Will Sargent reviewed Emergence by David R. Palmer
Review of 'Emergence' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
So the protagonist is a supergenius super cute preteen girl who is also a blackbelt in karate and has a talking parrot who can read her thoughts. Everyone around her dies in a plague (except her) and she finds out she's alive because she's the "next rung up the evolutionary ladder" -- Homo Novus. Which explains how she's just totally awesome and stuff.
She meets up with a boy, they have adventures, they run into some bad guys... and then stuff gets interesting. There's no pretense of this being "realistic" or anything -- it's entertainment and there's a surprising amount of humor for a book that starts off by wiping out humanity. Imagine if Buffy was crossed with Mad Max and you'd be close.
This book was nominated for a Hugo ages ago, and it's easy to see why. The plot is nothing you haven't seen before, but it's a …
So the protagonist is a supergenius super cute preteen girl who is also a blackbelt in karate and has a talking parrot who can read her thoughts. Everyone around her dies in a plague (except her) and she finds out she's alive because she's the "next rung up the evolutionary ladder" -- Homo Novus. Which explains how she's just totally awesome and stuff.
She meets up with a boy, they have adventures, they run into some bad guys... and then stuff gets interesting. There's no pretense of this being "realistic" or anything -- it's entertainment and there's a surprising amount of humor for a book that starts off by wiping out humanity. Imagine if Buffy was crossed with Mad Max and you'd be close.
This book was nominated for a Hugo ages ago, and it's easy to see why. The plot is nothing you haven't seen before, but it's a fun ride and also an optimistic one.