Plot Type: Urban Fantasy (UF)
Ratings: Violence—4; Sensuality—2; Humor—2
Publisher and Titles: Roc
"Rabbit Trick" (short story, 3/2014)
Clean (9/2012)
"Payoff" (e-novella, 3/2013)
Sharp (4/2013)
If you have been a regular reader of this series, you know that bad things happen to telepath Adam Ward in multiples—never singly—and this book is no exception. As the story opens, Adam and Detective Isabella Cherabino, his girlfriend and partner, are leaving a stadium rock concert when they are menaced and attacked by a group of street thugs. After the partners defeat their attackers, jump into their car, and drive away, Adam gets a jolt from Mindspace indicating that someone in the vicinity has died violently, so they return to the scene to find one of the thugs dead—brutally beaten to death. Eyewitnesses swear that Cherabino did the deed, and she is brought up on departmental charges for police brutality. Even though Adam witnessed the event and swears that Cherabino did not kill the man, his testimony is ignored because he has a felony drug record and because he is dating Cherabino. In the immediate aftermath of this terrible situation, Adam gets a call from Stone, his Guild Watcher, who informs Adam that the Guild is about to take action against him because he is behind in his payments (for the Guild's medical assistance for Adam's Narcotics Anonymous mentor, Swartz, in a previous book). Adam must pay up immediately, either in money or by taking some unpleasant jobs for the Guild.
Then, out of the blue, Adam receives a phone call from FBI Special Agent Jarrod in Savannah, who needs a mental Minder for a child who is under a kidnap threat. Adam describes a Minder is being like "a spider at the center of the web…I sit at the center of the web, and if I feel a vibration on the edges, I go out to see what it was. If it's a threat, I either shut it down myself or call for reinforcements." Even though Adam wants to stay in Atlanta to support Cherabino, he is forced to take the FBI job because the Guild has given him a very short time limit in which to bring his debt payments up to date or risk imprisonment. Adam's acceptance of the Minding job is also driven by a series of disturbing visions that he has been having for the past few weeks in which he sees himself in a harrowing scene in which a young boy is shot by his kidnapper while Adam himself is on the phone with the kidnapper's boss. In that vision the two men are scary and powerful nemeses of both Adam and Cherabino. The man with the gun is Sibley, a sociopath-for-hire who nearly killed Adam in a previous book, and the man on the phone is Garrett Fiske, a mob boss who has vowed vengeance against both Adam and Cherabino. Adam is terrified of Sibley because he has a piece of powerful coercion technology that he uses to force people to do his will. No matter how hard victims try to resist, the compulsion machine forces them into complete compliance with Sibley's commands.
To most readers, it will be obvious from the very beginning that Cherabino is being framed for the murder with which she is being charged, and there is little doubt that Fiske is pulling all kinds of political strings behind the scenes to ensure that she is found guilty. That is one major weakness of the plot because there was never a doubt in my mind about why Cherabino was being charged, who was behind it, and what the outcome of her trial would be. To expect the reader to believe that Cherabino and Adam can't figure this out early in the game is an insult both to them and to the reader.
The action takes place mostly in Savannah, with Adam periodically checking in with Cherabino by phone when he has time to take a break from guarding Tommy, his young charge. Tommy is the son of a judge who is presiding over a murder trial in which the defendant is one of Fiske's suppliers. As soon as Adam meets Tommy and learns of Fiske's involvement, he is certain that his vision is a true one and worries incessantly that he will be unable to stop Tommy's imminent death. The bulk of the plot is taken up with Adam's lengthy angst-filled interior monologues in which he craves his drug of choice, worries that Sibley will succeed in killing him this time, worries that he isn't up to the task of protecting ten-year-old Tommy, and worries about what is happening back in Atlanta with Cherabino. In between these scenes of anguished emotion, Adam and the FBI team deal with Tommy's cold and caustic mother (the judge, who is definitely hiding something) and with Tommy, a high-strung, nascent telepath whose recalcitrant behavior leads to all kinds of trouble. Tommy's estranged father also plays a small part in the action, although his scenes are awkwardly inserted into the story in a disjointed manner. Even though Adam suspects early on that the judge's secrets are important to the kidnapping threat, he never "sees" those secrets when he peers into her mind. This is a major weakness in a plot that is based on the highly rated abilities of an experienced telepath. How can it be that Adam never picks up a single one of the judge's thoughts that relate to her deep, dark secrets, but he can read all of her other thoughts and emotions? This is a faulty plot device that just doesn't make sense.
