The future is almost here, and those who hold the knowledge hold the key. Can they be trusted with the technology to do the right thing? Is it all as it seems? Read to find out. Very intriguing book on futuristic genetic technology.

A mysterious blind child an AI empire and a nanny with a hazy background what a great concoction. Easy reading and left me guessing what on earth was going on . I found the characters really likeable specially Juno ,the story was great and the ending left me satisfied.

Next #ARC up - Titan’s Tears by Chad Lester. Coming June 30, Titan’s Tears is a near-future science fiction novel that builds a story around the darker sides of what today’s modern technology might look like in a decade - super-powered AI, cloning, genetic manipulation, and more. The story itself was solid - some predictable tropes and an underused private Jurassic Park-style enclosure, but pretty good pacing in at least the second half, culminating with an excellent unraveling of the intrigue that hid pretty effectively for the first half. I did not find the ending believable, inasmuch as that matters at all in a sci-fi novel, but the rest of the story was good.

The characters ranged from Musk-style eccentric billionaire freak to blue-collar factory worker pushed to extinction by machines. Some were easier to engage with than others, but I enjoyed reading Seth and Juno’s characters. The chapters alternate point of view between the four main characters, which mixes thing up some.

Writing-wise, this book is not bad but the author tries too hard in quite a few places. It’s clear he’s pushing for “fancy” writing, and he gets it right most of the time, but we’re still left with several sentences that might as well have been from the King James (“thusly,” etc).

3/5 stars for me. I’m not a sci fi guy but this was actually a pretty entertaining read. Thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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Such a fabulous read, I’m not usually fan sci-fi but this book had me frantically turning pages wanting to find out what happens next, there was a lot of plot twists that I didn’t expect. The different characters and their development was excellent and unique.
The parallels we get between AI technology and the interactions between characters is something special I didn’t pick up on at first but on reflection is quite impressive.

Although the book takes a while to get started and doesn’t particularly create an atmosphere like some books do, I still found it enjoyable.

Thankyou to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time!

As a reader, I am really enjoying how there is a strong trend toward speculative fiction/ Dystopic Fiction combined with Sci-Fi and it's becoming a more and more plausible concept (which in turn places it firmly into the thriller/psych thriller genre also)

Belle receives a once-in a lifetime offer to go and work for Sophia Eccleston, the number one scientist in the world. This was an offer that was impossible to refuse; a remote Alaskan island, opulent (if a little strict on the security front - strict could not be more of an understatement at this point) Everything is bliss, if a little, strange, until, she is arrested for murder and her life begins to spiral out of control

Titan's Tears explores how AI and Robots begin to take overhuman roles, beginning with simple tasks and becoming more and more prolific, making human life more and more obsolete.

This book begins steady away but as Lester builds the world, leads into a powerful crescendo. The second half of the book is fast-paced, intricately woven and demonstrates a powerful insight into the human psyche as it adapts to an ever-decreasing role in the world while trying to survive against a seemingly unstoppable force hell bent on taking over life as we know it

A phenomenal novel that is as captivating and intriguing as it is chilling. Chad Lester artfully combines genres and insodoing, creates a novel that is a real powerhouse of a read and could match War of the Worlds (HG Wells) and Asimov's Robot series in it's insight of human nature in the face of non-human dominance/ evolution of AI and I would highly recommend it

Thank you to Netgalley and Chad Lester for the opportunity to read this incredible ARC. My review is lef tvoluntarily and all opinions are my own

Thank you NetGalley and Chad Lester for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars

Titan's Tears shows us the pros and cons that can come with a technologically advanced future. It takes place in a dystopian reality where robots are taking the place of workers and human organs can be grown in a matter of minutes. All three protagonists give the reader a different view of the bizarre ways of the world, from Seth being declared obsolete in the workplace to Juno's "Forever Kitten" that seemingly doesn't age.

The buildup was a bit slow, some major events not occurring until more than halfway through the book, but otherwise I really enjoyed the pacing. It gives you plenty of time to learn about and care about each character. I was DEEPLY invested in Belle & Juno's relationship; in one of the first few chapters Belle mentions how much she loves to work with children and always wanted to be a teacher, and that is perfectly conveyed through her interactions with Juno. The author did a good job of show don't tell, but there were a lot of repeated phrases such as nervousness being portrayed by characters "wringing their hands together" multiple times, and I would've liked more variety in that regard.

