Athena’s Choice by Adam Boostrom was the perfect listening distraction. Based in the year 2099, 50 years after all of the men in the world get infected by a virus, that in the end kills them. Leaving only the women to govern.
All though there’s now a peaceful society that includes health check monitors and food & clothing recyclers. ( Who doesn’t want to have clothing tailored especially for you and food provided that will give your body the vitamins and minerals it specifically needs ) But be careful what you wish for, because it’s not as perfect as it seems. The author does a wonderful job revealing the society’s imperfections.
The mystery of the novel is beautifully paced, broken down into diary notes, news clippings and the original storyline.
The main character, Athena (who you get to know as a young woman, with flashbacks to her childhood ) is at the center of the novel & at first a bit spoilt and unaware, finds her inner strength & purpose by the book end.
I found the narrator easy to listen to & from the very first page, I was lost in the story.

All in all I found Athena’s Choice to have all the things I love in a good sci-fi novel; it had adventure, strong characters, a mystery, a new world, suspense, and twists and turns all throughout the book, right to the very end.

If your looking to literally disappear into a new world and a good book, then I’d definitely recommend adding this gem of sci-fi book to your listening library.
Thank you to Netgalley & the author himself for my audio book copy. It was truly a joy to listen to.

An enjoyable, at times thought-provoking, book that nevertheless lacked the charismatic characters or plot that would have me hooked. The reading turned this just-ok novel into quite an adventure.

An enjoyable audiobook suitable for all ages. I enjoyed the voyage into the future at what the world would be like (air clicks!) and if no men were no longer alive due to a virus wiping them out. The main character, Athena was very likeable and the story flowed very nicely.

Intriguing premise of feminist dystopia, but needs refined execution.

This is definitely more Young Adult than Science-Fiction.
The world build was interesting, with interesting scientific tools which I hope come sooner to reality! (such as the 3D printed foods/clothes, and the home assistant A.I. network)
However, I struggled to connect with the characters and the plot.

The characters need more depth, with Athena and Nomi seeming rather immature for their age (18?), where a lot of their discourse just didn't land for me or seemed brief or casual (despite the serious tone of the plot). If we're also exploring romantic relationships, it's worth really not shying away from those conversations, and body language. I also struggled to connect to the characters when something tragic happened, it seemed a little cliché in terms of the old adage of "oh go on without me" and the sudden emotional outbursts that felt empty. This could be remedied with building stronger connections between characters, stronger indicators that they are enjoying each others company or body language. More character backstories would have supported this also.

Regarding the plot, I was intrigued by the Helix scientists and the overall concept. However, I felt let down by the scattered nature of connecting all the events together. I felt a lot of reminiscent vibes of Asimov and Altered Carbon, but in a different light that didn't live up to the standard. Some of the philosophical elements were thought-provoking as well, albeit a bit uncomfortable and it teetered on pushing pseudoscience onto the reader. I think what threw me the most were the dream encounters that felt tacky: "find the answer to save her". It didn't help that the Audiobook narration made the dream sequences sound more comical than they were probably intended. I imagine it would have been more enjoyable to read the print version.

Thank you to NetGalley, Adam Boostrom and Thinker Books for the audiobook copy of this ARC for an honest review.

Disclaimer: This review is based on received a free audiobook copy through NetGalley.com.

Narrator: Alex Ford - This is my first audiobook read by Alex Ford. I found her voice pleasant and easy to listen to. She was able to easily allow the listener to understand when a new character is speaking.

Length: 7 hours and 29 minutes

Story: The plot of the story - set in 2099 where there are no men. They simply do not exist in the world. They were last on the world about 50 years ago and the main character, Athena, has never met one. However, scientists and researchers are attempting to bring them back.

Like all young adults, Athena is looking for her purpose in the world. She is pulled into an investigation with "police" when a project tasked with creating men again is involved in a crime. Athena is giving the chance to leave a mark on the world.

Ultimately, Athena must make a choice.

Throughout the story, there are twists and turns which kept me engaged in the story.

