Literature / Partials

"The only hope for humanity isn't human."

Partials is the first book of a four book series of young-adult science fiction novels by Dan Wells.. This book was released in 2012.

After the war with the Partials, the RM virus kills almost all of humanity except about 40 thousand who have taken refuge in a suburb of New York City. It has been 11 years since The Break and none of the babies born since then have survived.

Kira Walker, a 16-year old medic-in-training, is tired of watching RM kill off every baby within three days of birth and has come up with a plan to find a cure: go to the ones who started the outbreak in the first place.

This book provides examples of:

• Adults Are Useless: Somewhat justified as the kids who grew up without many memories before the Partials War aren't as "woe is me" as the adults and are more likely to do things the adults are too prejudiced to try.

• After the End: Partials begins eleven years after The Break, when attacks by the Partials and the RM virus combined to kill much of the population.

• Baby Factory: The Hope Act requires all women over a certain age to be pregnant as often as possible (in the hopes that some of the babies will inherit their parents' immunity to RM and survive). Due to the intense scientific observation of the newborns in hopes of finding a cure, the mothers barely get to spend time with them during their short lives.
• Childless Dystopia: Since there haven't been any children born in so long, many survivors have little hope for the future of humanity.

• Chekhov's Gun: When Kira decides to study RM, the first thing she needs is a blood sample from a human. Any human. She doesn't use her own.

• Death of a Child: For years, every baby born has died of the RM virus within days. The first line of the book reports such a death.

• Foreshadowing: Kira can hear better and see farther than army trackers/scouts.

• Hive Mind: Sort of. The Partials' pheromones mean that they can sense each other's emotional states.

• One Man's Trash Is Another's Treasure: Characters regularly raid all the stuff left behind by the rest of humanity. Some characters even collect certain things, like Xochi who collects music players.

• Species Title: A group of Artificial Humans who started a civil war against the normal humans, leading into the conflict the series centers around.
• Spell My Name With An S: Samm, whose name was originally "Sam M." but he just started including the second m as part of his first name.

• Super-Soldier: Partials were built to be Artificial Human Weapons.
• Teen Pregnancy: All women 18 and older must be pregnant as frequently as possible. And they're thinking about lowering the age to 16...
• The Plague: The RM virus, which killed most of the population at its outbreak and now kills all newborn babies within days.
• Think Happy Thoughts: Parodied
  Marcus: Look on the bright side.
  Beat
  Kira: This is the point at which you would traditionally suggest a bright side.
  Marcus: I've never been a real traditional guy. Besides, I'm not saying I know a bright side, I just think this would be a great time to look at one.
• Throwing the Distraction: Kira does this with a bullet in the second book. The Partials after her don't fall for it, and immediately move away from the noise... so she drops the next one at her feet as a double-bluff. That one works, and after that it's a game of I Know You Know I Know.
• Time for Plan B: Discussed
  Jayden: Press the attack and hope for the best.
  Kira: Hope is not a strategy.
  Jayden: It's not plan A and it shouldn't be plan B, but it is every plan C that has ever been made.

• What Measure Is a Non-Human??: Partials are regularly considered Not Even Human. It's even lampshaded in their name.
• You Are Number 6: Because so many babies are being born and all of them die within days, the hospital doesn't bother recording names for them anymore, assigning alphanumerical designations instead.

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