Here's a brief update on Adam's romantic relationship with Cherabino: Early in the book, he summarizes it this way: "Even though we hadn't had sex—she hadn't been willing to make the nearly permanent commitment that sex with a telepath implied—we were dating. Four months and change now. And she'd been falling asleep in my arms nearly as long. She'd even filled out the official relationship form with the department, calling me boyfriend in plain text where anyone could read it. It was a miracle, as far as I was concerned." After all of the trials and tribulations Cherabino suffers in this book, their relationship takes a major jump towards the end of the story.
For me, this is the weakest of the books because the pace is glacially slow, the angst is overwhelmingly heavy, and a few of the plot points are weak. Part of the problem is that with the exception of the first and final scenes, Adam and Cherabino are never together. In the previous books, their sardonic call-and-response dialogues acted as spark plugs to liven up the story every time Adam's cold-sweat mental anguish became too overpowering. I'm still sticking with the series, though, because I love the lead characters and want to see what happens in the next chapter of their lives. Click HERE to go to this book's amazon.com page where you can click on either the cover art or the "Listen" icon to read a print excerpt or listen to an audio excerpt.
WORLD-BUILDING
This post was revised and updated on 1/21/15 to include a review of Vacant, the fourth novel in the series. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the world-building and a review of two MINDSPACE stories and the first three novels.
NOVEL 4: Vacant
Then, out of the blue, Adam receives a phone call from FBI Special Agent Jarrod in Savannah, who needs a mental Minder for a child who is under a kidnap threat. Adam describes a Minder is being like "a spider at the center of the web…I sit at the center of the web, and if I feel a vibration on the edges, I go out to see what it was. If it's a threat, I either shut it down myself or call for reinforcements." Even though Adam wants to stay in Atlanta to support Cherabino, he is forced to take the FBI job because the Guild has given him a very short time limit in which to bring his debt payments up to date or risk imprisonment. Adam's acceptance of the Minding job is also driven by a series of disturbing visions that he has been having for the past few weeks in which he sees himself in a harrowing scene in which a young boy is shot by his kidnapper while Adam himself is on the phone with the kidnapper's boss. In that vision the two men are scary and powerful nemeses of both Adam and Cherabino. The man with the gun is Sibley, a sociopath-for-hire who nearly killed Adam in a previous book, and the man on the phone is Garrett Fiske, a mob boss who has vowed vengeance against both Adam and Cherabino. Adam is terrified of Sibley because he has a piece of powerful coercion technology that he uses to force people to do his will. No matter how hard victims try to resist, the compulsion machine forces them into complete compliance with Sibley's commands.
To most readers, it will be obvious from the very beginning that Cherabino is being framed for the murder with which she is being charged, and there is little doubt that Fiske is pulling all kinds of political strings behind the scenes to ensure that she is found guilty. That is one major weakness of the plot because there was never a doubt in my mind about why Cherabino was being charged, who was behind it, and what the outcome of her trial would be. To expect the reader to believe that Cherabino and Adam can't figure this out early in the game is an insult both to them and to the reader.
The action takes place mostly in Savannah, with Adam periodically checking in with Cherabino by phone when he has time to take a break from guarding Tommy, his young charge. Tommy is the son of a judge who is presiding over a murder trial in which the defendant is one of Fiske's suppliers. As soon as Adam meets Tommy and learns of Fiske's involvement, he is certain that his vision is a true one and worries incessantly that he will be unable to stop Tommy's imminent death. The bulk of the plot is taken up with Adam's lengthy angst-filled interior monologues in which he craves his drug of choice, worries that Sibley will succeed in killing him this time, worries that he isn't up to the task of protecting ten-year-old Tommy, and worries about what is happening back in Atlanta with Cherabino. In between these scenes of anguished emotion, Adam and the FBI team deal with Tommy's cold and caustic mother (the judge, who is definitely hiding something) and with Tommy, a high-strung, nascent telepath whose recalcitrant behavior leads to all kinds of trouble. Tommy's estranged father also plays a small part in the action, although his scenes are awkwardly inserted into the story in a disjointed manner. Even though Adam suspects early on that the judge's secrets are important to the kidnapping threat, he never "sees" those secrets when he peers into her mind. This is a major weakness in a plot that is based on the highly rated abilities of an experienced telepath. How can it be that Adam never picks up a single one of the judge's thoughts that relate to her deep, dark secrets, but he can read all of her other thoughts and emotions? This is a faulty plot device that just doesn't make sense.
