The Life Engineered stands amongst the year's best science fiction novels
The Life Engineered by J F Dubeau Inkshares Sci Fi & Fantasy Pub Date: March 1, 2016 Review The Life Engineered is the most marvelous and innovative science fiction novel that I've read in quite some time. Imagine a world where your nature, your evolved self determines the form your body takes and the abilities it has. Imagine a world of creation, free of conflict. This is the world inherited by the capeks, a race of sentient artificial beings. This is the world that Dagir (Day) is born into, moments before her creator/mother Yggdrasil is destroyed - an unprecedented act of murder. By nature, Dagir is both a healer and a seeker of truth, and the search for the destroyers draws her into the secrets of the past, the origin of the capeks, and the hidden remnants of humanity. The capeks are not robots, nor are they androids replicating human emotion. They are each unique in body, personality, and function. Their design is an extension of their selves and their desires. There is such magnificent variety amongst them, from the planet sized Gaia class and the sleek Sputnik class explorers to the Von Neumann swarms. Dubeau's universe is complex and beautiful. I was engrossed by the story, but more than that I was entranced by the richly imagined background. Good science fiction not only tells an amazing story, it envelops the reader in a vastly different world. Good science fiction not only describes the impossible, it makes the reader believe. The Life Engineered made me believe - and that in my book makes it unforgettable. 5/5 I received a copy of The Life Engineered from the publisher and netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. --Crittermom Description JF Dubeau’s debut novel, The Life Engineered begins in the year 3594, where humanity is little more than a memory—a legend of the distant past destined to reappear. Capeks, a race of artificial creatures originally created by humans, have inherited the galaxy and formed a utopian civilization built on the shared goal of tirelessly working to prepare for their makers’ return. One moment a cop dying in the line of duty in Boston, the next “reborn” as a Capek, Dagir must find her place in this intricate society. That vaguely remembered “death” was but the last of hundreds of simulated lives, distilling her current personality. A robot built for rescue and repair, she finds her abilities tested immediately after her awakening when the large, sentient facility that created her is destroyed, marking the only instance of murder the peaceful Capeks have ever known. For the first time in their history, conflicting philosophies clash, setting off a violent civil war that could lay waste to the stars themselves. Dagir sets off on a quest to find the killers, and finds much more than she sought. As the layers of the Capeks’ past peel away to reveal their early origins, centuries-old truths come to light. And the resulting revelations may tear humanity’s children apart—and destroy all remnants of humankind.