What if a viral pandemic put women in charge of the planet?
The moment I read the synopsis, I needed to read this and I wasn’t disappointed, not even one bit. I wouldn’t stop reading until I’ve reached the end of the book. The writing style reminded me a bit of Warcross and the story plot got me hooked from the complete beginning. It’s a really well written dystopian novel set in 2099 and men no longer exist because of a virus that completely wiped them. It gives us a really fascinating glimpse of the future. Athena’s Choice really got me thinking whether the world would really be better without men and I know what everyone is thinking, “No”. My answer was the exact same but the deeper I got into the book, the more it got me thinking about it. Despite the cliffhanger that left many questions unanswered, I recommend this to people who love Sci-Fi.

This is a great listen for the sci-fi fan who likes coming of age and/or speculative fiction. The narrator is fantastic, and the story zips along.

For me personally it was a little heavy on the YA/coming of age, but that’s very much my personal opinion.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for letting me listen to this great book in return for an honest review.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I feel like reading a book that has a pandemic, while living in a pandemic, is kind of weird and interesting.

Athena's Choice was such a weird book. Not even going to lie about it. I feel like so much was happening and maybe it's the narrator of this book.. but things were just not adding up to me. Then for the things that sounded cool.. got weird real quick. For example, the massage implant sounded kind of cool but then got really weird and cringe-worthy two seconds later.

Other than the weirdness, I didn't really connect with Athena. I tried to but there was just something so off about her. Then the whole AI was just adding a different level of weird when it came to Athena as well. I'm honestly kind of glad that I didn't invest any time in her because the ending was just wow - so weird.

I feel like I've just mentioned the "w" word so many times but that's the only way I can explain this book. It was weird and that's the tea. In the end, it had some twist and turns that made me think twice about some stuff but it was just an okay book to me.

I enjoyed listening to the audio book. I also read the book and I liked the audio book the same as the book. The story is interesting, the plot good and the characters well described.

**I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review**

When I first read the plot synopsis, I was fairy excited to read Athena's Choice. And the plot synopsis is why I'm giving this three stars instead of two. The idea of a world of only females existing after a pandemic eliminates the entirety of the male population is incredibly interesting, and the results of such a thing essentially lead to a peaceful world.

While the plot potential is there, the overall flatness of the characters are what caused me to downgrade my rating. Rather than flesh out a character's personality, Boostrom chose to describe the character's physical attributes, usually making them almost perfect (with three exceptions that stuck out- one characters looked old, one chose to be curvy compared to the average woman, and one had a scar on her face that she chose not to have removed).

Other than Athena's gray eyes, there was nothing memorable about her character save that she wanted to be an artist and was failing. Even though she was the main character, she actually seemed to be the least interesting character within the book itself.

Overall, the possibility of something great is here, but it reminds me of something I heard long ago- a bad plot can survive good characters, but a good plot can be destroyed by bad characters.

So, I am VERY particular about my science fiction books. I am not a fan of alien sci-fi (don't believe in aliens, cannot suspend disbelief) or time travel/wormhole sci-fi (ditto). I prefer mindf*ck sci-fi like Twilight Zone / Black Mirror about totally alternate and preferably bizarre universes, Oh, and I especially love books with feminist themes. So as you can see my tastes are very particular, and yet I am happy to report that this book checks all the boxes of my requirements. This is a very smart and creative futuristic novel about a man-made virus intended to kill terrorists that ended up killing all men instead. In this future world (sometime in the 2090s), the world is populated by only women, is very peaceful, and has many awesome female-led inventions, like magnetic printed clothing, artificial intelligence that can tell you what kind of life choice is most likely to make you happy.

In this book, a debate arises as to whether men should be brought back to the world. Author Boostrom (who is a man, by the way!) provides some pretty compelling modern-day data about why maybe they should not be reintroduced when their propensity for killing and destroying things has been largely eradicated from the world. But of course, despite their peace and happiness under the Founding Mothers, many women (known as "Lonelyhearts") miss men. At the center of this choice is our heroine Athena who has for some reason been summoned by the world's highest female AI ruler to participate.

