Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Project Ordell
AUTHOR: Susanna Hays
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 200 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 5, 2016
BLURB:
Ordell Rutledge lives in the small town of Blackwick where he helps in his father’s modest automaton shop. While he enjoys interacting with the few people who grace his father’s business, he feels isolated because he can’t relate to them. For ten years, life’s been quaint and peaceful, but Ordell has a secret: he is an automaton, sentient enough to pass as human.
Ordell’s life is upended when the person he trusts most betrays him. Heartbroken, he sets off for Linnesse, a city that accepts automatons as people and is booming with the latest technology. With another sentient automaton, Elias Griffith, at his side, they overcome obstacles and uncover the strange truth behind Ordell’s past. But sometimes the past is best left in the dark.
REVIEW:
In a world where automatons are the norm, Ordell Rutledge still finds himself living in a world apart. Far more human than his counterparts, Ordell strives everyday to live and blend in with the people around him but when he’s betrayed by the one person he trusts most, he finds himself on the run. Kidnapping attempts, a plague that looks like its making a resurgence, and the fight for automaton’s rights are only a few of the things Ordell encounters on his journey but the most important thing he learns about is himself.
This book was both really good and a bit of a disappointment at the same time. I found the concept of the story and the automatons fascinating and when I started reading it, I didn’t want to put it down. I love Ordell; he’s so close to human but there are still things about him that mark him as other and it was interesting to see how he dealt with it, especially when the people around him didn’t know what he was. I already knew how the betrayal was going to go pretty much from the beginning but I found I didn’t mind that quite so much as I thought I would; the reasons for it were certainly not expected. Elias was an enjoyable character, too. He was so different from Ordell, both in looks and personality, and it was amusing to watch him trying to get a reaction from his counterpart.
I totally loved the book through about the first half but then it fell apart a little bit. There were several major things being dealt with throughout the book, which was fine, but they were so rushed through that I never felt satisfied with any of it. Honestly, if this had been made into two books instead of having everything crammed into just one, it would have been fantastic! As it was, while I enjoyed the overall story, setting and characters, I ended the book feeling like I’d been cheated out of any meaningful climax and resolution. The book would start to peak on something and then it felt as though it just petered out with a whimper instead of giving me the bang I was looking for. This was a great imaginative story that incorporated steampunk elements really well but I still came away feeling like I was missing something when it was finished.
RATING:
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