Sudden Onset Review (ARC)

    UC Berkeley Professor of Microbiology, Dr. Mira Wallace, searches for ancient life in the most extreme environments on Earth. While sampling an ancient subterranean lake, the US Army summons Mira to investigate a mysterious biological threat in a Southern Utah desert. SONA (Sudden Onset Necrosis Agent) is a new pathogen unlike anything known to science. Resilient and aggressive, it threatens Earth's entire biosphere, making Mira fear that she may have just found evidence of the ancient life she's been searching for. (Goodreads)

    Keep in mind that everyone has their own opinion. This review is only my opinion, and you may have your own, different one. I would take into consideration what I say, but do not make a decision about the book solely based off of this review. Additionally, the author sent me this book as a free advanced reading copy; however, this did not influence my review. This is 100% my honest opinion. Let's begin:

    If you are like me and you are not the best at understanding science, this book may seem a bit intimidating to you at first. Yes, I knew it was science fiction going into it. However, I also knew it would be really focused on microbiology and that one of the authors has a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology, so the book would most likely have technical terms that I know nothing about. Well, I was right about that. Luckily for me and for others who are not the strongest with science, the authors do a great job explaining everything. I never truly felt super confused. There were times when I didn't completely grasp a concept right away, but it was always explained fairly quickly in a way that was easy to understand. Just in case you don't though, or you don't know much about the government agencies mentioned, the authors provide a very handy supplement in the back with further explanation.

    The entire concept of this novel is fascinating and I think that will be a pretty universal statement made in its reviews. It's a wonderful blend of questions about science and religion that truly makes you question everything you may have previously thought about the creation of life. Too often I come across books with great ideas behind them that are executed poorly. I am very happy to say that this is not one of those books. The execution was done very well. I was engaged the entirety of the novel and found myself reading a chapter here and there while I was in class because of it (oops!). At least that says something about the book though. 

    I enjoyed the characters and thought they were well written. Of course I loved Mira, our protagonist, but I also loved Rain and Gigi a lot. I even liked Quon (maybe not his personality, but his character in general). They all added something to the story and, when they were in danger, I genuinely cared about what happened to them (which is why my nerves were going crazy towards the end but no more on that to avoid spoilers). 

    Overall, I am happy that I did not let my intimidation cause me to turn down this book. The concept was interesting, the book written well, and the characters loveable. Everything was explained in a way that a non-science person such as myself could understand easily. After that ending, I have quite a few questions, so I will definitely be looking forward to the second book and recommending this first book to people while I wait. Now I am going to go eat pizza while I contemplate every question this book has made me think about and all of the possibilities my eyes have opened up to because of this novel.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Authors: Tom M. Dardick and Dr. Christopher D. Dardick

Publisher: Immortal Works

Genre: Sci-fi

Series: The Seed Series (Book 1)

Publication Date: June 8, 2021