Mother Code by Carole Stivers

I had several false starts trying to find something to break the reading ennui of the last couple months. The old favorites weren't seeming to work so I went full blown purge mode. My book case and Kindle storage was overflowing with books I hadn't read in decades. My disappointment was so strong I won't even be reviewing them actually. 

After so much disappointment, and anger, of many books purged, I changed tack yet again and pulled up my ARC email. I had been too late to request The Mother Code at the time, but my local library had a copy. I began reading and just about gave up on reading another book ever again, but I persevered. 

And the ennui was broken! The first half of the book is truly terrible, but the premise was too promising to give up on it entirely. The writing is actually very good, and the science is more fact than fiction. There had to be something here. I pushed passed the political propaganda intro and got to the science fiction. That's when it really turned into something.

I was actually quite fond of the premise. The world is ending and so the brightest minds are attempting to preserve humanity in a rush. Scientists are attempting to perfect artificial intelligence and genetic modification on a ticking timeline. In this mad rush of scientific advancement, very human, personal decisions are made that have very realistic consequences. 

A group of genetically modified children are raised by robots that have been programmed with the mother code. All because we thought that no human would survive the biological apocalypse. In a very fresh twist to sci-fi, it turns out that the scientists had miscalculated. There were survivors, and they are faced with the fruits of their labors made in a panic. These surviving adults must reintegrate the orphans, but are the robots willing to be superseded?

With plenty of action packed reading and ethical debates of human decision making, I could not stop reading the second half of the novel.