Athena's Choice is a dystopian story where all men have died from a human-created virus that attacks all males. Woman now rule the world, but are becoming upset that men have not been brought back into the world.

I found this book so easy to fall in love with! The writing was excellent and created this fabulous world. It's so important that dystopian novels get the reader into the world of the story because it's so different from our own, and Adam Boostrom nailed it!

The story uses newspaper articles to help the reader understand what is going on in the world with the fallout of the virus, the unrest of the world, and all the other things happening. It really helped me to understand what was happening quickly, and I liked that!

I think this is a great sci-fi dystopian story that readers will enjoy! I thought the writing was excellent with great world-building and characters. It's an easy, exciting story that had a great plot!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

In Athena's Choice by Adam Boostrom, life is near perfect. World hunger has been eradicated. Murder and other violent crimes are almost nonexistent. Implants help you make decisions on what will make you happier. The world is mostly glitter and rainbows. Except there are no men. They were killed with an experimental virus about 50 years prior.

The story annoyed me in the beginning because it presented the usual rhetoric that men are bad, evil, etc. However, the book takes a turn that makes the book something deeper. It makes you think. It makes you question what you would do if you were in Athen's situation. I do not want to give more than that because I do not want to ruin anything.

Alex Ford narrates the audiobook. All of the characters are female so it made sense to use one narrator. Listening to Ford reminded me of being read a bedtime story when your mom changed her voice so you could easily follow the story. She made it seem she was telling the story instead of just reading it to you. According to Amazon, Ford narrated 30 books, including Alex Landragin's Crossings and Hugh Howey's The End Has Come.

This 200-word review will be published on Philomathinphila.com.

Athena's Choice is a thriller / crime type story set in a dystopian future with an entire female population! Males have been wiped out from the human race due to a deadly virus that spread many years ago. Our protagonist Athena is a young artist who is suddenly dragged in to an investigation and all she knows is that the Police have been told by an all knowing AI is that she somehow is the only person who can solve the case. Things quickly become dangerous as people involved are murdered and long buried secrets are uncovered.
I enjoyed this book far more than I expected to. At first it seemed a little odd that Athena is somehow the only person able to solve the case seeing as she's got zero experience or knowledge of the science or laws involved but all is explained towards the end of the book and it makes sense, and more importantly, is believable. The future world is built well and again, is believable, especially as some of the technology used is actually not far from what scientists and engineers are able to do now.
I found this to be a fast paced thriller with enough twists to keep readers interested. However, I listened to the audiobook and did find myself a little confused at some points as there are media broadcasts and articles at the end of chapters and they are dated, and they are also mentioning dates of other events in the past and present, but I couldn't remember the date of the current present timeline so I got a bit lost. I think I would have had a better reading experience if I had read the actual book even though the narrator did do a great job.

There is a lot of potential in this story but it doesn’t quite reach it. It’s burdened by tedious chunks of world building and very slow pacing. The premise is so intriguing and there are many moments throughout the book that grab your attention but they are short lived. The characters are also a bit flat with little personality.

My favourite thing about this book is the cover. I think it’s so pretty but it doesn’t do a good job at portraying what this book is about.

The narrator was wonderful. Her voice was quite soothing.

I was interested in the beginning of this book. It then took a weird turn and I was no longer feeling it. I felt like it got sexual for no reason and the story was dragged on and never hit a level on mystery I think the author was looking for.

This book has such an intriguing premise. What would a world were men have been eradicated by a virus look like. The formatting is original, with a very visual display of the story (articles, different fonts), but this originality also distracts from he flow of the story. So, intriguing, creative, and original, for sure. But, it all felt a bit flat for me. I didn't get a sense of personality from Athena, or anyone really. And these imaginary women in an all women's world felt unrealistic to this woman. They had a preoccupation with physical appearance, designing the body's for some strange ideal of perfection missed the mark for me. But even though the depth of the book needs work, the concept is very good and truly made me think of how I would visualize such a world.

The audio narration was good, but if your prefer audio, I would recommend combining with the text if possible. Where the book changes visually to show different types of excerpts (news, essays, etc.), the audio changes are discernible, but a bit harder to follow

I received an audioARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very interesting premise since it's about a pandemic and we are actually dealing with this right now in real life. I thought it was cool how it was all women. It definitely made for a different story. The narrator was cool too. It was well read and there were different voices. I speed of audio books and this one was well read.

I found the premise of this book really interesting. The concept of an all women world being a utopia is relatively unique, and, the idea that it was a terrorist fever generated to remove “the bad guys” and it simply evolved was neat. However, I had some glaring issues with this book that became more and more prevalent the closer to the end I got.

