What an odd, delightful, strangely reflective, funny book. The opening sentence "God lived in a coffee maker on deck 4." had me laughing immediately but overall, I didn't fall into the story as easily as I did that first line.

The concept is pretty wild—imagine a group of kids, who are actually senior citizens stuck in 12-year-old bodies, being trained by AI to save humanity. It's like The Hunger Games meets Lord of the Flies, but in space. This especially hits close to him this day and age.

On the plus side, the humor really stood out. Breakwell's known for his comedic writing, and it shows here. There were moments that had me laughing out loud, which isn't something I usually expect from a sci-fi novel. The interactions between the characters and the AI were particularly entertaining.

However, I struggled with the sheer number of characters. With 22 kids all named after Greek letters, it was tough to keep track of who was who. Some characters felt underdeveloped, making it hard to connect with them or care about their fates.

The pacing was another issue. The first two-thirds of the book felt like a long setup, and then everything rushed to a conclusion in the final chapters. It left me wanting more depth in the earlier parts and a more gradual buildup to the climax.

Overall, The Chosen Twelve is a unique blend of humor and sci-fi with an intriguing premise. While it didn't fully hit the mark for me, I think fans of dystopian stories with a comedic twist might enjoy it. If you're into that kind of thing, it could be worth a read.

This novel unfolded board an interstellar colony ship populated by a group of individuals who, despite their advanced age, are perpetually stuck in the mindset of 12-year-olds due to technological intervention. As they navigated the challenges presented by both the enigmatic robots controlling the ship and the mysteries of the planet below, the writing offered a mix of humour, action, and philosophical musings on the nature of humanity.

This is a plot filled with absurd scenarios and unexpected twists, which compelled me to continue reading so I could follow the characters' exploits. From the sentient household appliances to existential debates with the ship's AI, there is constant activity aboard the colony ship. Unfortunately this meant a disjointed structure that jumped between the numerous characters which made it difficult to connect with any individual.

Overall I felt that this was a fairly easy read - good for a long flight or the beach / poolside lounger but not for a reader who wants more than that.

The comparisons to this book had alot to live up to...Hunger Games, even Lord Of The Flies.

I absolutely adore post apocalyptic thrillers and I also enjoy James Breakwell' s comedy. I receive his news letter...I read his twitter. I was really excited to read this book.

I enjoyed it....it was immensely entertaining and I was so intrigued by the world.

This could have easily been a 5 star book for me....but I wanted and needed more information....more background about what happened, what happened to get them to this point. What the ghosts were (never fully understood; were they human consciousness or bad machines?). Who brought the final 24 to this point? What is Comus? I didn't understand SCASL at all..what kind of entity he was etc.

There are so many questions that were never answered and I think really would have helped the story.

There seemed to be an assumption we knew more than we did and because it is the type of story it is, and about a world we know nothing about....we weren't able to fill in those blanks.

I also wish it had been told in first person.. changing the person would have been fine but certainly wanted to know more about the organics.

Since we are introduced to Gamma and Delta first...I was most interested in them and there were long periods where we didn't see them.

I am surprised that the 24 organics were not closer...its human nature to have companionship and why they were all so divided needed alot more explanation.

Having said all that. ..I couldn't put this down. I wanted to know who would end up on the lander and what would happen to the organics.

Despite wanting to know more...the setting was beautifully drawn and I was very invested in Gamma, Delta and even Spenser.

I would love a prequel and a sequel. A prequel explaining everything that happened up until the point and a sequel explaining what happened after.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An entertaining reminder of the natural nihilism in a child's brain, shapeable by outside influence, but not always as desired.

I initially requested this book because it was described first and foremost as "The Hunger Games meets Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", which would lead me to believe that this was about children chosen from a large group of space travelers to fight to the death with the intent to kill each other. This... was not like that at all. Sure, there is a group of children on board a spaceship and yes, they are competing for a spot on a mission. But that's where the similarities end.

Much of this book was very confusing, as it felt like we were dropped into the middle of a story and expected to figure out what was happening as we continue reading. I finally was able to parse out the plot, but it was a little difficult along the way. I think this style of writing just isn't for me where it's very jumpy and scenes are cut off and then not picked back up again (I'm still confused about God in the coffee machine from the 4th floor, someone pls explain).

With all that being said, I still enjoyed the book to some extent. There were a lot of moments I think could have been cut down (like the amount of time focusing on the Mega Roos), but overall it was still a wild ride that kept me entertained for the most part.

Even though it felt very much like a middle grader book, I would not suggest this for anyone 12 or under because of: the violence (I also don't recommend Hunger Games for younger readers even though I think I started reading them by that point), the confusing wording, and the characters were all kind of annoying as well (except Alpha, I loved her).

If you're a fan of sci-fi (especially quirky space books), then I say give it a try. Otherwise, you can pass on this one if you were looking for a more Hunger Games-esque type book.

I already follow James Breakwell’s musings on parenthood, so know that I like his writing style and humour. Add in the fantastic sci-fi concept here and the high-achieving comparative texts (The Hunger Games, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Lord of the Flies, Philip K. Dick) and picking up this book was a complete no-brainer for me.

