Partials (Partials Sequence, #1) in Ruins Q&A with Dan Wells

Jan 14, 2012 Ange (Our Epic TBR List) Schmelzer rated it it was amazing

No one has seen a Partial in eleven years. Eleven years ago the engineered soldiers, Partials, started a war that unleashed RM and completely desimated the human population. The human survivors have gathered together on Long Island and created a society determined not to become extinct.

Kira has no memory of her mother and barely remembers her father. When RM hit, she was 5. Wandering from home when she ran out of food after her father died until soldiers found her, she has grown up only knowing No one has seen a Partial in eleven years. Eleven years ago the engineered soldiers, Partials, started a war that unleashed RM and completely desimated the human population. The human survivors have gathered together on Long Island and created a society determined not to become extinct.

Kira has no memory of her mother and barely remembers her father. When RM hit, she was 5. Wandering from home when she ran out of food after her father died until soldiers found her, she has grown up only knowing life with The Hope Act looming and this life of survivors making their own families. Now 16, Kira is a medic in training who is on the front lines watching babies die everyday. Why? RM is still killing them by attacking their immune systems within hours and days.

The Senate is hanging all its hopes on The Hope Act which makes pregnancy mandatory at 18.

The Voice wants freedom from The Senate's Hope Act even if it takes violence between the precious few left on Long Island.

Kira? She wants to save them all!

Wow! Action and adventure from beginning to end people! Exactly my kind of story. The desimated world post-partial war is told so well in this book. I didn't have to wonder about much of anything because Wells covered all his who, what, when, where bases so well. Another thing which makes this book my kind of book. We also get to watch the character of Kira, along with her circle of friends, grow from 15 and 16 year-olds just doing their jobs on a day-to-day basis in the beginning of the book into young adults who are taking charge of their lives by making big decisions and taking huge risks for the survival of them all.

I also appreciated that even though this is a first book in a series, Wells still wrapped up the main conflict from this book while leaving open the larger conflicts for the next book. No feelings of frustration!

The chemistry between the cast of "plague babies" who have made each other a family was fascinating. A world where you can walk down any street and pick out any empty house you want, clean it up and live in it was also such an interesting concept I'd never really thought of before. A world that is full of stuff but not people.

If you are looking for adventure, or action, or that thrilling feel of solve-the-mystery-with-science-before-it's-too-late (like Bones)...then THIS is the book for you! Try it and let me know what you thought! ...more

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Apr 17, 2012 Scott rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Dan Wells doesn't normally write the type of fiction I'm interested in. I came to know of him through a podcast I listen to (Writing Excuses, with Brandon Sanderson and Howard Tayler). Only after hearing dozens of mentions of his John Cleaver books did I finally decide to read them, if only so I'd know what he was talking about. A story about a demon-fighting teenage sociopath? Hmm... But I was impressed—Wells has a deft hand with his characters, and really made me care about situations I wouldn Dan Wells doesn't normally write the type of fiction I'm interested in. I came to know of him through a podcast I listen to (Writing Excuses, with Brandon Sanderson and Howard Tayler). Only after hearing dozens of mentions of his John Cleaver books did I finally decide to read them, if only so I'd know what he was talking about. A story about a demon-fighting teenage sociopath? Hmm... But I was impressed—Wells has a deft hand with his characters, and really made me care about situations I wouldn't normally choose to read about. So I was really excited to learn he was writing a series that falls right in my genre preference crosshairs: post-apocalyptic YA.

Enter Partials.

When the Partials rebelled, the war was brief and devastating. Over 99% of the human race died to the RM virus. Eleven years later, the survivors have banded together under the threat of Partial attacks and human terrorists, but their biggest threat is still the virus. They may be immune, but every infant that is born succumbs to the virus within days. The Hope Act requires girls to get pregnant at eighteen (with the ever-present possibility of lowering that age) in hopes of finding some infant that carries the immunity.

Kira Walker, a young medic in training, is dissatisfied with progress on the disease. She believes that the Partials—who have an engineered immunity to RM—hold the key to curing it. With a handful of friends and allies, she hatches a plan that will pit her against humans and Partials alike in an effort to save humanity.

This is an epic story with no less that the world at stake, but it is also a very personal story. With humanity condensed to a bare handful of people, there's no room for childhood. These teenagers—kids, in any other context—are forced to think and act like adults. And, inspiringly, they do. But at the same time, you can never forget that they aren't mature adults yet, as more than once decision is made out of very adolescent passion or naiveté.

It's obvious that Dan Wells stretched himself with this book, writing something of a much larger scope than what he's done before, and not always to the good. In particular, the characters weren't as deep and true as I would have expected. Kira is well rounded, of course, as the viewpoint character, but many of her friends seem to be more plot constructs than people unto themselves. Well, I should amend that: every character has a plot function, and has some unique characteristic(s). For instance, Marcus is the reluctant boyfriend that always has something witty to say. Xochi is the loyal housemate that is obsessed with music. The characters have excellent texture, in other words, but I don't feel like they're each an integrated whole. The same is true of the bad guys, such as they are—they're not quite moustache-twirling villains, but they don't escape it by much. (One dramatic exception I should point out is a choice that Kira's friend Isolde makes, midway through the book. It's barely mentioned in passing, and yet it reveals an intriguing depth to her character that I hope is explored more later on.)

