3 out of 4 stars
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This is a review of the book Bud by the Grace of God: Book Two of the Grace Lord Series by S. E. Sasaki, which is available under the ‘Science Fiction’ category in Amazon.
A medical station in the Space accepts patients from all galaxies of the Union of the Solar Systems. Hiro is the Chief of Staff of the station assisted by senior surgeon Dr. Grace Lord and anesthetist Dr. Dejan Cech. Bud, a robot built by Hiro, is continuously learning and evolving its intelligence and its feelings, and is in the process of becoming close to being human. It helps Hiro with his surgeries along with the ‘nanobots’ which do the microsurgery works. The ‘droids’ in the station take care of the regular operations and maintenance works. ‘Nelson Mandela’ is the station’s Artificial Intelligence mind, which controls and runs the station by taking orders from Hiro.
Jude Luis Stefansson, a famous video maker, wants to change his physical body to his avatar that he uses in his videos. He fixes up an appointment with Hiro and meets him in the medical station. Hiro flatly refuses to help with Jude’s request because of legal and ethical reasons. Jude convinces station’s Chief of Neurosurgery Dr. Octavia Weisman to help him. Meanwhile, Dr. Jeffrey Nestor who was sent away from the station for an attempted murder stealthily gets back to the station in an incoming vehicle. He manages to spread a computer virus into Nelson Mandela’s programs. Nelson Mandela becomes incapacitated. Jeffrey takes control of many aspects of the station and causes havoc. The reader is motivated to find out what happens next in this thrilling, action-packed, fantastic, fast-paced story!
The characters are built strongly right from the beginning. Hiro’s flamboyant nature and his outbursts tickle the reader’s funny bone. Each chapter has been tastefully titled to reflect the happenings in that chapter. Bud’s ability to learn, think, feel, express, get confused, and even breathe and lie, are well portrayed throughout the book. There is an interesting narration of 'nanobots' performing a microsurgery. The human-animal hybrid characters add a sense of awe to the story. Action lovers will enjoy the fight between the Panther-human and the Tiger-human. It's mesmerizing to read about the ‘antigrav’ car and its speed. There is a brief discussion about female infanticide and also about protection of women. Narrations about things like "Electrified Cattle Prod" and figures of speech like "burned his memory like acid" are noteworthy.
There are a few grammatical errors, e.g., "records" written as "record". There are mechanical errors like missing periods, missing quotation marks, unnecessary quotation marks, missing articles, unwanted hyphenations (e.g. "down-loading"), etc. In page number 261, the context suddenly changes from Hiro’s wife's thoughts to the Panther-human's thoughts without any indication, which confuses the reader. Other than this instance, the narration is pretty smooth throughout the book. A few pages are left blank without any explanation. There are no spelling mistakes in this book.
Overall, this book is a great entertaining fiction for all audiences, especially the sci-fi lovers. The story moves at a fast, steady pace. Though the narration is full of advanced futuristic concepts, it is written in a balanced fashion making it interesting to read for all audiences. There are some gory instances in the story which might need parental guidance for children and adolescents. There are some mechanical errors present. The formatting is pretty neat. This book could have easily fetched a 4 out of 4 stars rating, but because of the mechanical errors, this reviewer rates this book a 3 out of 4 stars.
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Bud by the Grace of God
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