Here's a brief update on Adam's romantic relationship with Cherabino: Early in the book, he summarizes it this way: "Even though we hadn't had sex—she hadn't been willing to make the nearly permanent commitment that sex with a telepath implied—we were dating. Four months and change now. And she'd been falling asleep in my arms nearly as long. She'd even filled out the official relationship form with the department, calling me boyfriend in plain text where anyone could read it. It was a miracle, as far as I was concerned." After all of the trials and tribulations Cherabino suffers in this book, their relationship takes a major jump towards the end of the story.
For me, this is the weakest of the books because the pace is glacially slow, the angst is overwhelmingly heavy, and a few of the plot points are weak. Part of the problem is that with the exception of the first and final scenes, Adam and Cherabino are never together. In the previous books, their sardonic call-and-response dialogues acted as spark plugs to liven up the story every time Adam's cold-sweat mental anguish became too overpowering. I'm still sticking with the series, though, because I love the lead characters and want to see what happens in the next chapter of their lives. Click HERE to go to this book's amazon.com page where you can click on either the cover art or the "Listen" icon to read a print excerpt or listen to an audio excerpt.
WORLD-BUILDING
The series is set in an alternate metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia (DeKalb County) many decades after the Tech War that pitted powerful computer technologists against the rest of the world. (Note: Novel 1 says 50 years have passed since the Wars; novel 3 says 60; the prequel novella says 70.) Here, one character sums up the situation: "Bombs had split the sky, and worse, the superviruses split our minds from the inside, until the toll of death made people look at computer technology like the Black Plague. Even now, more than a half century later when small computer chips were let out on a leash—small ones barely powerful enough to run an oven timer, and still frightening to the diehards—the real Tech, the sentient computers and the implants and anything powerful, was outlawed with terrible penalties. People were afraid. Still. Terrified of the computers, the data, even the smallest transmission of information over unsecured lines." (Clean, p. 51) During the Wars, millions of people died: "The ones who'd crashed when their automatic cars failed. The ones who'd starved to death or suffocated in their smart homes. The ones whose brains were eaten by viruses gone blood-borne. And the ones killed in bombs set off from military computers without their owners' knowledge or okay." (Marked, p. 109) Now, no one trusts technology—especially electronic networks. Everyone relies on hard copies—paper records—even the police department.
This world has a few futuristic touches, like smelly polluted rain that can damage your skin and aircars that zoom back and forth on airways mapped out far above the groundcars that still move around the old way. Medical innovations include artificial organs (AOs) of almost every type, which replace today's protocols of drugs and surgery. But other than that, life here looks pretty much like it does in our world.
This world has a few futuristic touches, like smelly polluted rain that can damage your skin and aircars that zoom back and forth on airways mapped out far above the groundcars that still move around the old way. Medical innovations include artificial organs (AOs) of almost every type, which replace today's protocols of drugs and surgery. But other than that, life here looks pretty much like it does in our world.
The population contains a sizable number of people with various levels of psychic Ability. In general, normal people distrust psychic people, most of whom are governed by the Telepaths' Guild. "When the Tech Wars ripped the world apart, the Guild stepped up to save it. But they had to get scary to do it—real scary. They'd won the right to govern themselves, to have political independence, sure. But they'd lost the casual trust of most of the normals along the way. When your pit bull saves you from the robber about to kill you, you're grateful. But when the pit bull tears the guy apart in little bloody ribbons, you never look at the thing the same way again." (Clean, p. 35) The Guild seems to have its fictional roots in Babylon 5's Psi Corps, in that all Able persons (except those with minimal levels of Ability) are required to undergo evaluation and training by the Guild and must practice their skills under the Guild's rules and regulations. Unfortunately, the Guild leaders are arrogant egotists who revel in their powers and look down on the inferior normals, which is a situation that portends lots of problems. Currently, the Guild and the normals are maintaining an uneasy peace by adhering strictly to the specifications of the Koshna Accords, which were put in place shortly after the Tech Wars.
