Monday, 31 March 2014

Botanicaust by Tam Linsey

Title: Botanicaust
Author: Tam Linsey
Series: The Botanicaust series - Book 1
Type of read: eARC
Star rating: Star Star Star StarStar

Available from Amazon US Amazon UK
You can follow Tam Linsey on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and her website

 photo Botanicaust_zpsf7e58d69.jpeg
The only crop left ... is human.

In an all-too-plausible future where Earth has been overrun by invasive, genetically modified weeds, a doctor with photosynthetic skin risks everything to save a man who refuses to be genetically modified. Together, can they find sanctuary in a cannibal wasteland?



I was lucky enough to be offered an eARC of the second novel in the Botanicaust series, called Doomseeds. The author, Tam Linsey, also gave me a copy of the first novel so I could better judge the series. The review of that novel is to come shortly, however I wanted to give a review to this promising novel in its own right.



The first thing that hit me with this novel was the extensive world building right from the first page. A world barren of life as we know it with humans split off into almost separate species, all trying to keep away from the others and live their way of life. The introduction was quick, making clever use of actions to do this, thus avoiding an infodump.

The protagonist was easy to identify with, a single father desperately trying to find a cure for his terminal son from fabled beings living in their world. He drew the story forth, drawing emotions clearly on the page. Almost all of his interaction with other people were written very skillfully, especially when there was no common language and they had to resort to rudimentary sign language.

My only issue was the lack of sexual tension between him and another character, where I believe it was intended. They'd have sex then carry on as if nothing ever happened. Some of this was explained away later in the book as you came to understand the species better, but I still feel it could have been handled better.

I was very impressed with this novel, it ticked all the boxes, and shows an extremely promising writer.

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