This is an extremely creative, commendably smart and interesting text that is very well-narrated. I loved the narrator's voice, and the voices of all the characters are distinctive. This book is very well-acted. The characters were well-drawn by the author as well. I felt the book at times got a little bogged down in describing the sci-fi technological and futuristic details, and got a little bored during those parts, but again, that may be because I'm not your typical everyday sci-fi reader. I'm also not sure how I feel about the ending of the book, although the author's epilogue helped somewhat. But overall, I really liked listening to this. Everything from the plot, to the ingenious inventions, to the narrator's soothing voice made for a great audiobook experience. I liked this a lot, and if you love all sci-fi, you'll probably love it. I think this author is tremendously promising and I am definitely going to read whatever he comes up with next (unless there are aliens in it, of course - sorry, aliens).

Thanks to Adam Boostrom, NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio for the advance copy of this really thought-provoking and original audiobook. My opinions are honest and my own.

Athena’s Choice was so much better in theory than in actuality. The story was very interesting and I definitely enjoyed the concept, but my big issue with the book is that I didn’t feel any character connection whatsoever. When I was writing down review notes while listening, I struggled to remember the names of any of the characters — including Athena, who’s name is actually in the TITLE. I find it very hard to enjoy a book throughly when I don’t connect with the characters. Her motive for helping to find out who stole the genome didn’t make much sense, other than her wanting to be special. This didn’t really make me sympathetic to her. Her limited relationships weren’t flushed out super well either, so I couldn’t even sympathize with her in relation to caring about her personal collections. I’m still giving it three stars because I REALLY loved the plot concept. I just feel like it could have been so much better. Especially because it’s sort of like a mystery sci-fi and I could have had so much fun sleuthing if I cared about the characters. I especially liked the author’s note at the end on how this book relates to reality — it adds a certain oomph to the work.

It was just ok for me..trying to find out how to bring back men. Had some interesting parts along the way but i felt like it was dragging at certain parts. I really liked how the future world was depicted.

The story was a little intense knowing that right now we are living in a pandemic and this book narrates the story after a pandemic that ended with a big amount of the world’s population. Nevertheless the story felt a little flat and the characters were not relatable. The entire story felt secondary to the past, meaning it would have been better how they change based on the pandemic and not how they wanted to go back. In general I liked it and the audiobook was nice to listen to and the voice of the narrator was calm and versatil to create the idea of many female characters.

DNF at 60%

“A woman,” Nomi loved to say, “needs a man as much as a fish needs a bicycle.”

NOTE: I mark as read the books that I reach more than 50%, if it is less, I do not mark them as read.

I thought Into the Water was second to none, but no. One worse arrived than I could EVEN finish. Athena’s choice is simple, flat, where things happen just because. A nonsensical book that I regret having read.

In Athena's choice we meet Athena, a high school girl who lives in a future in which a virus killed EVERY man on the planet, and women had to set their standards, create the ways to That the world could work. Now, there is the possibility of bringing the men back, but at the same time, from the government laboratory (I think) the genome of the virus is stolen, which can be altered to be deadly for the entire population.

As you can see, it looks VERY interesting. A utopia tinged with feminism in a futuristic world with crime involved and political intrigue. But the book, apart from being VERY SLOW, is exasperating. Athena's character is 1. Unbearable. 2. She is VERY lucky and everything happens to her because she is pretty, I guess, because there is no reason for anything that happens to her. I couldn't bear it inside the book. The other characters are SO irrelevant that we don't even know them well.

Does anyone want to explain to me why she is involved in the robbery? Why is she accused? Why then do you start helping with the investigation? There's no answer? It is because there is no reason. The police said, "Oh, she looks very smart, help us save the world (Literally)." And, my biggest complaint, why put ALL THE HOPES OF THE WORLD in a random dream of a girl? Really?

