Xeno Sapiens by Rena Marks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In a future Earth, all governments have combined into one solid platform for the entire planet, the Global Government. Our protector and benefactor. Funded by them, Crested Utilitarian Laboratories has hired a doctor and a computer genius for a special, top secret project. 

Alien life forms had been discovered, and the tissue samples kept in secret files. The laboratory has used DNA from the various life forms to create a new alien/human hybrid. Unfortunately, they can’t revive the beings without help, and they’re willing to pay an exorbitant amount to bring them to life. 

However, when the new beings are revived, it’s discovered that not all is as it seems. These poor creatures aren’t being revived from scratch. They’re being RE-awakened, and for what purpose our doctor and computer genius are just beginning to discover. 

It’s up to two brave women to save these creatures from the rest of the world.

Secrets Beneath the Surface

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💜💚❤️🩷
Heat/Steam: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 😋😀😛😘

🎧 Book Review: Xeno Sapiens (Genetically Altered Humans, #1)

Author: Rena Marks
Genre: Science Fiction Romance

👫🏻 Character Information and Plot Dynamics

Dr. Robyn Saraven is a brilliant computer scientist whose expertise in artificial intelligence is unmatched. When the Earth government offers her a staggering twenty million credit salary to join Crested Utilitarian Labs on a classified project, she accepts without knowing a single detail. The secrecy is so intense that she must sign multiple NDAs before anyone will even hint at the nature of her work.

The story unfolds in a future where cars hover, navigate on their own, and can travel to floating cities reserved for the wealthy. Robyn assumes her first day will take her to one of these skybound hubs, especially since Crested Ute operates one of the towering structures that support them. Instead, her transport veers away from the ascent and heads across the ground. Both she and Amanda, another new scientist, are stunned when the vehicle drives straight off a cliff and plunges into the ocean. They discover that it has submarine capabilities, something no one bothered to mention. The deep ocean is one of the last unexplored regions on Earth, which makes their destination even more unsettling.

After a long underwater journey, they arrive at a hidden facility. During their tour, they are brought to a lab containing roughly fifty unconscious, unclothed human forms. They are told these bodies are only shells. The truth is far stranger. The Bermuda Triangle has been revealed as a portal to another dimension. For every human who vanished into it, an alien being crossed into our world. These aliens settled in Atlantis, which had been discovered centuries earlier, though the public was never informed about the alien remains found there. Scientists merged alien DNA with human DNA to create hybrid beings, but they have been unable to solve the final problem: how to give these hybrids consciousness.

💭 Quotes

“The individuals varied in colors, and all humanoid in shape due to their human genes. But the alien portion of their anatomy was readily apparent. In addition to the skin color, some had scales. Others had striations of skin color—still, others had actual ridges and bumpy plates beneath their skin.”

“We call the project GAH, Genetically Altered Humans. Specifically, they are Xeno Sapiens, using both human and alien DNA. If we can successfully waken these beings, our next project will be to merge more than just human DNA. We can make some aquatic, adding gills, flippers, fins from fish. Hence the collection in the lobby. Others may be winged by using avian DNA. The possibilities are endless, and we are quite excited to do more exploration.”

“Unfortunately, we’ve been unsuccessful thus far. Which is why we need you, ladies. This time, in addition to brain matter, we’ve inserted a tiny computer into the hindbrain, near the medulla. The computer will act as a jump start for the organic brain, and naturally will make computing faster, yet they will retain normal human feelings and emotions. While not exactly cyborg technology, they will benefit from the best of both worlds.”

🌟 Strengths

• Robyn and Amanda immediately sense that something is deeply wrong with the project. They are monitored constantly through cameras, audio devices, keystroke trackers and more. Dr. Meade, the lead scientist, behaves erratically, and the rest of the team shows little concern for the suffering of their subjects. Even worse, they seem to know exactly what will happen when the hybrids awaken, which raises disturbing questions about past experiments.

• The ethical divide between the long‑term staff and the two newcomers is compelling. Robyn and Amanda view the hybrids as future sentient beings, not disposable test subjects. The established scientists treat them as property and appear eager to continue studying them even after they gain consciousness. This tension creates a strong moral backbone for the story.

• The concept of human and alien DNA hybrids feels fresh. Many stories focus on human and animal genetic mixing, so the alien angle stands out. The futuristic setting adds even more originality, with its floating cities, advanced technology and secret underwater laboratories. The world building is imaginative and engaging.

💔 Limitations

• At only 153 pages, the book feels too short for the scope of its ideas. The early explanations of the project and the futuristic world are excellent, but the main characters could have been developed more fully. The hybrids speak the same language as the scientists, yet the explanation for this arrives late in the story. More scenes showing Robyn and Amanda interacting with the newly awakened Xeno Sapians would have strengthened the emotional impact and deepened the reader’s understanding of these beings.

💬 Final Assessment

This story delivers a fascinating blend of science fiction, ethical tension and futuristic world building. The premise is bold and the setting is imaginative, especially the underwater facility and the revelation about the Bermuda Triangle. Robyn and Amanda provide a strong moral lens through which to view the unsettling experiments around them. Although the book is shorter than ideal and leaves some character development unexplored, it offers an original and thought provoking take on human and alien hybridization. It is a compelling read for anyone who enjoys speculative science, secret projects and stories that challenge the boundaries of what it means to be human.

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