What a telepath does in this world is explore Mindspace. Here, the protagonist provides an analogy to explain what happens when a person teleports through Mindspace: "Imagine the world is a fish tank....You have sand on the bottom, and a definite ceiling, maybe even a sand castle or two...There's all sorts of fish in it—you...and half the world are shiny orange goldfish, Guild telepaths are those monster Japanese goldfish...Now what happens if one of the goldfish [teleports] to the other side of the tank?...Two things happen. The water's going to shoot out in a little explosion where he pops in, because now you have...goldfish mass where there didn't used to be any, and the water has to move out of the way very suddenly...but the other thing that's going to happen is on the other side, where he started out. Suddenly, the water has the same-sized hole where the goldfish used to be, right? So it rushes in. But the water thing's only an analogy—the way it works in Mindspace, the water moves weird, slow like honey, and what you're left with is a little area where the water is less dense, and comes to a weird little pucker to show you where the fish used to be." (Clean, pp. 18-19) In Vacant, the protagonist provides a more succinct definition: "Mindspace is the space in which minds interact with the world, through a medium no one really understands." (p. 179)
What a telepath does in this world is explore Mindspace. Here, the protagonist provides an analogy to explain what happens when a person teleports through Mindspace: "Imagine the world is a fish tank....You have sand on the bottom, and a definite ceiling, maybe even a sand castle or two...There's all sorts of fish in it—you...and half the world are shiny orange goldfish, Guild telepaths are those monster Japanese goldfish...Now what happens if one of the goldfish [teleports] to the other side of the tank?...Two things happen. The water's going to shoot out in a little explosion where he pops in, because now you have...goldfish mass where there didn't used to be any, and the water has to move out of the way very suddenly...but the other thing that's going to happen is on the other side, where he started out. Suddenly, the water has the same-sized hole where the goldfish used to be, right? So it rushes in. But the water thing's only an analogy—the way it works in Mindspace, the water moves weird, slow like honey, and what you're left with is a little area where the water is less dense, and comes to a weird little pucker to show you where the fish used to be." (Clean, pp. 18-19) In Vacant, the protagonist provides a more succinct definition: "Mindspace is the space in which minds interact with the world, through a medium no one really understands." (p. 179)
The series hero is a very strong telepath (aka "teep") who used to teach high-level classes for the Guild—until he participated in a drug experimentation program supported by the Guild and became utterly addicted to Satin, which appears to be comparable in strength and toxicity to heroin. After the Guild kicked him out, our hero spent some time on the streets wallowing in his addiction, but now he is working as a telepathic consultant for the De Kalb County Police Department. Much of his time is spent interviewing witnesses and suspects, but he also gets pulled into the investigation of more complex cases. In an on-line "interview," with her hero, the author asks him to describe himself: "I'm a Level Eight Guild-trained telepath, a consultant to the DeKalb County Police Department, a recovering addict, and a guy who's trying to do the right thing."
Maybe you're wondering why I haven't revealed the protagonist's name. That's because he tells his story in the first person, and in the prequel story and book 1, at least, no one ever calls him by name, which subtly, but tellingly, emphasizes his "outsider-ness"—his isolation from his co-workers and his total lack of friends—or for that matter, relationships of any kind. To simplify matters, I will henceforth refer to the nameless protagonist as Hero (at least until we learn his first name in the novella, "Payoff." Most of the police officers hate Hero, both for his telepathic talents and for his history of addiction—once an addict, always an addict! His partner is Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino, a complicated, beautiful, intelligent woman with a tragic past who stood up for our hero when he fell off the wagon, but who doesn't really trust him. In fact, no one in the police department trusts Hero, and with good cause, because getting back on Satin is on his mind nearly every minute of the day and night. In an on-line "interview" with Cherabino, Hughes gets this response when she asks Cherabino how her best friends would describe her: "driven, responsible, absent, obsessed, kind, and the person they call if they're in trouble."
