Panacea Genesis takes you to a future earth with white the interesting commentary on how technology could take over our lives. It had some intriguing takes that I hope will be explored more in the rest of the series. Today I have the review for this first book for you but first there is the usual info about the book and author. I want to warn you though because I personally feel that the blurb is a little too spoilery for my comfort and gives away things that would’ve been better as surprises within the book itself. This is my personal opinion and doesn’t reflect the Wayward Stars team as a whole.
About the Book
Title: Panacea Genesis
Author: L. Ana Ellis
Series: The Panacea Trilogy
Pub Date: May 03, 2022
My Reading Format: ebook
Length: 476 Pages
Add on Goodreads here.
Available to purchase and on KU on Amazon here.
Blurb
Mariela Stafford is a vice president at the world’s largest metaverse and pod warehousing company, until she’s demoted by her new boss and replaced by his digital clone. Now the clone wants to kill her boss and is blackmailing Mariela to help.
In 2115, embedded chips, expanded virtual reality, and the threat of extreme weather have led to a market for businesses that keep a person’s body alive in a habitation pod while the person lives entirely in the metaverse. But not everyone embraces technological advances – a group of people have adopted the tech of 2005 while isolating themselves to resist the temptation of advanced technology. Panacea Corp – the world’s most powerful corporation – connects both worlds through providing the metaverse, the pod warehouses, and the land to the technology resisters.
Mariela’s boss, the new CEO of Panacea Corp, gives her job to his digital avatar and then adds insult to injury when he tells her to train it. Now the avatar, in a bid for power, is forcing Mariela to help it kill the CEO. To delete the avatar, she’ll need to access an 80-year-old server in the isolated area.
Mariela recruits others to carry out her plan, but none of the other team members knows the true nature of what they are doing. The team members include a man who’s still resentful about losing his job three years ago after being outed as unchipped, a woman who doesn’t fit in with the chipped or the unchipped, a renowned former player in the Zazora Games, and a woman who just left her habitation pod after living in the metaverse for 32 years.
About the Author
L. Ana (Elle) Ellis lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband, two cats, and the occasional foster kitty. When she’s not toiling away at her job as a government worker, she writes science fiction and fantasy. Speculating about how societies will change in the future fascinates her; she is undeterred that so far she has been wrong 100% of the time. She occasionally posts on Instagram as lanaellisbooks.
Review
Panacea Genesis by L. Ana Ellis is the book that I was expecting would come out on top for me out of our quarterfinalists. While it ended up not taking quite the top spot, it still impressed with its interesting setup, eye-catching cover, and smooth prose that lent itself to an enjoyable reading experience.
I really enjoyed the world setup in this one and would’ve loved to learn more about the environment and political systems in general. It felt really confined to a very small area despite the international travel and could’ve been an easy way to add more dimension to the story. Nonetheless, the focus on the juxtaposition of online and offline life was really interesting and made for compelling conflicts.
While I liked the idea of the excursion and the excitement during that, the preparation for it felt too drawn out and the reasoning for it at the start didn’t feel strong enough to warrant the dramatics of the setup. If it had felt more important to me from the start, the prep time probably would’ve felt more exciting as well since I would’ve felt the urgency more strongly then. I also felt that some things just seemed a little too convenient to help the plot move forward.
The mental health implications of the advanced and prevalent use of technology was a great addition to the story that I would’ve loved to explore more. Sadly, this part felt glossed over similarly to the emotional development of the character. Both needed more depth to really make the characters feel well-rounded. The cast felt like a good team with varying strengths and weaknesses otherwise but felt flat to me without the emotional depth I love so much in my favorite stories.
This book clearly has some great strengths but combined with the weaknesses, it didn’t come out to be my favorite. Nonetheless, there were some really intriguing plot points that have me interested in how the story continues so hopefully I will find the time to check out book 2 soon!
The Shaggy Shepherd 