The all-too-possible possibilities shared in this novel scared the heck out of me. Technology’s pitiless tentacles into the minds and behaviours of mankind exist in ‘Titan’s Tears’ to horrifying effect. I found the first half of the novel rather a slow burn – wanted the characters to get on with it and make me turn the pages faster … the second half delivered. Tension, pace, astonishing effects and events, ruthlessness and the race for moral sovereignty leap off the pages. I awarded myself an extra glass of wine because I fathomed some of the connections and outcomes – and to calm the palpitations because of the harrowing potentials posited.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this book. It had some interesting futuristic ideas and the story certainly kept you guessing throughout. The book however didn’t connects with me and I ended up speed reading it as I still wanted to know how it ended . I’m sure this book will appeal to a wide audience though

Sorry, I couldn't finish this book. It reads like a hotch potch of different ideas and storylines, all of which have been used before. I got to about 30% but I just felt that the story was droning on...

I appreciate the time and effort put into writing so would give three stars.

3.5* rounded up

Dystopian Science-Fiction is one of my favourite sub-genres of SF and I will always take a chance on an intriguing premise which Titan's Tear really has!

In this novel we follow Belle, Sophia and Seth all connected by Eccleston Evolution, and their mysterious campus. Belle is seeking a better life and is offered the opportunity to be a nanny for Juno, Sophia's daughter. The catch, she must live under strict and bizarre security protocols on an isolated island. Sophia, as head of Eccleston Evolution is facing a hostile takeover and she will do anything to avert it and Seth is declared obsolete, replaced by machines, at the slaughterhouse and becomes a bearded recluse but also received an unusual invitation to the island where either his salvation or damnation awaits.

What follows is an initially slow paced and disjointed tale but with some great world building that bring a real sense of place to the story. Despite the pace and a little bit of confusion it kept me intrigued as to what would come next and at about the 50% mark it really took off and the build up paid off.

The various strands all came together with a mix of AI and androids involved. The whole book had a sense of foreboding to it and several ominous aspects including how much potential there is for some of the story elements to become real world reality. I wanted to keep reading to see what twists would unravel and secrets revealed.

Overall an enjoyable read and readers of technological thrillers/science-fiction will likely enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chad Lester for a digital review copy of "Titan's Tears" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

This book is told in 3 separate POV's with varying time differences.
6% - the descriptions so far of the town setting is absolutely gorgeous, and I want to go to there.
20% - I did not at all take this book for one that would make tears well up in my eyes, wtf.
Little Juno has my heart.

This is so good, the book is a little slow to start, not in a way that makes you want to put it down, still intriguing. BUT, once you hit that halfway mark the book goes OFF. I can't be stopped. I stayed up way past my bedtime to continue this one. The way the author bring everything together in the end is so surprising and so, so worth the read.

This will be a physical purchase for me.

TW: death of a child/ family member, and abuse

It begins as a rather disjointed tale as we follow Sophia, who runs a multi-million pound company in advanced technology; Belle who has had a rough childhood and is looking to improve her life with a new job and Seth, who works in a series of jobs, each becoming obsolete as machines taken over until he is finally working in an abbatoir, but even there he copes in order to provide for his family.

Belle is offered a new job working as a nanny to Sophia's child Juno. The pay is great but the restrictions are serious. Sophia is facing a hostile take-over of her company and she prepared to do anything to keep her hold firm.

Eventually of course the strands are pulled together in a slightly other-worldly manner, with AI and androids involved. The whole thing should have worked better than it actually did. I also found the style of writing distracting with some obvious syntax errors - using the word 'frostbit' on page 1 rather lost me there. Overall fairly entertaining but did not really live up to expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chad Lester for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Throughly enjoyed this, from start to finish. Would highly recommend to anyone, completely gripping.

Overall a very enjoyable book, with good amounts of ominous and some cute aspects.. although some of the chapters could've been shorter and less 'wordy', I did find myself sucked in to the story..
So much so that I didn't see the full twist coming.
Very scarily possible as well, which I absolutely loved!

Ich weiß ehrlich gesagt nicht, wie ich dieses Buch bewerten soll, da ich es aufgrund relativ kurzer Ausleihdauer (ohne Verlängerung) nicht lesen konnte.

A slow start but builds up to a wonderful book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Well drawn characters that you are invested in. Plenty of twists highly recommend. Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for a review copy.