At times I was confused by the narrator asking rhetorical questions as if they were asked by the character in their own head which didn't make a lot of sense in a third person POV, but I don't think it took away from the overall impact of the story which is where this book shines. It subverted my expectations, and ended in a way that left a bit up to interpretation while still tying up the important loose ends. It's not a story I will be forgetting anytime soon, and one I genuinely enjoyed. I hope to read more books from this author in the future.

I want to start by saying that the conclusion weaves the different story threads together and answers your questions. Getting to that point, though, was arduous for me. As you follow Belle's, Sophia's and Seth's lives, there is so much that didn't make sense or was left unsaid. I do understand that the story was told in an 'all will be revealed in time' manner, but that left me feeling that some of the actions were unlikely. The tale is futuristic and foretells genetic technology that has potential, while also discussing the ethical implications. There is a small character set and the setting is focused on the island. Juno is a powerful character, while also being understated and fun. I did enjoy the story even though I had my reservations. And, again, the conclusion had some surprises and tied all of the loose ends together in a very clever manner!

*** I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review***

I typically books very quickly and I struggled with this one. I could not get into it, and the story line seemed jumbled. It is set in the unspecified future where AI has a heavy presence in the world. The premise and cast of characters did not seem to mesh well and it seemed like too many elements were thrown into the plot to try and make it more interesting. This one was not for me, but I would try reading something else by Chad Lester.

Thank you NetGalley.

A bleak utopia with a bright horizon, and the overwhelming consequences of creation. I am often drawn towards books with a similar premise to Titan's Tears and I was not disappointed with this story- though I feel the pacing up until the halfway point was just slightly too slow to keep my focus. Although the characters take awhile to draw a strong attachment, it is worth the hike to the middle and the easy, thrilling trek to the end. Juno, a mysterious child with beautiful (and blind) eyes, is the soul of the story. She is lovely and strange and it is worth reading even if just to get to know her. The descriptions of scenery and animals and architecture are truly stunning and lush, even during the slower points of the story.

I was fortunate enough to request and receive a free advanced copy of this book from NetGalley, and my opinions are all my own. For casual readers this may not be enough of an attention grabber, but for science fiction and dystopia/utopia fans, I can easily see this becoming a cult classic.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 stars.

There were some interesting ideas here about AI and its connections with humans, but the story and the characters just didn't connect with me. The writing felt a little choppy and I pretty much had to force myself to finish. I really didn't care about any of the characters, and the setting, which was a draw for me to read the book, really didn't come into play. I'm a little disappointed; I wanted to like this.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being given freely.

Titan's Tears fancies itself as a pretty serious near-future sci-fi thriller. Each chapter is titled by its lead character, and then a timestamp "Modern Era - Post-Singularity" (or occasionally Twenty-Five Years Earlier), which is to say this is our world but with the trappings of other sci-fi novels thrown in to make it more futuristic. So the tech billionaire genius - Sophie Ecclestone - lives on an island in Alaska full of extinct animals - not like Jurassic Park, but enough like Jurassic Park to make a breathless escape through the woods exciting. Sophie, who is well in her seventies but holds the secret of slowing aging, has hired Belle to be the Nanny for her ten-year-old blind and slightly odd daughter, despite Belle having "a mysterious past", not applying for the job, and being wildly unqualified. Sophie also owns the world's smartest sentient AI (The Augur), and her company board is trying to take her down. It's not easy being Sophie.

Its not easy being Seth too, as Lester takes us back twenty-five years to the life of an online superstore shelf picker. He meets the love of his life and has a kid, but gets involved in an industrial accident that harms his wife's health and kills his child, so he puts his wife in cryogenic stasis and grows embittered off the grid, waiting for more ripped from the headlines satire to happen to him and the to catch up with the rest of the book so he can then get turned into an unstoppable assassin. Its pretty much at this point all bets of this remaining serious fell by the wayside.

Titan's Tears (which I can only hear in a Tindersticks way), does its best to tap into a few zeitgeist. Its super-powerful AI is a danger, so is limited by another super-powerful AI. But when it comes to its action, its still people shooting at each other whilst running around an island of saber-toothed tigers. Everything fits together in a preposterous way and even though I had guessed half the twists, there were more for me to slack-jawed laugh at. A little too over-engineered for its own good.

