Surrogate Code (Book 2 of The Surrogate Colony Series)

Characters

For this review, I have chosen to focus on the following characters: Zachary, Adriana, the Scientist Village’s Chief, and Dr Angler.

Zachary

Zachary is a brave young man, whose loyalty to those he cares for knows no bounds. As a former eunuch, he is treated with fear and suspicion by those in the scientist’s village. Personality-wise, he is a reserved and diplomatic individual, always trying to mediate difficult situations, a feeling a deep sense of compassion for the suffering of others. Zachary does all he can to prove himself to the scientists and is a kind and committed young man, who is determined to achieve his goal of helping others.

Adriana

Adriana is a courageous and headstrong young woman. However, I found her less likable as a character in book two. Instead of the risk-taking young woman I remembered, who endured terrible pain to be free of Microscrep’s grasp, she seemed a bit more juvenile and lost, with her part of the story focusing primarily on how much she feared losing Zachary’s love. While I understood that she was genuinely worried about losing his affections now they had left Microscrep’s influence, her lack of trust in him was sad to see, and I felt that her part of the story could have been fleshed out more.

Scientist’s Chief

The chief of the scientist’s village seemed kind and compassionate at first. In addition, he appeared cautious and wise, wanting to put his people’s safety and wellbeing above all else. He showed a great care for people and would go to great lengths to protect those in his village. However, there was something peculiar about him from the start which I couldn’t quite pinpoint. Furthermore, his deep distrust for Zachary and Adriana as ex-Microscrepians, even when proving themselves as loyal, felt far from reassuring. While this sense of distrust seemed understandable at first, the fact that it persisted felt worrying, leading me to wonder whether the chief’s actions were in the lead character’s best interests after all.

Dr Angler

Finally, we come to Dr Angler, a sadistic doctor working for Microscrep in one of the Eunuch centres. It was plain to see that he thought of himself as God-like, crafting heinous plans for how to control other’s minds through his unique technological creations. While he sought to prove himself as worthy to Microscrep’s leader, he was also more than happy to plan to go against him, to enact his own plans in the hopes of gaining more control and power for himself. However, despite this power-hungry exterior, there were also brief moments where I witnessed a glimmer of vulnerability in Dr Angler, where he seemed to feel genuine care for another, however fleeting. This led me to think that maybe, if he weren’t forced to remain working in the eunuch centre, that even Dr Angler could have worked to redeem himself.