NetGalley Shelf app and I hope they will be fixed in the future.

All in all, I was really hoping to like this book but sadly I didn't and I won't be reading anything more from this author.

Dystopia is not usually my prefer reading category so my expectations were relatively low.. I have to admit, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The characters were substantial without being over the top. I really enjoyed hearing about some of the products available in the future (like the food 3D printer) it sounded so cool! The narrator did a great job playing the role of a teenage girl who is a finding her own strength.

Thanks NetGalley and Adam Boostrom for the copy!

3.5/5

If you like science fiction, strong female characters, and imagining the implications of technology we already have at hand, this could be your new favorite read.

Personally, I wanted to like this book more than I did. The concept is utterly intriguing: a world with no more men. And it's a book that focuses on the female genius. Females do often have this ability to lead with care in their hearts and need to get leadership positions more often. All of that commentary from the book was very nice, in my opinion.

That being said, there were a couple of things I didn't love.

1) The main character seemed to have an internal struggle not wanting to admit that she's straight? At least that's how I read it. Which is a bit weird to me, simply because heteronormativity wasn't labeled as being a specifically bad thing in the society? I felt like the author tried to make straight people understand the feeling of coming out and it just..didn't work? It was also given so little page time in the book that any potential impact of it fell flat.
2) I didn't care about the characters as much as I should have. Athena's best friend only had one personality trait: she was gay for Athena. That's pretty much it. Athena? The Chosen One, but she lacked a lot of the inherent "something" that most such heroes possess.
3) There were simply parts that were not as interesting as others and some of the worldbuilding was laid on a bit heavy-handedly.

That being said, it's a creative story with an interesting world. I also appreciated the bits in between chapters with Wiki entries, detention slips, recorded messages, etc. Those were fun.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a fast paced sci Fi mystery and you really did want to keep listening to find out the conclusion. I did feel however that some of the everyday life and societal aspects in the all female society perpetuated female stereotypes which detracted from the overall enjoyment. That being said once I got in to the story I was able to overlook those elements and just enjoy the story.

Something totally different, by an author that I haven't listened to before.
It was a well paced, interesting read - not sure I'd agree with all of his thoughts for the future...but well worth taking a chance on and I'd listen to his audio books again.

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this book. The synopsis was intriguing, and I still really like the premise, and there were aspects of it that I thought were dealt with brilliantly throughout the book, but there were also elements that weren’t dealt with as well.

It is one of those books that will stay with me for a while, as it was thought-provoking and tackled a lot of interesting questions and scenarios, but I think perhaps it was weighed a little too much towards this aspect. The characters were likeable enough, but they – even Athena – lacked that charisma or hook, that would pull me fully into their world and narrative. The plot also lost me a bit at times, because while I enjoyed the twists and turns, there were areas that felt a little too clunky and jarred me out of the narrative.

I also struggled a little with the narrator for this one, although that is simply personal preference. Although I will say that they did a fantastic job of breaking up the narrative with the jumping between memories, to news reports and other articles, and I will say that despite not getting on too well with her voice, that was a standout part of the audiobook for me.

Athena’s Choice is both a compelling and thought provoking novel that explores a future where men are extinct due to a terrorist virus that takes out the bad guys. It’s 2099 and follows the life of Athena Vosh, an aspiring landscape painter who relies on her Citizen’s benefit and her partner Nomi who develops tech in the form of ‘massage implants’. Boostrom creates a world missing half of its population – the half that are responsible for war, violent crime and everything that could be wrong with the world – crime rates in the area were less than 1%. The story revolves around the mystery of who stole the Lazarus genome, but leads into a yin and yang realisation of gender roles with a conclusion that "some women will be more dangerous than the average man."
I definitely appreciated the sci-fi/mystery combo and the investigation that Athena was brought in to. There were some twists and turns that kept the pace pretty even throughout. Remove the sexual aspects, I didn’t feel they really added value, and this is a YA novel.

Many thanks to #netgalley for gifting me a copy of the audiobook of '#athenaschoice in return for an honest review.

The premise was not particularly original- being the third similar I’ve read this year. Eve of Man and Only Ever Yours cover similar themes. However, I did enjoy the pace of this book and some characters, such as Nomi and Valerie. The book is well written but sometimes appears immature when covering serious subjects. The abrupt ending left me disappointed

An interesting audiobook that kept me entertained and wanting to know what exactly was going on. A pandemic that puts women in charge of the world, and affects the men? It was an interesting storyline for a novel and I was intrigued to read more and get a sense of what was going on, how it all happened, and what would happen next.
Overall an enjoyable read that I would recommend.

Reading this book in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, with the Trump-Biden election looming near, certainly made for an interesting perspective. “Athena’s Choice” reminded me of “Beauty Queens” by Libra Bray mostly in format - with its added inserts of essays, news articles, and advertisements - but also in theme. I found this an entertaining, thought-provoking story worth reading. What WOULD the world be like if all the men were killed off?

My criteria for a good book are simple... it needs to be believable and it needs to keep me guessing. Athena’s Choice was realistic and had enough plot twists to keep me happy. The only difficulty I had was believing Athena is a teenager; I pictured her as someone in her mid-20s throughout the story. She was just a little too independent and mature to be right out of high school. (I work with teenagers ever day!) But she was likable, independent, and thoughtful. I think this will appeal to both YA and Adult Science Fiction fans.

Great read by narrator, Alex Ford. Her expression and use of different voices made for an entertaining listen.