Other supporting characters are
Maybe you're wondering why I haven't revealed the protagonist's name. That's because he tells his story in the first person, and in the prequel story and book 1, at least, no one ever calls him by name, which subtly, but tellingly, emphasizes his "outsider-ness"—his isolation from his co-workers and his total lack of friends—or for that matter, relationships of any kind. To simplify matters, I will henceforth refer to the nameless protagonist as Hero (at least until we learn his first name in the novella, "Payoff." Most of the police officers hate Hero, both for his telepathic talents and for his history of addiction—once an addict, always an addict! His partner is Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino, a complicated, beautiful, intelligent woman with a tragic past who stood up for our hero when he fell off the wagon, but who doesn't really trust him. In fact, no one in the police department trusts Hero, and with good cause, because getting back on Satin is on his mind nearly every minute of the day and night. In an on-line "interview" with Cherabino, Hughes gets this response when she asks Cherabino how her best friends would describe her: "driven, responsible, absent, obsessed, kind, and the person they call if they're in trouble."
Other supporting characters are
> Swartz, Hero's Narcotics Anonymous (NA) mentor
> Bellury, Hero's "babysitter," a retired detective who drives him to and from work, gives him periodic drug tests, and sits in on all of Hero's interrogations—all for the protection of the normals Hero comes in contact with
> Bellury, Hero's "babysitter," a retired detective who drives him to and from work, gives him periodic drug tests, and sits in on all of Hero's interrogations—all for the protection of the normals Hero comes in contact with
> Lieutenant Marla Paulson, Hero's boss, who spends most of her time dealing with budget cuts
> Sergeant Branen, the head of Homicide; Cherabino's boss
> Kara Chenoa, Hero's ex-fiancée, who turned him in to the Guild when he became addicted; She is now a bigwig with the Guild and is married to another man.
If you enjoy this series, you may also like these series: Jim Butcher's DRESDEN FILES, Benedict Jacka's ALEX VERUS, Kevin Hearne's IRON DRUID, Jim C. Hines's MAGIC EX LIBRUS, and Ben Aaronovitch's PETER GRANT/RIVERS OF LONDON.
PREQUEL SHORT STORY (.5): "Rabbit Trick"
Although the author calls "Rabbit Trick" a prequel, the story doesn't read like a prequel. The story line follows the two lead characters as they solve a crime, but it does not provide any in-depth information about the lead character's earlier life—which is what we usually expect from a prequel. Just as in novel 1, Hughes does not reveal her narrator's name.
The title comes from the narrator's first-person description of his role as a telepath on Detective Isabella Cherabino's investigative team. Cherabino has the highest close rate in the department, mostly because, "My help got her a big portion of those closes, so that made me a favorite with her Well, on the days I could pull the rabbit out of the hat." In the opening scene, Cherabino wakes him up so that he can accompany her to the crime scene and "read" the body of the victim—a female police officer—for information about the killer. The story follows the investigation as the narrator eventually realizes, with great relief, that he will be able to perform his "rabbit trick" and solve the crime: "And his mind opened…his panicked motivation falling out like candy from a dispenser. And the rabbit trick arrived—I knew how to get the confession "
This little story adds no new information to the world-building or to the characterization. The entire e-book is 45 pages long, but "Rabbit Trick," comprises only about 2/3 of the content—about 30 pages. It's a nice little story, but if you buy it with the expectation of reading a true prequel, you will be disappointed.
Also included in this e-book are two other short stories: "The Carousel" (revolving around a carnivorous merry-go-round) and "Inky Black Sea" (featuring a lonely sea monster). Neither story is set in the MINDSPACE world. Click HERE to go to this story's amazon.com page where you can click on either the cover art or the "Listen" icon to read a print excerpt or listen to an audio excerpt.
NOVEL 1: Clean
The title comes from the narrator's first-person description of his role as a telepath on Detective Isabella Cherabino's investigative team. Cherabino has the highest close rate in the department, mostly because, "My help got her a big portion of those closes, so that made me a favorite with her Well, on the days I could pull the rabbit out of the hat." In the opening scene, Cherabino wakes him up so that he can accompany her to the crime scene and "read" the body of the victim—a female police officer—for information about the killer. The story follows the investigation as the narrator eventually realizes, with great relief, that he will be able to perform his "rabbit trick" and solve the crime: "And his mind opened…his panicked motivation falling out like candy from a dispenser. And the rabbit trick arrived—I knew how to get the confession "
This little story adds no new information to the world-building or to the characterization. The entire e-book is 45 pages long, but "Rabbit Trick," comprises only about 2/3 of the content—about 30 pages. It's a nice little story, but if you buy it with the expectation of reading a true prequel, you will be disappointed.