I'm not sure this book will age particularly well. Mainly because although it's pitched in the future with AI and other technology playing very advanced roles, it's not too far away from what we see in 2024......The super rich playing about with brain implants and the realisation that AI will be very prominent.

I also found the book quite predictable. Having read about a third, I sort of guessed how the plot would develop and what would happen. And so it did. So by two thirds of the way through, I was getting a bit bored. Especially by the time I reached short chapters alternating between the two characters (no spoilers). So I read quickly towards the end, but I could have just as easily been a DNF, as I have other books waiting for me in my queue that I'm more keen to read than this. But I finished.

It's a well written book an the author demonstrates terrific imagination. I do think the book could be more concise past the mid point, but I enjoyed reading up until that point.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

A lot happens in this book and I'm not quite sure that all of it makes sense but it's a wild ride! Belle starts off in the depths of Alaska not being entirely sure of who she is or where she came from, when somebody turns up from a company called Ecclestone Evolution and offers her a job working for the CEO Sophia Ecclestone.

This being that sort of book, she eventually accepts and becomes the nanny to a mysterious young girl called Juno at the company’s weird headquarters. There's a parallel story about a man called Seth whose dead partner has been put in a cryogenic tomb - also by the Ecclestone company. He misses her!

Anyway, the destinies of Belle, Juno, Sophia and Seth all become interlinked. Along the way, there are a lot of arguments with killer bots and prehistoric monsters, bred by Sophia as a kind of sideline. Seth has been hearing voices in his head which seemed to have developed him as a trained assassin so he can cope with these.

There's also a computer which is bigger than all the other computers in the world and might make humanity obsolete and several unexpected reveals at the end of the novel. It's an enjoyable read which might have been edited into a simpler story!

Review of eBook

An obviously desperate young mother stumbles through the snow to leave her infant daughter at the remote Oregon convent of the Carmelites. Thirty years later, Belle has survived a difficult childhood and now finds herself in the small Alaskan village of Kobuksville. Despite her best efforts, Belle’s job-searching has proven futile.

When she receives a strange offer for a job interview, she is whisked away on a private jet for a meeting with a brilliant scientist, Sophia Eccleston, the chief executive officer of Eccleston Evolution, the company she’d founded. It seems that Sophia needs a nanny for her eight-year-old blind daughter, Juno.

And she needs to fight the hostile takeover of Eccleston Evolution.

=========

This dystopian science fiction story focuses its terrifying tale on the potential dangers of both technology and Artificial Intelligence. The plot offers readers some unexpected twists as the unfolding narrative reveals some surprising facts.

Strong characters and an inventive plot pull readers into the telling of this near future tale from the outset. As the unfolding story reveals long-held secrets, readers discover the pitfalls of the technology that has been unleashed on humanity.

Readers who enjoy technological thrillers and/or science fiction will find much to appreciate in this intriguing tale.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this book from Chad Lester and NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
#TitansTears #NetGalley

This book had me catching flies in my mouth, such a page turner leaving you shocked and wanting more. This book was written so well with different perspectives and taeks into account how AI and robots start to take over human careers and activities.
This novel is captivating and left me wanting to read more. Lester is a very creative author and I can't wait to read more from him.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t for me, and I stopped reading a third of the way through.

I wish I could say what the book was about - but it eludes me, even though I’ve read a full third of it. There are two major threads: Belle has a slightly mysterious background and goes to work for the mysterious Sophia, CEO of the mysterious Ecclestone Evolution, who are doing some mysterious work. It’s a grab-bag of future tech in a callous and unfeeling world: AI that’s “orders of magnitude” more powerful than a human brain, life-extending medical breakthroughs, bringing extinct animals back to life, lack of ethics or any kind of oversight, etc; and then there is Seth, a downtrodden worker just trying to make his way in a callous and unfeeling world, after a string of personal tragedies, while everyone’s jobs are being replaced by machines and there doesn’t appear to be any employment law.

Presumably these two threads come together later in the book.

There were a few reasons why I decided not to continue with this book, but overall it’s because my lack of engagement with any of the characters, coupled with a writing style that I found to be a distracting obstacle to my enjoyment, outweighed my curiosity about what was going on.

The writing style includes a lot of exposition - we’re told about what people are thinking and feeling, rather than allowing it to unfold through the actions and reactions of the characters. For me, this contributed significantly to my lack of engagement. But then suddenly there are pages of unbroken direct dialog between two characters - just line after line of quoted speech for page after page. I lost track of who was speaking several times. Then we’re back to the ponderous exposition again.