However, there is much that is fantastic: the vision of a world after the Break, the way society pulls itself together and responds to the threats against it—both positively and negatively. There is layer upon layer of mystery surrounding the Partials and the RM virus, and those layers are revealed in satisfying steps while maintaining a tantalizing promise of more to come in future books. ...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Taffy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012

First line:

"Newborn #485GA18M died on June 30, 2076 at 6:07 in the morning."

Another apocolyptic dystopian book with lots of twists and romance and government take over. The year is 2076. Most of humanity has been wiped off the earth thanks to man-made soldiers and a mysterious virus. There are no chlildren younger than fourteen because the virus kills babies within days. An edict handed down from the government, called the Hope Act, forces all women, eighteen years and older to become pregnant b ...more

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Dec 19, 2011 Kristine rated it it was amazing

I devoured this book in a single afternoon, artfully dodging the protestations and attention-getting schemes of my family members. Wells creates a post-apocalyptic/dystopian world that you can tell he's really explored mentally. The details are amazing and at times heart-wrenching, like when characters choose a music mix to listen to by calling out the inscriptions written out to an ipod's long-dead owners. The little touches of humanity show how much has changed, and yet how these characters ar ...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Alice rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, favorites, ya-mg-kids, audio, science-fiction, dystopian, post-apocalyptic

I thought I'd rate this book more harshly than I did. The opening was a bit shaky, and it was my impression that it was padded. But, as the story wore on, the issues dropped off, and the pacing picked up. I also got a fuller picture of the intricacy of the future dystopia Dan Wells has written. I started off unimpressed, and am glad I gave the book a chance to change my mind.

Partials is the first in a trilogy about a future where humanity's remains huddle on Long Island, hoping for a cure for th I thought I'd rate this book more harshly than I did. The opening was a bit shaky, and it was my impression that it was padded. But, as the story wore on, the issues dropped off, and the pacing picked up. I also got a fuller picture of the intricacy of the future dystopia Dan Wells has written. I started off unimpressed, and am glad I gave the book a chance to change my mind.

Partials is the first in a trilogy about a future where humanity's remains huddle on Long Island, hoping for a cure for the disease that wiped almost everyone out. In the meantime, they try to overwhelm it with numbers, by legislating that young women must give birth as often as possible, in hopes that one of the newborns will have a natural immunity. They blame the disease's existence on the Partials, human-appearing superbeings who went to war with humanity after they were created to win a different war.

Kira Walker, 16, believes the key to curing the disease is in Partial biology, and sets out to capture one to run tests, despite having been forbidden by all of the adults she mentions it to. This wouldn't be a dystopia without her discovering all kinds of secrets about the world she thinks she understands along the way.

Unlike with most trilogies or series, she does solve the initial problem, at least partly, by the end of this book. There's no frustrating cliffhanger, no sense of narrative waste. What drives us on to the next book is the new complexity she's discovered, and the hundreds of questions that raises.

The book starts off slow, establishing the world Kira knows before we can see how different the rest of it is and where the cracks lie. It's a logical evolution, and the issues are understandable, though not always predictable.

There were two flaws early on in the book. First is the question of why Kira asks for a sample of Marcus's blood to test for RN. She doesn't even think of using her own. Her physiology turns out to have plot relevance, leading me to wonder even more why it never even crossed her mind. She could've saved herself some time.

The second issue is when Kira and her friends are discussing plans to go capture a Partial. Jayden tells her it'll take some time to set up, then she goes off to discuss it with someone else. Suddenly, she's talking about "tomorrow" as if that's when they plan to leave. I think the later conversation was initially written as having taken place the night before she left, but some shoddy editing missed the timeline issues. It was a relatively minor error, but it was jarring, and stuck in my mind when I thought of what to mention in my review.

Overall, I found Partials to be entertaining, and the worldbuilding to be far more complex than it appears. There are at least four opposing elements by the end of the book, each with a plan to save the world that makes sense to that group. I thought I'd be unimpressed, when I reached the halfway point, but I finished it looking forward to the next book.

I listened to this on audio, narrated by Julia Whelan. She's also the voice of Amy in Gone Girl, so it took me a while to settle down and start trusting the narrator, which may have colored my perception of this book. Her narration is clear, and she captures Kira's emotional range nicely. ...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Vicki rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy, young-adult

I loved this book and I am so looking forward to reading Variant. I really do love books that are very inventive and clever.

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Sep 19, 2011 Becky rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, dystopian, action, page-turner

Dan Wells never fails to impress. Not a boring section. He managed to make a traditional dystopian new and exciting.

I liked exploring some social concepts that parallel our own society--public privacy vs safety. The role of the government.

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