And to continue, it seems to me a sexist book full of harmful prejudices. First: The book says that women can ONLY do great things WITHOUT men, when that's a lie. Second: It stigmatizes men, saying that ALL men are harmful, toxic and dangerous, and do you know why it bothers me? Because I am a man and it would never occur to me to kidnap a girl (Example given in the book). I think we are in an age where stereotypes, sideways, must be completely abolished. Third: Although women have lived a long time without men, they have a lot of internalized misogyny.

In general, I can't (and don't want to) give spoilers, as I just want to say: Don't read Athena’s choice. My opinion ends here, because I do not want to elaborate further. This book seems sexist and full of stereotypes and internalized misogyny and I hope that this type of book, one day, will end.

MontFort says bye.

☆゜・。。・゜゜・。。・゜★

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this for review.

I’ll be honest, this was kind of a disappointing book for me. It was a book that could have been really interesting, had a really interesting concept, but just wasn’t achieved as it could have been.

My biggest issue with this book, which is frustrating of me and something that couldn’t have been changed, was the fact it was a book about women and women only, but was written by a man. The female narrator lives in a world where men no longer exists but she wishes they did - it’s as if the male author was reminding women of men’s importance in the world. The narrator didn’t simply want men, she wanted their “rough” and “forceful” affections, as if men are only capable of inflicting pain/power - and that women crave it or are driven to want it.
"She craved for the [male drawings] to come to life and crave her in return. She fantasised about the power her feminine body would have over them, about what a rush it would be to see those men unable to take their eyes off of her... She longed for them to pull her forcefully into their strong embrace"
I think there were a lot of things that were interesting in this and one of them was the fact that only women existed in this world. The virus that wiped men was recent enough that women remembered a world with men - it wasn't all daydreams and fantasing about what men could be like, there were women that were hurt by men in living memory, as well as women who miss brothers and husbands.
I did like the mix of narrative and other things (like Wikipedia articles, news reports, school flashbacks). They effectively added to and built on what was being spoken about in the present narrative.
I also liked the end. Well, the final chapter; (what happened in the last few chapters and how the story concluded, I honestly can't remember). It was intriguing and worked well for the book. Whilst (somewhat) frustrating, it allows the reader to become part of the story and reflect on what they would do in the situation.
However, I didn't remember any characters really, beyond each interaction (if they came back or were mentioned later, the impact passed over my head because I couldn't remember who they were). Athena focused a lot on appearances, taking time to identify everyone's height, eye colour, age, before trying to figure out anything about them. She even spent about a page in front of the mirror early on in the book, describing her own *beautiful* appearance.

Unfortunately, I was bothered by the male-author-writing-lots-of-women part early on and never seemed to move past it. I really wanted to, especially given how much everyone else seemed to love it. However, this feeling, coupled with Athena's lengthy self-description and then the following description of a sandwich (who describes a sandwich like you would a lover?) just meant I never quite got into the story:
"...a turkey croissant sandwich, covered with cucumber and tomato. The moist slices of thinly printed turkey practically melted on contact with her tongue."

CW: Rape/Sexual assault/Suicide/Death

Thank you, NetGalley, for accepting my request and allowing me to read this book and listen to the audiobook in return for an honest review.
I wasn’t a fan of this book despite being excited. I feel it would maybe translate better as a TV show vs a book. I didn’t like the writing style too much and there was very little character development. Also, it dragged on it felt and the ending concluded kind of cheesy.

The narrator was pretty good. Sometimes she said words very strangely but she did a good job using different voices.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Yea idk how much I really liked this book, like it wasn't bad but there was just some uh weird stuff in it?

I really enjoyed this book. And eventho I’m a scientist myself (specialised in genomics) I wasn’t mad about the scientific aspects of this book. The author had obviously taken the time out to do his research. I really enjoyed the book but I really wish it didn’t end me questioning what did she decide to do. Hate cliff hangers. But love the book.

I loved everything about this book! I was looking for something unique and with a dystopian/sci-fi vibe. This definitely fit the bill. I will be looking forward to other titles by this author because I enjoyed this one very much!