The pacing is also extremely inconsistent. The storyline around Belle and Sophia is almost glacially slow. For chapter after chapter very little happens beyond the drip-feed of mysterious goings-on at Ecclestone Evolution (did I mention that it was mysterious?). Every so often a nugget of what’s going on is revealed, but this feels like the author is dragging it out, presumably to create suspense and intrigue, but I found it transparent and irritating. And then Seth’s storyline is at express pace - hardly has he navigated one major or traumatic life event, than he’s negotiating the next. And while there is tragedy in his story, the whirlwind of plot doesn’t allow the time or space for any kind of emotional development or engagement.

The author seems to have some broad brush political opinions about corporate behaviour, which are ladled on in big dollops in both Seth’s storyline and Belle/Sophia’s - and it’s not clear whether these would have eventually become central to the plot, or whether the author just has a bit of an axe to grind and is using this book as a platform. And at one point, one of the characters who has a history of mental illness is referred to as “backwards” by one of the other characters. So perhaps I’ll take the author’s kind offer to bestow the benefit of his opinions on me, and leave it at the door.

Kthxbye.

Thank you #NetGalley and the author for the free review copy of #TitansTears in exchange for an honest review - for which I also apologise. All opinions are, clearly, my own.

Wow! I didn’t see that coming. A fantasy story that starts with seemingly unconnected parts, has ninety degree turns rather than plot twists, and a pace that just keeps building. The ending - I really didn’t see that when I started reading. Summed up - superb fantasy. Thank you to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given. Thank you to Chad Lester and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This started off SO promising for me. I read the first third of the book within a day because I was so intrigued by what was unfolding. The sense of suspense was really present and I liked the integration of AI and futuristic sci-fi advancements with medical care and technology.
However, I found the three POVs quite jarring. Seth felt like a strange addition, and Sophia's chapters felt like a repetition of the last chapter we had from her perspective. The only POV I found myself excited to read was for Belle and Juno.
Overall, I felt like this was an interesting premise that fell short on the execution.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I liked the idea of this book more than I enjoyed the reading experience. It seemed to suffer from the same thing I find a lot of near-future sci-fi's do. Too many ideas with none of them executed to their full potential. This book had a super AI, currently extinct animals, a genius and reclusive scientist, a mysterious child, and more. Nothing was really explained science-wise and it did require a massive suspension of disbelief when it came to certain aspects of how things happened. It relied often on "The super AI did it", rather than coming up with actual explanations.

The characters also weren't the most compelling to read about. The main character, Belle, was a nanny with a past that wasn't given, so she didn't feel very well fleshed out. Yes, that was purposeful, but it meant that she became a background character in her own story. She felt like everything was happening to her, rather than her doing anything to further her own plot. The more compelling character was Seth. He at least had a backstory so I grew to somewhat care about him. But even then it felt like he had very little agency. He just did what he was told and never really seemed to control his own life. Reading about these character felt like reading about dolls, if that makes any sense.

The world itself was also confusing. The island this is set on was built somewhat like a theme park with no tourists. There was a whole escape scene where characters are running through the forest and the encounter every possible dangerous extinct animal. That scene felt like what this whole book felt like, very choppy, predictable, incomplete, and overwritten.

Now, I did dislike this book, as it may come across so far. There was some really cool ideas, I just wished they would have been explored more. There was an Amazon-like company that was overly controlling, ranked their workers, and performed massive layoffs so AI's could do things faster and cheaper. That scene was maybe five pages until we went back to a slow paced style. There were definitely sprinkles of really compelling stuff in this book. I think if Lester would have narrowed his focus, I would have enjoyed this much more. The length and sheer amount of ideas inside this book were overwhelming when paired with the pacing and characters that weren't enjoyable to read about.

A fantastic read, incredibly engaging and very fast paced. The unexpected twists and turns were intriguing and combined well at the end although the last quarter of the book seemed quite rushed but that didn’t take away my enjoyment. I definitely recommend this book. It would also make an excellent film! Going with 5 starts despite the ending.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Rounding up to a 4.5!

Not a genre I would usually choose but also, I’m not sure what the genre of this book would be classified as!? It had a bit of everything! My partner and I read it at the same time and kept overtaking one another and gasping at the twists and turns! I haven’t read anything by this author before but can’t wait to read what’s next.

My only criticism, the ending seems a little rushed compared to the detail and finesse of the main body.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC in exhange for a fair and honest review.