Also included in this e-book are two other short stories: "The Carousel" (revolving around a carnivorous merry-go-round) and "Inky Black Sea" (featuring a lonely sea monster). Neither story is set in the MINDSPACE world. Click HERE to go to this story's amazon.com page where you can click on either the cover art or the "Listen" icon to read a print excerpt or listen to an audio excerpt.
NOVEL 1: Clean
To complicate matters for Hero, he is having trouble staying clean (hence, the book's title). His mind is heavily battered every single day by his co-workers' angry and hateful thoughts about him, and he sees no way to improve his life. All he can think about is the relief that Satin would bring him. Then, another complication makes his life even worse when he accidentally forges a link between his mind and Cherabino's mind. She is already angry that he can read her mind at all (at one point she clocks him in the jaw when she realizes he has briefly read a few thoughts), so a permanent link would be an abomination to her.
As Hero moves forward with the investigation, he has a rare prognostication (vision) of a future scene in which a powerful telepath kills him and destroys Cherabino's mind. From that point on, Hero pushes Satin from his mind and concentrates on protecting Cherabino, for whom he has a hopeless infatuation. The book ends with the requisite showdown between Hero and the villain, but his relationship with Cherabino is left open-ended.
The series world-building is inventive, and the characters are interesting, if a bit too close for comfort at times to Harry Dresden and Karrin Murphy. The plot is compelling, with lots of action and unpredictability, but the tone is so very dark and angry that it sometimes gets in the way of the story. Poor Hero—everyone openly hates him and disrespects him and fears his telepathic powers. Although Cherabino and, especially, Paulson eventually, if grudgingly, give him some credit, it's almost too little, too late. All in all, though, I like Hero, and I plan to give him more of a chance than his colleagues. One copy-proofing housekeeping note: In one lengthy dialogue (pp. 263-264), a set of quotation marks is missing, which is momentarily confusing. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Clean on the author's web site. Click HERE to go to this book's amazon.com page where you can click on either the cover art or the "Listen" icon to read a print excerpt or listen to an audio excerpt.
E-NOVELLA (1.5): "Payoff"
After being nameless in Clean, our hero gets called by his first name very early in this story. His name is Adam, which is the Hebrew word for "man," so he is still being portrayed as a kind of generic persona. Only his first name is given—no surname, so we still can't attach an ethnicity to him. What we know so far about Adam is that he is in his late 30s or early 40s (Note: novel 3 says that he is 39) and has a history of addiction to the drug Satin. Although he had a few backslides during his first two years of rehab, he has now been clean for three years, As is the case with most addicts, Adam has never forgotten the blissful, drug-induced fogs that dominated his life before he managed to pull himself away from Satin, and he frequently yearns for that drugged-out forgetfulness. He regularly attends Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings in the company of his sponsor, Swartz, a man who serves as a lifeline for Adam each time he wavers. Adam works as a consultant for the DeKalb County Police Department, where he is the only telepath on staff and is universally distrusted and hated because of his psychic powers and his felony conviction for drug possession.
The plot is closely tied to Adam's years of addiction. The judge who gave Adam parole instead of prison has asked him to find his missing grandson. Adam is quite nervous about this task (and about his workload at the DeKalb County Police Department) because his telepathic powers were completely burned out at the climax of Clean, and they haven't yet returned. Fearful of losing his job, Adam is desperately trying to keep his condition a secret from everyone in the police department.
Adam's desperation ratchets up several notches when the judge gives him just a few days to find out exactly what's going on with his grandson, or he will reexamine his ruling on Adam's case and possibly send him to prison. The story line follows Adam as he investigates the situation, mostly on his own, and desperately tries to get his telepathic skills back. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I'll just say that Adam's search for the truth about the judge's grandson takes some hairpin twists and turns, and that Adam gradually gets his confidence (and some of his powers) back by the end of the story.
The value in this novella is that it focuses on how helpless Adam is without his telepathic abilities and how tenuous his position is at the police department. The second novel picks up and expands on those elements as Adam gradually recovers most of his powers, but comes close to losing his job. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Payoff on the author's web site. Click HERE to go to this novella's amazon.com page where you can click on either the cover art or the "Listen" icon to read a print excerpt or listen to an audio excerpt.
