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Formats
US Trade paperback Details
  • 06/2024
  • 979-8-218-25687-6 B0D128HJGG
  • 268 pages
  • $
Dieudonné Lemmert
Author
Life, Undiminished.
A thousand years from now, Nick and his girlfriend Aurora from planet Mitis have dreams of opening Earth’s last nature preserve to visitors from desert planets. Those dreams are destroyed when a radical ecologist movement takes over the preserve and captures Aurora. Soon, a deadly pandemic breaks out caused by a germ with a mysterious genetic code. Government calls Nick to duty to crack the code. Nick needs to decide whether to search for Aurora or save his home planet from the ultimate disaster.
Plot/Idea: 7 out of 10
Originality: 8 out of 10
Prose: 6 out of 10
Character/Execution: 6 out of 10
Overall: 6.75 out of 10

Assessment:

Plot/Idea: Life, Undiminished is brimming with potential but ultimately let down by its execution. Despite tackling contemporary themes such as pandemics and ecological sustainability, the plot fails to truly engage the reader.

Prose: Lemmert's futuristic sci-fi is enterprising and creative, but the writing style becomes repetitive. The story is presented as a series of events, many of which are intriguing, but they are never allowed to properly flourish.

Originality: Despite its original premise, and ideas that set it apart from similar titles, the novel is constricted by dry exposition.

Character/Execution: The character interactions in Life, Diminished are lacking emotional connection, though the relationship between Nick and Aurora is quite endearing. 

Date Submitted: August 31, 2023

Reviews
Lemmert’s sweeping science fiction adventure, after Life, Unedited, finds biologist Nick and his girlfriend Aurora in a desperate race to save Earth from certain destruction. Building on their adventures from the prequel, Nick is now fully healed from his heart transplant, and the couple are working to expand “the sanctuary,” Earth’s last natural preserve. But Nick is being set up by the extremist Animal Protection Organization (APO), who plan to replace Nick as head of the sanctuary in a bid to stop his work, painting his romantic relationship with Aurora as taboo.

Aurora’s position as an outsider brings to light the limits often placed on love; she muses that Earthlings think of her as “a genetically edited creature from a foreign world – a genetic freak,” and bemoans the harsh treatment of their love affair, observing that “a relationship with a freak from Mitis was simply not something a normal man from Earth should consider.” As the two dig into the sinister motives of the APO, Earth is hit with a devastating virus that threatens to end all life on the planet. Soon, Nick and Aurora are drawn into a deadly race against the clock to uncover the virus’s origins—and to find a way to stop it from exterminating humankind.

Lemmert pens a fully immersive story rich with science, intergalactic travel, and the classic journey of a hero with a conflict between duty and love. Nick and Aurora face seemingly insurmountable odds in their fight to uncover the truth behind Earth’s devastating pandemic, particularly when the virus causing it is revealed to have alien origins. The journey disrupts the deep connection they share, but their paths back to each other are compelling to watch. Throughout, Lemmert plumbs the deeper meaning behind what it truly means to be human—and the sacrifices that come with it.

Takeaway: Sci-fi romance that examines what it truly means to be human.

Comparable Titles: Lauren James's The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, M.R. Carey's The Girl with All the Gifts.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A

Formats
US Trade paperback Details
  • 06/2024
  • 979-8-218-25687-6 B0D128HJGG
  • 268 pages
  • $
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