Sadly, while I love the idea of this book A LOT, it didn’t quite work for me in practice.

The first two thirds of the book are spent establishing the twenty-two ‘organic’ characters via their antics on the simulation table and their interactions with each other, but most of them feel like single-note sketches (one who like goldfish, one who sings, one who wears shorts, one who wears nail polish and so on). Only six of the twenty-two actually get much character development and then only later on, for most of the story it’s mainly Gamma and Delta that stand out as fully-fleshed-out characters.

Similarly, I felt that the non-organic characters like SCASL and Edubot had so much story potential and yet not enough was made of it – so many unfulfilled opportunities there.

The majority of the ‘Hunger Games/Lord of the Flies’-esque action (involving in-fighting between the organics and them fighting the bots, plus some major decision-making) all happens in the last 20% of the book and so feels quite rushed and packed in. The ending in particular felt rushed, and even unfinished, after such a long build-up. And we were left with unanswered questions: Spenser? The god in the coffee machine? The predecessors? Do the purported table dangers actually exist? It was so unsatisfying not to know all the intriguing details!

As expected, I loved the writing here and the humour, and the worldbuilding ideas and plot ideas are superb. It’s just the character development and the pacing that felt like they needed a little more work to bring it all together.

I’m still hooked on the author’s parenting posts, however, and I would definitely still check out future books because of all the potential obvious here.

The Chosen Twelve is an original and interesting read. Characters are well fleshed out and the world the author is building is very intriguing so much so it makes you really want to read the sequel.

I enjoyed reading this novel! The writing was solid and the plot was intriguing. I look forward to the author’s next book!

I think I am just the wrong target reader for this book, which sounds great but was not quite a hit for me. The characters were interesting, and the concept was good. Would recommend to young readers.

Full marks for originality! This was a creepy, nightmare version of Robot Wars, where AIs have taken over. In the middle of them are a group of human children, who are not really children at all, although still human.
The book was a bit mind-blowing, but kept my interest throughout. I have been reading scifi for a great many years, and have never read anything like this. At times it was uncomfortable reading, certainly not an easy book, but worth it. It's not the best scifi I have ever read, but for originality I had to give it full marks.
I would be interested in a sequel set a little in the future, to see how things turn out. If that isn't a compliment, I don't know what is.

Read 16% of the way into this book but kept starting and stopping. I think this would've been a book I loved as a teen and wanted to get into it but had trouble and kept putting it down. Thus I figured it was better to review as is. It was written well just not my current cup of tea.

Sadly this one wasn’t quite for me, but for those who are fans of dystopian sci-fi, I can definitely see it being a hit for you.

This was an enjoyable and fun read that definitely provided what it promised, but at times I felt it read a little younger than I had hoped, even though it did touch on some darker concepts. I also feel that that having such a large cast of characters led to a bit of confusion as I struggled to remember each individual.

I feel I went in with a lot of high expectations based off the blurb and the amount of heavy comparisons being thrown around, that there wasn’t really a chance for it to stand on its own in my head, and sadly this didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review).

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Rebellion for providing me the eARC in return for a fair review.

The Chosen Twelve is a dystopian vision of an attempt at colonising a new world, however the only human survivors are children, raised by robots and stuck on a space station. Endlessly 'training', trying to meet the approval of their robot caretakers before they can travel to the surface of the world and begin the colonisation that will ensure the survival of the human race.

There were some strong elements in this novel, with some characters more clearly fleshed out and others remaining a mystery. I was intrigued by 'The Great Deletion' when all the artificial intelligences that powered the bot facilities on the space ship went mad - but this was sadly left unexplained and unexplored. What happened to all the adult humans, both on the ship/station and the planet? Another question left unanswered.

I think this novel showed strong promise and I'll watch out for the author's future work, but this didn't quite hit the mark for me. The humour and action/adventure was fairly well executed, but the story as a whole felt disjointed.

Dystopian survival sci-fi is not a genre I would normally pick up, but I've followed James Breakwell's twitter and weekly newsletter for some time and find him hilarious, so I picked up his newest when I saw it available on NetGalley. And it did not disappoint! Anyone who can seamlessly incorporate gigantic killer kangaroos and wolf-shark hybrids and war elephants into a plot of robots taking over the universe with only 22 hapless teenagers to save the human species deserves every award, IMO. And oh the feels for the little trash dispenser robot!

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for providing a copy of this book.

A little slow off the starting line, this tale soon picks up with the adrenalin fuelled action and a touch of humour on the side. Overall, a phenomenal ride!

I think there's a lot of potential and this is a well written book but it's not my cup of tea as it didn't keep my attention.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Takes a while to get going but picks up a lot in the middle third. While I enjoyed it, I don't think it it really worked overall. The characters, all with their Greek alphabet names are really hard to engage with and blend into each other too often. The stuff that was really interesting, the 'ghosts' and the bits of SCASL are really under-developed - give me more of those please!

Did not get to this title in Jan of 2022.
The low rating is not a reflection of the work, but rather indicating that this was bumped from my TBR in replacement of other titles.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of The Chose Twelve! Out now! Sci fi thrillers are quickly becoming a favorite of mine!