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kniznypredator's review
3.5
I received an ARC ebook for free from BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I really liked the atmosphere and story in the Novus Dies book. It’s a well-built start to The Posterity Doctrine series. The story takes place in 2364. Robots are beginning to behave in a very weird way. We're following the main protagonists, a wife and husband couple working for the Special Task Force. Kate and Monthy Park are super badass fighters.
The author, Schalk Holloway, decided to give us in the beginning of every chapter an excerpt from a dated material source. It helps with imagining the scifi future. It's not only about robots, but about a society with new norms and ways of raising kids. Every adult citizen must be able to regulate their emotions.
I really enjoyed the themes and worldbuilding in this book. Dark atmosphere of metro tunnels and robots going rouge. This is my first book written by Schalk Holloway and definitely not the last. I’m looking forward to the next book.
55_sallymander's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
4 stars, Robot Wars
NOVUS DIES (POSTERITY DOCTRINE BOOK 1)
by Schalk Holloway
There were parts that I liked in this book and parts that I didn't care for. Whenever there is anyone hurting a child or worse, or even hurting a robot that looks like a child, it doesn't appeal to me.
Parts of it reminded me of the movie I, ROBOT. As in the robots taking over.
This book follows a husband and wife team who investigate robot anomalies. Sometimes there were incidents that neither one of them were expecting.
I received a complimentary copy of #NovusDies from #NetGalley #IndependentPublisher I was under no obligation to post a review.
#ScienceFiction #SciFi #Robots #PosterityDoctrineSeries #fantasy
NOVUS DIES (POSTERITY DOCTRINE BOOK 1)
by Schalk Holloway
There were parts that I liked in this book and parts that I didn't care for. Whenever there is anyone hurting a child or worse, or even hurting a robot that looks like a child, it doesn't appeal to me.
Parts of it reminded me of the movie I, ROBOT. As in the robots taking over.
This book follows a husband and wife team who investigate robot anomalies. Sometimes there were incidents that neither one of them were expecting.
I received a complimentary copy of #NovusDies from #NetGalley #IndependentPublisher I was under no obligation to post a review.
#ScienceFiction #SciFi #Robots #PosterityDoctrineSeries #fantasy
franklywrites's review
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book.
It was relatively clear from the cover and the blurb that Novus Dies would involve some from of robot uprising, and the opening chapters kick us into the prelude of that, with technology failures forming a concerning backdrop for the main characters as they go about their work. That work is as special operatives for a society called the Collective, which is fleshed out both in its origins and current rules throughout the book. It's still on Earth – evidenced by mentions to Earth locations and species here and there – but much changed, and about three hundred years ahead if I recall correctly.
I generally enjoyed the worldbuilding here. I didn't see the world in any particular scope, staying close to the characters in their work for the most part, but I saw enough through their eyes to find it interesting. Some of this information is delivered through excerpts at the beginning of each chapter, which provided ongoing context from a future perspective. Sometimes I found they explained a term after it had been introduced and confused me (e.g. excom = excommunicated citizen), or I glazed over a bit at technology descriptions, but overall they were nice additions. Throughout the book there were a couple of pieces of terminology/phrases that weren't explained, like 'greensticks' (which I had never heard before today, but is a medical term) and 'dropping armour' (I never worked out whether it referred to dropping physical armour in the path of projectiles, dropping armoured units from a carrier into a fight, or something else). No biggies, though.
The main characters are Kate and Monty, a husband-wife team with one usually acting as handler for the other, who goes out into the field with a team of specialised robots called shivs. Having so few humans in a scenario involving robots obviously set things up for interesting turns, and I enjoyed seeing Kate's interactions with her team. She was a pretty well fleshed-out character and her work relationship with her husband made for a perhaps unconventional dynamic, whether in the field or decompressing back home. The prose didn't bring me quite as close into their heads as I would have liked, keeping some narrative distance, but I still got a good feel for them as people and there was certainly enough action going on to pull me through the book.
This is probably one of those plots where I can't talk too much about it without spoiling a fair bit. The cover, blurb and excerpts at the beginning of each chapter did paint a pretty clear picture of what was coming, so I wouldn't say there were any surprises, but it was an intriguing journey to get there. Sometimes I lost track of what was going on and where, but not often, and I'm going to put that mostly down to the eye strain I had at the time, which made reading more difficult than usual for me.
All in all, I enjoyed reading Novus Dies and will be keeping an eye out for the sequel. Somehow I've made it sound very dull from my review, but it's not! I just suck at writing positive reviews no matter how much I like a book.
It was relatively clear from the cover and the blurb that Novus Dies would involve some from of robot uprising, and the opening chapters kick us into the prelude of that, with technology failures forming a concerning backdrop for the main characters as they go about their work. That work is as special operatives for a society called the Collective, which is fleshed out both in its origins and current rules throughout the book. It's still on Earth – evidenced by mentions to Earth locations and species here and there – but much changed, and about three hundred years ahead if I recall correctly.
I generally enjoyed the worldbuilding here. I didn't see the world in any particular scope, staying close to the characters in their work for the most part, but I saw enough through their eyes to find it interesting. Some of this information is delivered through excerpts at the beginning of each chapter, which provided ongoing context from a future perspective. Sometimes I found they explained a term after it had been introduced and confused me (e.g. excom = excommunicated citizen), or I glazed over a bit at technology descriptions, but overall they were nice additions. Throughout the book there were a couple of pieces of terminology/phrases that weren't explained, like 'greensticks' (which I had never heard before today, but is a medical term) and 'dropping armour' (I never worked out whether it referred to dropping physical armour in the path of projectiles, dropping armoured units from a carrier into a fight, or something else). No biggies, though.
The main characters are Kate and Monty, a husband-wife team with one usually acting as handler for the other, who goes out into the field with a team of specialised robots called shivs. Having so few humans in a scenario involving robots obviously set things up for interesting turns, and I enjoyed seeing Kate's interactions with her team. She was a pretty well fleshed-out character and her work relationship with her husband made for a perhaps unconventional dynamic, whether in the field or decompressing back home. The prose didn't bring me quite as close into their heads as I would have liked, keeping some narrative distance, but I still got a good feel for them as people and there was certainly enough action going on to pull me through the book.
This is probably one of those plots where I can't talk too much about it without spoiling a fair bit. The cover, blurb and excerpts at the beginning of each chapter did paint a pretty clear picture of what was coming, so I wouldn't say there were any surprises, but it was an intriguing journey to get there. Sometimes I lost track of what was going on and where, but not often, and I'm going to put that mostly down to the eye strain I had at the time, which made reading more difficult than usual for me.
All in all, I enjoyed reading Novus Dies and will be keeping an eye out for the sequel. Somehow I've made it sound very dull from my review, but it's not! I just suck at writing positive reviews no matter how much I like a book.
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