First off, I genuinely think we would naturally evolve out of the desire of one gender or the other. I know that’s just my opinion, but, it feels relevant. Secondly, the constant need for men being primarily sexual and romantic felt shallow and one sided. I’ve seen other opinions where people believe this should be classed as a YA novel. If you removed the sexual aspects of this book, I would have to agree. The world building, characters, and concept was not fleshed out enough to be considered so in depth as to be a Sci-fi adult fiction. It also needs to be said that it feels relatively odd for a man to write about a world made up entirely of women and their desires. I suppose this is reflected in how one dimensional all these female characters are, and how their emotions (outside of the aggressive hatred of men, or the aggressive sexual need for them) take up two sentences before moving on. I really struggled with this as a review because in concept, it seems like exactly my kind of read- but in execution, it wasn’t what I wanted.

The narrator for this book did a great job however, and she probably was the best part of the whole experience.

2.5 stars out of 5.

Full review: 8/12/2020

This was a unique book with a lot of interesting parts, but felt a lot more like a YA novel. There were some interesting twists and turns though some times I did find myself wandering, and had a hard time staying engaged.
Overall an interesting listen/just perhaps not the right book at this time for me.

I enjoyed this book!

It is YA, Dystopian and Science Fiction. All genres I have not read a lot of. They’re just not genres a gravitate to or tend to enjoy.

I kept seeing my friends review Athena’s Choice on Instagram and when the Athena’s Choice team reached out I said yes! Thank you so much for my gifted copy.

I read and listened to Athena’s Choice on audio. The narrator is fantastic. If you are able to listen on audio I highly recommend it.

I loved the concept of this book and thought it was executed very well. I loved this futuristic new world with all its new technology and AI.

I felt the entire story from beginning to end was very interesting. The story was unique and kept me engaged all the way through.

I would definitely pick up whatever this author decides to publish in the future.

3.5 stars rounded up

Thank you Netgalley, Thinker Books, and Adam Boostrom for my free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my impartial review.

This was a very intriguing book with a nice premise. I'm no stranger to dystopias. I read and loved the Hunger Games and the Divergent series. This one was unique in the sense that it's set in 2099, and all men have been wiped out of existence due to the Y fever. It was strange to read about a woman-only world. He did a good job of creating and writing about so many unique and diverse women. It was also interesting to note that while the women were mostly lesbians, there are some closet hetero women.

I loved all the tech and inventions in this future world, and that's one of the things I love about SciFi. I must confess, I hardly ever read SciFi. Of 50 read books, maybe 2/3 are SciFi. This was a mix of scifi and mystery, and the mystery of who stole the male genome is the main one that brought our MC Athena into the fold. I loved watching the story unfold and having a myriad of guesses along the way. The mystery, characters, plot, and narration all played out really well.

Although it was a male author's book, I love that it was a female narrator. She did a great job with the narration and I loved her performance.

This one was a pleasant surprise. I picked this based on the cover. It was a great concept for a story. I liked the futuristic view. I like that although it wasn't real, it didn't feel unrelatable. Really enjoyed the characters, especially Athena. Love when the main character is smart.

Thank you Netgalley :)

This is not my typical read for a lot of reasons -- I don't read a lot of science fiction or independently published titles. The premise of this story was intriguing and it was getting attention from indie science fiction awards, so I decided to give it a shot.

At first, I was skeptical that a man could write about a world run by women. This world is filled with women with so many varied personalities and political views that they are convincing as a society. Their opinions on men are what you would expect of a society where the older women remember men, and the younger women have never seen one -- some of the women miss men and feel lost without someone to love, some are lesbians, others are closet heterosexuals.

Adam Boostrom creates a world with out-there technology that seems like it's possible. From AI to iPhone-type contact lenses, the tech seems like something that's possible in 50 years. My personal favorite is the clothes printer that creates outfits every day (usually worn once and fed back into the machine to create more outfits) that snap on to magnetic implants in the body to make sure they fit and stay where they're supposed to.

There's an element of mystery in this sci-fi novel. The genome that is the key to returning men to the planet is stolen, and Athena teams up with the office of public safety to investigate the crime. Because people have the privacy option to not have their every move video recorded, the suspects have no proof that they were or were not involved in the crime. The situation escalates, and a murder happens in an almost crimeless society.