I am unable t0 review this book due to technical issues. It started out as interesting, but each time I have tried to reopen the book I got the message on the bottom of the book that I was on Page 1 /26872. I was unable to redownload the book. I got shunted to another author with the same title.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC.

What I liked most about this book is the pacing. It does a great job setting up the key players in the first half of the book. I'm wondering how/ when they are going to meet while immersing myself in a setting in a not so distant future. Then the second half of the book ramps up with twists and turns sprinkled throughout. They were well timed too because I would realize what the twist could be a page before it happened. It was truly a rewarding reading experience. The twists were really well done. I enjoyed the characters and following them through the events they are thrust into.

As for some cons
The blurb could be improved because it’s not really intriguing. The arrest itself is the midpoint so having it in the description is misleading because there is no mention of it in the first few chapters. Together with the question posed as the end makes it read goofy and awkward and this book is not that. Say who the characters are when you first see them and then the thing that launches them into the unknown. Why mention Sophie at the end of the description when it would have made more sense to mention her plight after she is introduced? Weird. I don’t think I would have given this book a chance if it wasn’t an automatic acceptance on NetGalley. Also

I prefer characters with more depth that these characters didn’t satisfy but it didn’t take away from the story. They served the story well and that’s what matters despite my preference. There were a few pieces of dialogue that felt cartoonish and a tad bit too long.

Overall the book was enjoyable and I have recommended it to friends who enjoy the genre.

This book was in my opinion Slow yet well written. He book is set in some time in a dystopian future . We are following Sophia the CEO of an advanced computer/AI and bio engineering company. Her 8 year old daughter Juno
Juno’s nanny and a miserable old man named Seth. Even though we are following four different characters they are so different in their perspective and their ages, and they are such well-developed characters that it was very easy to follow along and if you didn’t see whose name was at the beginning of each chapter you would still know we were in.

There was so much action packed into this pretty short book. It was only 298 pages, but there was so much happening yet it was easy to follow along, and all of the scientific terms were well explained, Reading this book made me feel like I was watching an epic sci-fi movie

Maybe I’ve read too many similar books but a couple of twists were predictable but the last one had me.

I will admit that when I first started reading, I didn’t think that I would enjoy the book as much as I did. I would definitely recommend this book to other readers if they like sci-fi, or dystopian novels.

There was one other thing that I noticed about this art, which was that there were a lot of grammatical mistakes. There are added words, missing words, punctuation, not present where it was needed, and there was repetition of certain phrases as well so I do think that the novel does need further editing before it is fully released.
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ARC received by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Titan's Tears gripped me from start to finish. It offers a hellish vision of a dystopian future where AI runs amok, seemingly intent on taking over humanity's functions. The scary thing is this might not be particularly far from the truth. In this scenario, we have secretive entrepreneur billionaires like Sophia Eccleston, who runs her mega corporation from a remote facility off Alaska, offering procedures that are supposedly for the betterment of humanity such as artificially extending aging. She hires Belle, jobless and sequestered in a tiny village in the wilderness, as a nanny for her eight-year-old daughter Juno, a precocious child genius who apparently only has one defect: she's blind.
At the same time, we meet Seth, who also gets called to the island in a strange sort of hero's mission after suffering devastating personal tragedies, which form the basis of how he gets lured there. The intersections of all these characters' stories give the second half of the book its impetus, and the pace ratchets up into a pretty effective techno-thriller after the slow world building of the book's beginning. It could be said that the pace is quite uneven, but I think it works, allowing the reader to get to grips with this nightmarish setup before hitting them with a nifty series of twists (not all of which I saw coming).
What really marks this book out is that at the heart of it, despite all the soulless technological trappings, is a story of real human love and affection. It's nicely done, and not necessarily what I expected going into it. The reader's sympathies are built in the right places, and for the right people. This is an author to watch out for. Recommended.