NOVEL 2: Sharp
To review the mythology: "Since the Tech Wars sixty years ago, since a madman had taken control of the semisentient computers and destroyed a good third of the world, since people had died, rotting in their houses and cars, their implants turned into computer-virus transmission platforms, since people had died in the millions in horrible ways, well, the world was afraid of Tech....Even now, the stronger, more powerful stuff was forbidden, tracked, and shut down." (p. 3) The telepaths of the world saved civilization from total destruction by the out-of-control Tech (i.e., computer technology), but in the process, they terrified normal mortals with the extent of their powers. Adam faces hostility and anger from his co-workers every single day. He is like the mythical Sisyphus in that even though he works very hard to prove himself, his colleagues tolerate him only as long as his skills help them solve cases. Then they turn on him, and he's back where he started—being hated and taunted by just about everyone. If he makes one small mistake or voices a single wrong comment, his situation gets even worse.
In the first book of the series, Adam saved the life of his partner, Detective Isabella Cherabino, but in the process he accidentally opened a mental link between them that allows the two to communicate mentally and to feel each other's emotions. Cherabino is furious with Adam about the link, accusing him of doing it on purpose. She feels violated and has dumped him from his position as her partner. As the book opens, her new partner, Michael, is occupying Adam's former desk next to Cherabino, and Adam feels lost without their close personal relationship. To make matters worse, the department is implementing lay-offs due to budget cuts, and Adam's boss warns him that if he can't get some kind of certification, his name will soon be on the pink-slip list. That news gives him nightmares in which he dreams that he is alone and homeless. An additional effect of the lay-offs is that every time some human police officers are cut, Adam must withstand the resentful thoughts and angry words of his coworkers, who can't understand why their friends are jobless while the hated telepath is still getting a paycheck. The author does a great job portraying Adam's angst as he contemplates life without his job and without Cherabino.
The action part of this book focuses on a series of seemingly unconnected crimes: several murders and some truck hijackings. As the police detectives gather clues, Adam goes off on his own investigation because he has a personal history with one of the murder victims. As clues accumulate and the murders continue, Adam ties everything together and—just like in book 1—finds a Guild connection, but not the kind you can predict. Adam gets considerable assistance on his case from Kara, his former fiancée, and from Edgar Stone, a Guild Enforcer who has been assigned to him as a watcher. Stone's presence puts Adam into a cold sweat because "Enforcement was the bogeyman under the bed for every professional telepath—judge, jury, and executioner in one. Terrifying. He could legally kill me in broad daylight in the middle of the street and the Guild would have nothing worse than a PR crisis." (p. 101) Adam is a very powerful level 8 telepath, and the Guild wants to be sure that he is not going rogue. As the plot plays out, Adam continues to struggle in secret with his telepathic skills, which are finally rebuilding, but very, very slowly.
This is a strong addition to a series that has one of the most damaged heroes I've seen in recent urban fantasy. Even with his history of addiction, Adam is a decent man with high moral and ethical standards. I just wish that he could find a moment or two of happiness. At the beginning of every meeting with Swartz, Adam is required to name three things for which he is grateful, and the things he names are always heart-breaking indicators of his need for human comfort. The ending leaves Adam in a relatively positive position (a rarity) and provides him with some hope for the first time in many years. Unfortunately, as a result of solving the murders, he has put himself in the cross hairs of Garrett Fiske, a powerful local businessman who controls countless lawyers, judges, and politicians, and who does whatever he wants to whomever he chooses without suffering any repercussions. I'm looking forward to Adam's adventures in the next book. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Sharp. on the author's website. Click HERE to go to this book's amazon.com page where you can click on either the cover art or the "Listen" icon to read a print excerpt or listen to an audio excerpt.
NOVEL 3: Marked
As the story opens, Adam Ward is still working as a telepath consultant for the DeKalb County Police Department and doing crime-scene psychic readings for his partner (and love interest), Detective Isabella Cherabino. In the first scene, Adam has to "read" a particularly gory murder scene (an ax to the back of a man's head). Then he follows up on a frantic phone message from his ex-fiancée, Kara Chenoa, who begs for Adam's help in investigating the death of her uncle, Del Meyers, a prominent member of the Guild Council. Kara and her family believe that Del was murdered, but the Guild members in charge of the investigation are saying that he was infected by some kind of viral psychic madness and committed suicide.
