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android, androids, author, book, book reviews, books, characters, comedy, fiction, literature, novel, plot, read, reader, review, robot, robots, S.E. Sasaki, science fiction, scifi, SE Sasaki, stories, story, thriller, Welcome to the Madhouse, Welcome to the Madhouse by SE Sasaki, world building, write, writer, writing
Genre: Science Fiction, Robots, Indie, Thriller, Comedy
Pages: 246
Point of View: Third Person (Dr. Grace Lord, SAMM-E 777 aka Bud, & Dr. Hiro Al-Fadi)
Released: September 15th 2015
Series: Yes. First in a new series.
Predictability: 4 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)
Source: Author Request
My Rating: 8/10 Stars
Ratings: Rape (Only in the prologue. I recommend skipping the prologue entirely.) Mild grossness.
My Summary:
Grace is the new surgical intern on the medical space station the Nelson Mandela, under the fabulous (Just ask him) Dr. Hiro Al-Fadi.
Bud, created by Al-Fadi, is an experimental surgical Android. He’s either malfunctioning or experiencing the emotions of a human and he doesn’t know what to do about it. Why is he drawn to the spunky new doctor?
When a ship docs without any live patients, they realize a deadly virus has been released into the station. It’s up to Grace and Bud to find a cure.
My Review:
I’ve never read an indie book with so few errors!
The real excitement doesn’t get going until after the halfway point. But it wasn’t boring and because the time was taken to establish the characters, I could properly worry about them. (The tech to resurrect people made things less scary, though I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.)
The Good:
It’s been a while since a book called to me, and this one certainly did. I also lost a bit of sleep on this one. (I suddenly realized it was 3am and the book was over..) I even laughed aloud a few times!
Normally a book has to have magic or super powers to get 8 stars out of me, but Madhouse gets it for characters alone! The characters were all so well done and fleshed out! A nurse who had only two scenes somehow felt like a person. And even the space station AI had personality! (He was a hoot!)
The relationship between the chief surgeon, Al-Fadi, and his anesthesiologist was easily one if the best parts of the book! Though a bit over the top, their constant bickering, joking relationship felt very real to me.
The entire book takes place on the space station the Nelson Mandela. (Or the madhouse as Dr. Al-Fadi calls it.) Most of the world building is confined to what is important to the doctors, but I enjoyed the hints we got about the rest of the world as mankind explores the stars. (and makes war.) One of the coolest parts of this world was the genetically adapted soldiers! Some were part wolf or tiger, or even part orca and they were not only described well, but thought really went into what these people’s lives would be like.
The best way to describe the mood would be Doctor Who. Comedy mixed with tragedy and some potentially scary scenes. (To me a virus that liquefies people is very frightening, but this isn’t horror.) The mixing of comedy and thriller is hard to do so that the comedy doesn’t lesson the stakes, but Madhouse did it well. (I laughed, I was scared, then I laughed!)
The Bad:
It was love at first sight… On the part of the robot! (I didn’t expect that.) My biggest annoyance was how he addressed her. Always by her full name and some wondrous adjective. At about forty percent he decides to stop and I cheered, but he failed at it miserably. By this point it became more funny than annoying though.
I was warned that the prologue might bother me, so I skipped it. Later, curiosity got the better of me (because I was told it was mild) and I wanted to write a full review. I liked the book better without it. I would’ve figured things out too quickly if I’d read it. I recommend skipping it.
Do you read science fiction? I used to read almost all sci-fi, but in the last few years I’ve switched to almost all fantasy. So, it was nice to read sci-fi again. (Oddly enough it’s also sci-fi month.) I’ve always been a big fan of robots! Particularly when there’s romance involved, and I’m interested to see where this one goes.
Woven Magic Books 
This sounds really interesting! And that cover is gorgeous!
I’m not usually a fan of science fiction covers, but this one’s not bad. It was interesting! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Well, you have intrigued me with this review for sure! I mean good characters is going to hook me every time. But I LOVE the idea about this book- and the humor mixed in with the seriousness. Can you read the prologue after finishing? Does it add anything in hindsight? I am now super curious about it haha.
I am selective about sci-fi to be honest. The one turn off I usually have is that there’s a lot of action and not much in the way of character development. BUT this sounds like that isn’t the case at all! I just may end up giving this a try one of these days. It has the parts of sci-fi I like without the parts I don’t, and that is a win! Fabulous review, Molly!
Yay! Then my job here is done. 😉 I did actually go back and read the prologue, but I didn’t think it added a thing. Just a creepy chapter told by the bad guy. Well you can read the prologue for free in the sample if you’re curious. I wish I hadn’t read it though.
I’m picky about my Sci-fi too. This one had great characters! There’s action too, but it’s definitely character driven. I hope you decide to read this and I hope you like it. Thanks!
I love that you lost track of time while reading this and that you loved the characters so much! Sounds like a great read for sure!
I always know it’s a good book when I suddenly look up and have no clue what time it is. I love character driven novels and these ones where certainly characters! Thanks! There isn’t much romance though, but I have a feeling the sequel will have more.
The cover bores me though
Yeah, it’s not great. I usually hate the covers for sci-fi novels, at least this one is decent.
This is definitely a book to watch! I love to see indie authors put care into the editing of their novel and especially the cover too. It seriously looks well put together and I see it has gotten some really good reviews. Thanks for the introduction, if it’s as good as you make it sound, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one gets picked up by a publisher down the road.
Yeah, she must have spent forever editing, I was certainly impressed. I think she’s actually talking to publishers about the sequel. I’m not surprised though. I didn’t even realize it was sci-fi month when I read this. Welcome. 🙂
It sounds nice, a bit different from what I usually read but the idea there is interesting. Plus, it’s always great to find a good indie author like that.
It was different from what I read too, but I enjoyed it. It was sci-fi without the parts of sci-fi that I usually don’t like. I love finding great indie authors too!
Interesting book!! I’m getting back into science fiction again after reading The Martian.
It was good! I’m trying to get back into Sci-fi too. I actually haven’t read the Martian. I’m not a fan of the main character being alone for most of the novel. I have read some funny quotes that make me want to though.
I just clicked on your name and realized you were Anya’s mom. Nice to meet you. 🙂
A book is always very good if it keeps you up at night! Especially when you don’t even notice 😀 It makes me especially happy when you find the golden egg indie books which have so few mistakes in them ^.^
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog x You’re such a good friend to me ❤
Oh the cover is drawing me in! And this sounds really interesting, and FEW ERRORS IN AN INDIE BOOK? I actually have read only a few indie books, so I have no idea whether I even caught the errors that time. Also, I see “part-orca”. That is awesome.
This kind of reminds me of half Illuminae, and half Bioshock? I don’t know if you have heard of the video game Bioshock, but I figure I would mention it anyways.
Awesome review Molly! I will try to be on the lookout for this. This is on Amazon right? Or maybe that one indie website that I am forgetting the name of at the moment.