I found it hard to connect with the book, too many things in the beginning were tropes I don't particularly enjoy, the orphanage, the aggressive mega-company takeover, the unreliable psychologist, the unexpected amazing job... it was just too much the same in too short a span. Everything kept pulling me out, so I found it hard to actually read and found myself skimming through the book.
It's fast-paced and I'm sure many won't mind the re-hash as it serves its emotional anchor purpose. But I think I like my techno-warnings with a slice of humour, and this just isn't the style. Also, I'm very character driven, and we were definitely told too much how to feel about them.
It's ok, the writing style is fine, even if not overly personal and a little distant, but this wasn't for me.

I am so floored with this book. It was gripping, such a page turner, and had so many twists and turns I couldn’t believe.

I loved this book, absolutely outstanding. The different perspectives and different characters were great, and everyone was so fleshed out. I cared so much about each of them.

And the story was just incredible, so so so good!!

Thank you to NetGalley for this book, I’m so chuffed I got to read it.

The story is set in an unspecified but not very distant future. Some new inventions make life somewhat safer, but not necessarily easier or better. On the job market, people are considered disposable and get replaced by machines whenever possible, and are as a result struggling to make ends meet. At the same time a kind of neural AI interface ensures their mental health and alerts government when someone is showing signs of distress. If your living conditions make you miserable, you get patched up again. In this world we meet Seth, once married to Anna, once father of a baby girl. Seth works in a slaughterhouse and that’s basically all he does. He’s underpaid but has his reasons for trying to earn as much money as possible. We also meet Belle, dropped at a monastery when she was a baby, and now living in a small village that she wants to escape in order not to go mad. To achieve that she needs a job which she seems unable to find. That is, until the immensely rich Sophia Eccleston offers her an overly well paid position as nanny for her eight year old daughter Juno. She’ll have to live on an island and needs to follow a large and strict set of security rules in order to keep Juno safe and secret.

The above matches the book description more or less, and it is repeated during the first quarter of the book with many more details. At that moment the pace of the story is still slow, but nevertheless it’s well written and it’s interesting to read how things evolved. Although you know the gist of what the situation will become, it’s never boring. It’s laid out well with a good mix of explanation and action. After that, the pace of the story goes up and Titan’s Tears becomes an exciting action thriller that remains captivating until the very end. Although fictional, it makes you think about what could become of our world if future inventions, of which some seem not too far away anymore, are made by the wrong people. A book like this is definitely more frightening than interplanetary sci-fi set in a future thousands of years from now. But frightening or not, it’s definitely fun to read.

The second half of the book has a few nice story twists of which some are really surprising, while others are expected, but which were all nice finds. Nearing the end, everything clicks together in a believable and satisfying way. There is a tad of human emotion present as well, which seems a rare thing in this future society that for the most part comes across as cold. These emotions are not too overly present, and therefore will not annoy readers who take up this book for the sci-fi or action parts, but they definitely make the book better. This is one of those books that, once you start reading, keeps pulling at you until you’ve finished. A recommendable read. 4,5 stars.

(Free ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)


[Something I will not include in my public reviews, but is worth mentioning, is that the book needs another round of editing. There are quite some occurrences of double words that need to be corrected. For instance: “He swam out to the last spot where he’d seen the man the man and dove down.” or “I’ve decided to give up my daughter up for adoption.” or “No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t quite put together the pieces of her life before her time in in that isolated village.” Similarly, a word is missing here and there.]

This is such a gripping book - I’m not a sci-fi kind of fan, but this six-fi dystopian thriller really had me hooked. I felt myself slipping into another world when reading it. The twists and turns wrote by the author are definitely unpredictable. 10/10 would recommend.

Titan's Tears is a captivating and intense novel that delves into the lives of three compelling characters whose paths become intertwined on an isolated island off the coast of Alaska. The enigmatic Belle, arrested for murder, the reclusive slaughterhouse worker, and the brilliant but troubled scientist, Sophia Eccleston, are brought together in a gothic odyssey of technology unleashed.

Author skillfully weaves together a narrative that explores the intersection of mystery, survival, and the consequences of uncontrolled technological advancement. As the characters confront murder machines, transgenic creatures, and personal challenges, readers are drawn into a world where bizarre security protocols and the enigma of a secretive daughter add layers of intrigue to the plot.

Titans Tears offers a thought-provoking and thrilling exploration of the darker side of humanity's relationship with technology and biological experimentation, providing a compelling and immersive reading experience.