Amped met with too many ohms

I enjoyed Amped. I previously read Robopocalypse and I liked thought I’d give it a shot as a quick break between my non-fiction audiobooks. Amped gave me exactly that. In fact I was straight HOOKED after the first few chapters but it faded as I continued. Amped starts with a schoolteacher named Owen Gray who has a device implanted in his brain. Owen was in an accident as a child and developed epilepsy as a result. His implant prevents seizures and allows him to function regularly. We learn that many people, especially those with disabilities and children, have implants and that scares people without them. I LOVED the conundrum the author presented here; perfectly healthy people becoming fearful of people who were viewed as lesser before they were “fixed.” Soon, people form groups like the Pure Human Citizens Council to combat the growing problem of implanted humans, now called Amps. It doesn’t take long before laws are written that allow the legal discrimination of implanted humans and Owen is homeless and really begins his journey. The rest of the book skirts around the issues and focuses more on the action and the good versus evil. I would prefer more of the politics and racism without the stereotypical villains. Lastly, I found the second half of the book very predictable.

The story follows the Joseph Campbell monomyth perfectly but it felt heavy handed. The ending was not a full on deus ex machina as it was foreshadowed over and over again but the solution still seems too simple. It’s like Chekov’s ex Machina. This book probably deserved four stars but when I think of other books I gave four I didn’t like it quite as much.