{
    "id": 451956,
    "slug": "the-mother-code-carole-stivers",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "The Mother Code",
    "subtitle": null,
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": null,
    "description": "What it means to be human\u2014and a mother\u2014is put to the test in Carole Stivers\u2019s debut novel set in a world that is more chilling and precarious than ever.\n\nThe year is 2049. When a deadly non-viral agent intended for biowarfare spreads out of control, scientists must scramble to ensure the survival of the human race. They turn to their last resort, a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots\u2014to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. But there is yet one hope of preserving the human order: an intelligence programmed into these machines that renders each unique in its own right\u2014the Mother Code.\n\nKai is born in America\u2019s desert Southwest, his only companion his robotic Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and motivations of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. But as children like Kai come of age, their Mothers transform too\u2014in ways that were never predicted. And when government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed, Kai is faced with a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known?\n\nSet in a future that could be our own, The Mother Code explores what truly makes us human\u2014and the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create. ",
    "additional_content": null,
    "bestseller_60": null,
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 352,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2021-01-01",
    "publication_date_latest": "2021-01-01",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [],
    "ratings_count": 0,
    "read_count": 0,
    "review_count": 0,
    "favorite_count": 0,
    "reading_status_read_count": 0,
    "reading_status_reading_count": 0,
    "reading_status_want_to_read_count": 0,
    "rating_average": null,
    "ratings_distribution": {
        "1": 0,
        "2": 0,
        "3": 0,
        "4": 0,
        "5": 0
    },
    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:53:24+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-05T00:39:33+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 4696,
        "slug": "penguin-putnam",
        "name": "Penguin Putnam",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:16:15+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:06:29+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 279609,
            "slug": "carole-stivers-2",
            "key_names": "Stivers",
            "names_before_key": "Carole",
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [],
    "campaigns": []
}