Having a female narrator, Alex Ford, adds to the all-female feel of the story. The beginning chapters contain elementary school reports done by Athena, and Ford does a good job of adopting a younger tone for these passages. She also uses a paced, unemotional voice for computer readouts and a reporter voice for newspaper articles. This not only adds to the story but helps the reader keep track of what type of passage they are hearing. I would definitely listen to a book read by Ford again.

The unexpected ending makes you think, even if it is unsatisfying.

Recommended for all science fiction fans. Dystopian fiction lovers and mystery readers looking for something different will also enjoy.

I received a free audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book. I have read other dystopian/futuristic books and enjoyed them, so I had high hopes for this one.

I felt like it reminded me of other books already out- with a talking computer system called "the core" that can't intervene in people's lives.

And was this supposed to be a feminist commentary on how men are savages and women are the elite species? That's where this book definitely lost me.

I thought the narrator was good. She was a little soft spoken, though. Otherwise, she was good.

A dystopian novel set in the year 2099 where all men mysteriously died from a virus. Women have been handeling it for the past 50 years, but now there is controversial project to bring men back. But someone is sabotaging it. That's the start of the novel. We follow Athena, a teenager who somehow is involved in the investigation. I liked this one, fast paced and interesting world building, very entertaining. Sadly I did not really connect with the main character, with the result that I did not really care what happend to them and then when things started to happen it didn't really have an impact.

I listened to the audiobook and I really enjoyed it that way. Very well narrated, really true to the story.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. It has been published in March 2019.

"Athena's Choice" is a real gem of a book, combining elements from Sci-fi, post-apocaliptic and dystopic genres, with a touch of medical thriller and spy story thrown in for good measure.
It is set in a not-too-far dystopian (or utopian, according to your personal view) future in which war, hunger and poverty have disappeared, technological progress has made it so that nobody needs to work for a living anymore and... all the men on the planet have been killed off by a single, highly deadly virus, that in a span of a few years left womankind in power.
The plot is good and very well-thought through, with a depth of layers that I think will make re-listening to this audiobook a very enriching experience. The plot twists blindsided me completely until the very end.
I particularly appreciated how the author found the right balance between descriptions and action scenes, never wasting too much time in illustrating the high-tech Sci-fi gadgets or the new societal rules, rather just offering the reader vivid, colourful hints.
All the characters, even the minor ones, are deliciously complex, and I found myself relating and empathizing with each of them in turn, even with the villains.
I enjoyed very much the writing style, which is true, direct and to-the-point, and the peculiar structure of the novel, interspersing the "regular" narration with various bits and pieces such as newspaper articles, official documents and Wikipedia pages (all of them from the future, of course) that threw an additional light on the universe the story is set in.
Extra points for originality and the brilliant, delicate handling of some very sensitive issues, such as sexual violence, gender-identity and same-sex relationships between one homosexual and one bisexual partner.
I definitely hope there will be one or more sequels to "Athena's Choice", and I wouldn't be surprised to see it turned into a TV show or a Hollywood movie, because it's just that imaginative.

This book was a fast pace great read from the beginning. I wasn’t expecting it to be so fleshed out and yet, I have so many questions. There’s not enough time book to have answered all my questions, answered. I need my questions answered!

All in all this was a great read. I wish I got to see more of adult Nomi and she got to interact more with Her and Athena together. Their dynamic could have used a bit more story.

I would recommend this to a friend and I would read more from this series.

3.75/5 because I still feel like there’s more to this story than meets the eye and more to be explored.

I was drawn to this audio excerpt seconds in. In the scene Nomi is admiring her friend Athena’s painting. She describes it as something unlike anything she has ever done before. It is both frightening and grotesque. Athena appears to have no recollection as to what inspired the painting. They enlist the help of their computer, Asha to help with the mystery. But the response provided deepens the mystery. I was excited to hear more about the source of the image and why Athena has little memory of it. I also wanted to know what happens to the 20th century and what time period are Nomi and Athena living in. This is a great start to a dystopic mystery that I’m excited to read.

3.5/5 stars
Thank you Netgalley and IBPA for the free audio copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I love a good dystopian/post apocalyptic book so I snagged this one right up!

The narrator was great; I love that I’ve been experiencing so many new narrators lately and they’ve all been amazing.

This story ended up having so much more depth to it than I ever expected, but at the same time it also felt like it was missing a little something if that makes any sense. I feel like I just wanted a more detailed look into this specific future. The author did do a great job with character development however.

I also really appreciated the way the author ended the book. It really makes you think, what would you do?

Thank you Netgalley and The Publisher for my audiobook copy of this book. I also have the ebook I won on goodreads. This was a very interesting book. I enjoyed it very much. The audiobook and the narrator was great as well.