NOVEL 3: Marked
Adam's relationship with the Guild has been uncomfortable (to put it mildly) for years, ever since the Guild kicked him out after he become addicted to Satin, an experimental drug. Adam is, understandably, not happy about being asked to go to Guild Headquarters and get mixed up in a case that is already very messy. He has lots of enemies in important Guild positions—enemies who would love to see him destroyed. Even though Kara has betrayed him in the past, Adam agrees to help her out, and his investigation of her uncle's case sets up the plot.
As usual, Adam can't catch a break. Every move that he makes and every word that he says seems to get him deeper and deeper into ever more dangerous situations. One powerful and hostile Guild Council member coerces Adam by threatening to lock him up for ten years if he doesn't do as he is told. Adam owes the Guild a huge debt because he requested their aid in the last book to save the life of his long-time mentor (Swartz), so he really has no way of escaping the Guild's clutches. Early in the story, after psychically defending himself from a mental attack by a Guild Council member, he finds himself locked in a cell deep within the Guild fortress with no hope of escape. Only his agreement to cooperate with a nefarious Guild Council member gets him back on the street. Again and again, Adam tries to do the right thing and then gets slapped down, usually by a Guild member, but sometimes by one of his human superiors at the police department. As Adam's investigation takes him into dark corners and into twisted minds, he finds connections between the ax crime and the supposed suicide. Adam and Cherabino's old nemesis, Garrett Fiske, also plays a key part in the drama.
As soon as Adam begins his investigation, he discovers that the Guild in in the midst of a major split—almost a civil war. On one side are the Cooperists, idealists who believe that the Guild can, and should, coexist peacefully with the human world. On the other side are the Guild First fanatics, who are secretly assembling powerful psychic and tech weapons that they plan to use against normals (aka humans), whom they regard as inferior and essentially worthless. Contributing to the problem is the U.S. government, which is also stockpiling tech weapons that can weaken or destroy psychics. It's like a magical Cold War with one side having the added complication of dealing with a rebellion.
As soon as Adam begins his investigation, he discovers that the Guild in in the midst of a major split—almost a civil war. On one side are the Cooperists, idealists who believe that the Guild can, and should, coexist peacefully with the human world. On the other side are the Guild First fanatics, who are secretly assembling powerful psychic and tech weapons that they plan to use against normals (aka humans), whom they regard as inferior and essentially worthless. Contributing to the problem is the U.S. government, which is also stockpiling tech weapons that can weaken or destroy psychics. It's like a magical Cold War with one side having the added complication of dealing with a rebellion.
Meanwhile, Adam still pines for Cherabino, and she appears to be attracted to him as well. When he finally works up enough nerve to ask her out on a date, they enjoy each other's company—right up until one of her detectives tracks them down and drags Cherabino off on yet another murder investigation. Adam and Cherabino are still connected by the bond that Adam accidentally created back in the first novel, but it is finally beginning to fade, which creates some mixed feelings for both.
With this novel, Hughes has created another strong addition to the MINDSPACE series. This one is not quite as engaging as some of the earlier novels, but it still packs a magical punch that keeps you turning the pages and holding your breath. I'm always hoping that something will go right for Adam for a change, but so far that hasn't happened very often. At least he's still drug free, although he does take a minor misstep in this novel that may come back to haunt him. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Marked on the publisher's web site. Click HERE to go to this book's amazon.com page where you can click on either the cover art or the "Listen" icon to read a print excerpt or listen to an audio excerpt.
With this novel, Hughes has created another strong addition to the MINDSPACE series. This one is not quite as engaging as some of the earlier novels, but it still packs a magical punch that keeps you turning the pages and holding your breath. I'm always hoping that something will go right for Adam for a change, but so far that hasn't happened very often. At least he's still drug free, although he does take a minor misstep in this novel that may come back to haunt him. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Marked on the publisher's web site. Click HERE to go to this book's amazon.com page where you can click on either the cover art or the "Listen" icon to read a print excerpt or listen to an audio excerpt.
No comments:
Post a Comment