Chipless by Kfir Luzzatto

The Synopsis:

In a post-apocalyptic, dystopian society, health authorities implant a chip in the brain of every infant to prevent the spread of disease. But the rulers exploit the chip to manipulate the population and to create a distorted vision of the world. When Kal, a young physicist, accidentally discovers the truth about the chip, his life is in danger.
But Kal is not alone. Amber, a young, chipless girl from a distant society, who is on a personal mission, helps him to get away before the city police find him. The knowledge that Kal holds is a potent weapon against the tyranny of the rulers, and he has no choice but to join Amber and her fellow rebels in fighting them.
Kal and Amber escape together from the city, but the hunt for them is on. They must travel through dangerous, lawless territories to reach a safe destination. It’s a race in which time is running out for Kal. If they don’t make it in time, both his life and the hope of fighting the city tyrants will be lost.

I received this book from the author for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

A race against their government through dangerous territory will either get them killed, their friends killed….. or both.

Chipless grapples with the idea of a chip implanted in the brain to maintain health and wellness for humans. Each person has a chip that regulates their emotions, health, and are forced to obey all the laws of The City, that is, except for the chipless.

Kal and Amber are quite the charming pair. She is the fearless, chipless individual who has trouble speaking her feelings; and Kal is the kind-heart whose world just fell apart and who struggles to process it all. Together, their character development is wonderful as we watch Amber learn to release the build-up of tension through her life, and Kal as he begins to understand what’s at stake and what has to be done to keep Amber safe.

I’m not going to lie, at first, I really hated Kal. To the point that I almost stopped reading because his character was just not doing it for me. He seemed like such a wimp who wasn’t able to make up his own opinion and just went with whatever anyone told him, but I’m glad I didn’t stop, because his character development towards the end really redeemed him and now he’s one of my favorites!

I was quite taken with the story-line, but I do think it moved a little too fast. There were action scenes that I almost missed because there wasn’t enough build up so I didn’t realize that I was in the middle of an important fight. However, the story was done very well and it certainly kept my interest for the majority of the day. I think the main problem I had with the story-line is at the beginning of the book, Kal should have questioned everything more and been more hesitant to jump headlong into this adventure. And I say that based off his personality and how much loyalty he seems to have for The City in the first few chapters, only to engage in a brief conversation with a guy he doesn’t know to throw all of that loyalty out the door and join Amber on the adventure of a lifetime. It was just very out of character for him and if had been done differently, would have raised my opinion of him much quicker.

There is some mild cursing, some mildly detailed violence, and a medium amount sexual content which mainly consists of detailed kissing scenes, though there are several characters who voice and act out their intentions for more. There are no sex scenes though.

Overall, I did really enjoy Chipless and find myself teetering between a 3 and 4 star rating, so I give it 3.5 stars but it will be 4 stars on sites that don’t accept halves.