The Mother Code

STOP THE PRESS! I've just read my book of the year! Bold I know but that's how strongly I feel about The Mother Code. I have a heart of stone but The Mother Code managed to wring a few tears out of me; the story at the heart of the science is absolutely beautiful.

An act of bio terrorism releases a deadly disease into the world, throw in some genetic mutation and you're left with a horrifying post apocalyptic vision of our future. To balance out these terrifying events we have the creation of The Mother Code and the robotic mothers that have this embedded in them. These machines are responsible for incubating, birthing and raising their genetically modified charge, each one is unique and every mother has a different personality and teachings.

The story is told over two timelines, pre Mother Code launch and years later as the children come of age and begin to group together. But as children grow their Mothers transform too—in ways that were never predicted. The government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed. One of these children, Kai, must make a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known?

The Mother Code explores what exactly makes us human and certainly made me question what I would do.

Five stars and I'll be telling everyone I know to read this book!

Title: The Mother Code
Author: Carole Stivers
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Release date: May 5, 2020
Rating: 5/5

What does it mean to be a mother? What does it mean to be human?
I didn't expect a science fiction novel to be such a roller-coaster of emotions. The entire concept of this book is genius and possibly a little too probable to make for comfortable reading. Not a sci-fi fan? You will be after you read this.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy to review. This review is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

An absolutely brilliant, fabulous and exceptional read !!
I read the book while the world is gripped on a global pandemic with many people infected and dying and although a different scenario (I hope !!) it sure made for some much to close for comfort reading but hell its fantastic story.
“What does it mean to be a mother” well this book tells us in such a different way and with so much empathy and love I was transfixed I loved it so much . It’s impossible to describe the story without spoiling it so I’m not going to even try , it’s book that should just be read with no prior knowledge and I assure you it really won’t disappoint.
Loved everything about it, can’t find anything I didn’t like and wow has Carole Stivers got a fountain of knowledge and oh boy can she write !!
So I hear the book has been commissioned by Spielberg for a a film and that’s going to be one hell of a blockbuster I’m sure. So for me this will a top favourite read of this year and so of course it’s highly recommended as you can see I bloody loved it !!
My thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Bio warfare goes wrong and dooms the world. Scrambling for an answer, a military group create immune fetuses and entrust them to robotic Mothers, programmed with the personality of the children's mothers. As these children mature, they have to deal with the remnants of our world as well as the beginning of theirs.

The first part of this novel moves back and forwards in time, between Kai, being raised by his Mother in the early 2060s, and the various military and scientific characters fighting the outbreak in the late 2040s and early 2050s. Once I got used to this it was an interesting way to read, but it did lend a certain inevitability to some things; we know that despite the search for an antidote, the Children are still going to be launched, and the early difficulties engineering Children who can survive will be overcome. However, it would be much less interesting to read in order and I can't say for sure I'd have stuck with it.

I also found the ending very abrupt; the final conflict is still being finished only a couple of pages from the end and there's basically no wrap up.

Those issues aside, though, this is a thoroughly fascinating and very timely read. My limited understanding of this kind of science didn't find any problems with it, and I could follow what they were talking about without too much difficulty. The final conflict is intriguing, and while I could see both sides of the argument there was no question which side I and all the readers were meant to be on. I'd love to read a follow up to see what kind of society the Children build - there was a clear power struggle building and I'd like to know what became of it.

A creepily accurate and very timely book, I enjoyed it very much.

It is 2049 and a virus with no antidote has been released upon the world. As it progresses slowly around the world a team of American scientists struggle to find a solution. As realisation dawns that a solution won't be found for the virus, it is a race against time to save at least a few of the human race. A few years in the future we meet Kai and his robot "Mother".
There are a lot of apocalyptic books on the market and more likely in the coming months following Covid-19. This is definitely one of the better books of this genre. I have given it 4 stars but it is more of a 4.5 star book.
This is well constructed with a plot that does work and fits together reaching a satisfactory conclusion. Setting it just a short while in the future allows for some developments that are not available today & makes the whole concept of artificial mothers a little more likely.
I did find the number of characters, particularly the scientists, slightly confusing at times which is why this isn't quite a 5 star book. Perhaps it would have been helpful if I had created a cast list. However this had little bearing upon my enjoyment of the story as I did join the dots quite quickly after a few sentences.
This is quite a science based book with some quite technical descriptions. However there weren't too many to make it incomprehensible for the layman like me. I do feel that there needs to be a layer of scientific explanation in a book like this but some books take it a bit far leaving the reader floundering. This book got the level about right.
Although I did enjoy many of the characters I didn't get too emotionally involved with them. I did enjoy the emerging personalities of the children as they developed.
I liked the structure of this book. It begins with two distinct threads which are clearly dated. However, these two threads do join up and then the story is combined.
An excellent book that I very much enjoyed. I felt it was well written with good descriptions & the right level of science & believability. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for other books by this author.
I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

Wow -this is a real blockbuster . I have heard somewhere that this may be made into a film -and what a film it would make !
The decade is 2050 -and biological warfare has turned into biological nightmare as the world is facing extinction from a virus that has mutated into a deadly disease from which no-one is safe.(Ring a bell?)
After realising they cannot fight it -scientists make plans to ensure that life will be able to start again.
They build a super -bot designed to carry and give birth to our future generations -The Mothers .

Such a brilliant novel -I hope the film does it justice .

Thankyou Net Galley for an advance copy in return for an honest review