Review of Precisely Terminated

The Cantral Chronicles: Precisely Terminated
By Amanda L. Davis

Publisher: Living Ink Books®
Summery:
[From back Cover]

With Microchips implanted in their skulls at birth, the slaves of Cantral and Cillineese have labored under the tyrannical rule of the nobles and their computers for centuries. Monica, a noble who avoided the implanting and escaped a death sentence at the age of four, is now sixteen and is in hiding. She lives with the slaves inside the walls of the Cantral palace, pretending to be one of them while the slave council plots a way to use her chip-less state to destroy the all-powerful computers that strike down any hint of rebellion.

The fate of millions rides on Monica’s shoulders. As the only chip-less person in the world, she must find a way to destroy the computers and free Cillineese from the nobles’ iron fist before they strike with the ultimate punishment—death for everyone inside the city walls.

Introduction:

Amanda L. Davis is the daughter of Bryan Davis, the author of Dragons in Our Midst, and Echoes from the Edge. I reviewed the first book in the Echoes from the Edge series earlier on this blog. Bryan Davis is one of my favorite authors, and I do keep up with the books he is working on, though there are so many, I haven’t been able to buy them all or read them all yet! I heard through Facebook that his daughter, Amanda, had also published a book, and I wondered what it would be like. Would it be filled with dragons like her father’s books? Would it be a fantasy world? So, I looked up the book, and saw the title, Precisely Terminated. How cool is that title, by the way? I also heard it was a dystopian. They’re very popular right now, but the only one I’ve read, besides Amanda Davis’ book, is The Hunger Games. So, it’s not a genre I know too much about. I’m more of a fantasy/adventure reader. This is also the first dystopian by a Christian author that I have heard about. There may be more, but so far I haven’t come across any.

The way Amanda L. Davis came up with the idea of this story is quite interesting. I’ve heard her story from the videos she posted from the book tour she and her father went on. She said that she actually dreamt the whole first chapter, names for the characters, and title of the book one night. That is quite amazing. It’s like the story was given to her!

Precisely Terminated is the first book in a trilogy. The second book is called Noble Imposter, and the third is Viral Execution, but is still in the editing stage.

Characters:

The main character in Precisely Terminated is a sixteen-year-old named Monica. She was born a noble, but at the age of four, was taken away and hidden as a wall slave in Cantral. The town where she was originally from, Cillineese, was gassed, and everyone, including her birth parents, were killed. Hidden in Cillineese, however, is the secret to shutting down the computers and ultimately, the chips implanted in everyone there. These chips control them, and if anyone steps out of line, they are terminated by electrical shock! Only Monica is without a chip, and since she is invisible to the all-powerful computers, she is able to go places that no one else can. So, she is instrumental in the plan to free the slaves and end the tyranny. Monica has spent her life as a wall slave, and they live within the walls of the palace, doing work like cleaning up after the nobles, repair work, laundry, or working the furnaces. They are considered so low in rank that they are not to be seen by the nobles. That is why there are passages hidden in the walls for the wall slaves to navigate the palace. They are treated like vermin, and the nobles and computers have no qualms about terminating them. One minor slip up could spell their doom.

There are several minor characters, because in Monica’s journey to find the computers, she is helped or hindered by many different people. One is Simon, the old, grumpy librarian Monica eventually meets. He’s also invaluable to locating the computers. He is a Seen, which is a slave that is allowed to work in the house, and be seen by the nobles. It’s a bit better than a wall slave, but the same rules apply. If you make a mistake, or are caught trying to help a rebellion, you are terminated.

My Thoughts:

This book was quite exciting from the get-go. The first chapter did an excellent job setting up just how dangerous these computers can be, and what the risks of trying to stop the tyranny are. It’s not only the slaves that have to worry about termination though. The nobles may get more freedom than most, but even they have fear. Everything came to a head at the end of this book. It was so exciting and action packed, and everything depended on Monica succeeding, even though for a while it looked like she wouldn’t. When books start getting really exciting, I sometimes have a problem reading them too fast, just because I want to hurry up and find out how the characters are going to make it out of their certain circumstances. It happened with me for this book. I had to keep stopping and going back over what I had just read, and force myself to slow down. I kept telling myself, “Stop! Read this, or you’re not going to understand what happens.” Not many books can build up the adrenaline so well that I have this type of problem reading them, but I just couldn’t read this as fast as I wanted to!

There’s also something very unique about this book. It doesn't include something that is usually the main focus in Young Adult fiction. There is no romance! Yes, seriously, Monica doesn’t meet a romantic interest. Usually, books written for this age group always have a love story, and I’ll admit, I do enjoy a sprinkle of it in books. I don’t usually enjoy it as the main focus though (Sorry romance lovers.). But it really makes sense that Monica doesn’t fall in love in this book. She doesn’t have the time for it! I thought it was unnecessary in The Hunger Games, I mean, they’re fighting for their lives, why get involved with anyone when either of them could be killed at any moment? It’s a breath of fresh air to see a book not include romance. Now, that’s not to say that Amanda L. Davis won’t add it in any of her other books, but if the situation changes during the second one, Monica may have the time for romance. We’ll see.

Unfortunately, Monica did get annoying at times. She would complain about the slave council controlling her and always telling her what to do and risking her life over and over. Living in constant fear of getting caught will probably cause one to hate their lot in life, but she’s the only one who can help free the slaves. No one else can do it because they all have the computer chips implanted in them. Think of all the good you can do, Monica! She just seemed like she had a spoiled attitude and wanted things done her way. This seemed a bit weird to me considering she’s a slave. She should be used to not getting her way, I would think. It didn’t get too bad though, and I do believe she learned some very valuable lessons throughout the book, so she will probably have a better understanding of her position in the next one.

The book is very well written, which is what I’d expect from someone whose teacher was Bryan Davis. Amanda L. Davis was homeschooled, so her parents taught her. She also states on her acknowledgements page that she had a difficult time learning to read, she thanked her parents for never giving up on her. Really, you can’t tell someone who had difficulty learning to read wrote this book. She overcame that obstacle and writes very well. I have a lot of respect for her, her father, and the rest of her family as well. They seem like good people.

I’m still looking forward to getting the next book, and I’m anticipating the release of the last one.

The second book: Noble Imposter

My Age Rating: 12 and up. There are a lot of character deaths. So, the readers need to be able to handle that. There are some instances of violence, and Monica gets some nasty injuries. Also, the tone of the book is kind of dark, since the story is set in a dystopian world. There is some hope in the end, though, so it’s not all gloom and doom.

~Cya!