Book Review : One God by Kata Mlek (part 1 of 3)

Synopsis : 

Miran Zyelinski has had enough of ethics and laws getting in the way of progress. 

Nothing—not the government, not the church, and certainly not lesser men—will hold back Miran’s vision for humankind: immortality. 

Miran will need wealth, brilliance, and ruthlessness to achieve his goal. Andreas can provide wealth, but must be paid in his own currency, and his price is high. Satia has brilliance and ruthlessness to match Miran, but their mix is volatile. 

Opposed on all sides, Miran will not waver from his goal of immortality. The question is not whether he will succeed, but who will be left alive when he does. 

Based on real-world developments in biology and genetics, this technothriller rolls relentlessly through unexpected twists and continuous shifts of power, culminating in a tempting, disturbing, and altogether-too-likely vision of the future, where one corporation gains almost total control over the world. 

Review : 

To be honest, I don't really like the cover and the tittle but somehow I managed to get past that and try to read it because I think the synopsis is quite interesting. 

The story is about Miran Zyelinski and his quest to dominate the world via his company Genesis. Miran is an interesting character. He is not like your typical main character. In fact he is a bad guy. I mean people who do bad things to achieve his goal certainly is not good guy, right ?! When I first read this story, I have conflicting feeling between want to root him and want him to fail. I am afraid that I will be disappointed if I care about the main character, only for him to die at the end. But fortunately he is still alive at the end. Why ? Because this is trilogy. Whether you approve it or not, the story continue into part two and part three. Cannot have the main character die easily. 

Beside Miran, I think Sylvia aka Satia is also an interesting character. She complement Miran character and help him to achieve his goal. I have a feeling that Satia will have greater role at the end. Whether this is good or bad, only the author will know. I also like the other characters. Ms Mlek certainly know how to make engaging and interesting characters. I applause her for that. 

The story itself certainly wasted no time to get going. But it would have been better with more introduction at the beginning. Ms Mlek characterized this book as science fiction, but I think this is not your typical science fiction. Maybe the lack of science explanation make it more like hybrid of other kinds thriller. I have to warn though that there's some vulgar scene that may make some people don't like this book. But you will know about it early so you won't waste time too much if you don't like it. To be fair, the author has warned about it. One other things that I have to warn is suspension of disbelieve is really important here. I know in fiction suspension of disbelieve is a requirement, but in this story it really tilt the balance for what and what not making sense. 

For know, I cannot judge how the story will end because it doesn't end in this book. So far, I quite like it despite everything. But I can see some people will hate the story because it has bad guy as main character. I remember one very famous author have low rating for his book because it has bad guy as main character. Still, I recommend this story for people who are willing to take chance and read different type of story with different type of main character. 

Rating : 4 of 5

Regards, 

Angela