Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).
Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out.
Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.
The perfect soldier is done taking orders.
The perfect soldier is done taking orders.
Reboot works on a zombie-like premise; a virus causes you to come back to 'life'- less human, and more robotic, than before - if you have contracted it before you die. I appreciated this concept, as I have not come across a zombie-robot-mercenary premise before, and this was executed very well.
As is expected from any novel, there were expected characters, and plot structures, i.e. the way the romance progressed, and the perfect soldier starting to question their orders. However, this did not make Reboot predictable or uninteresting. Tintera has managed to make them fresh and interesting, in a way that immediately captures, and keeps your interest, as well as being exciting, and amusing.
On the topic of the romance between Callum and Wren, to avoid spoilers I will keep it short. I didn't think that it was the most prevalent part of the novel. While the unconventional romance does function as the love interest portion of the novel, I also liked that it facilitated Wren's rediscovery of her humanity. It made it more believable, rather than this mindless soldier suddenly questioning the system for no apparent reason.
The world that Tintera has created piqued my interest, and I am keen to learn more about the characters, HARC, and the Republic of Texas in the next novel, Rebel, which comes out May 13.
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