NOTHING IS PROMISED 1-4 by Susan Kaye Quinn-reviews

NOTHING IS PROMISED 1-4 by Susan Kaye Quinn-reviews

WHEN YOU HAD POWER
(Nothing is Promised 1)
by Susan Kay Quinn
Genre: post apocalyptic, speculative fiction, Hopepunk, climate fiction

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 24, 2020

For better, for worse. In sickness and in health.
It’s a legal vow of care for families in 2050, a world beset by waves of climate-driven plagues.

Power engineer Lucía Ramirez long ago lost her family to one—she’d give anything to take that vow. The Power Islands give humanity a fighting chance, but tending kelp farms and solar lilies is a lonely job. The housing AI found her a family match, saying she should fit right in with the Senegalese retraining expert who’s a force of nature, the ex-Pandemic Corps cook with his own cozy channel, and even the writer who insists everything is stories, all the way down. This family of literal and metaphorical refugees could be the shelter she’s seeking from her own personal storm.

She needs this one to work.

Then an unscheduled power outage and a missing turtle-bot crack open a mystery. Something isn’t right on Power Island One, but every step she takes to solve it, someone else gets there first—and they’re determined to make her unsee what she’s seen. Lucía is an engineer, not a detective, but fixing this problem might cost her the one thing she truly needs: a home.

••••••••

REVIEW: WHEN YOU HAD POWER is the first instalment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s post apocalyptic, speculative fiction,hope-punk, series of interconnected story lines set in the year 2050. As a quick explanation, hope-punk is often about people fighting for a change in an dystopian setting such as a post apocalyptic society.

NOTE: Hope-punk is a genre that often focuses on people fighting for a change in a dystopian setting such as a post apocalyptic society.

SOME BACKGROUND: In the past thirty or so years, the world has been ravaged by several pandemics, ecological disasters, and global warming to the point that air quality is questionable, and food stocks are in short supply. The few remaining people are forced to apply for a ‘family’ and a place to live, often placing a number of people together in order to thrive. AIs are the norm; implants are used to communicate but someone is siphoning the power, threatening the few who survive.

Told from third person perspective (Lucia Ramirez) WHEN YOU HAD POWER follows power engineer Lucia Ramirez in the year 2050 on her first few days on the job at the Power Islands in California. Having walked away from her previous position at Oregon’s Power Island due in part to a toxic work environment, Lucia lands a coveted position in Southern California but our heroine may have gone from the proverbial ‘frying pan into the fire’. Unexplained intermittent power outages find our heroine on the hunt for the cause but Lucia is about to open a beehive of secrets that place a target on her back. As Lucia goes in search of an answer she will quickly discover all is not well at Power Island One.

Susan Kaye Quinn pulls the reader into a near future, post apocalyptic, hope-punk world where the planet is slowly spiralling out of control. Man has destroyed the environment, and the resulting fall-out is about to claim the few who survived. A dark but though provoking introduction to NOTHING IS PROMISED with a setting heavily immersed in scientific fact and fiction.

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Reviewed by Sandy

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YOU KNEW THE PRICE
(Nothing is Promised 2)
by Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: post apocalyptic, speculative fiction, Hopepunk, climate fiction

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 18, 2021

The choice you make is the future you create.
Climate-driven plagues haunt humanity, and it’s Regional Director Zuri Hill-Gray’s job to keep the clean-energy grid running.

Zuri has the perfect life—a beautiful home on the Hillstead, a loving family, and a powerful job keeping the LA Basin’s grid humming. If only she didn’t see the ghost of her dead twin in the mirror. Her grief-counselor husband understands too much, her Aunties Cora and Vivian smother her to excess, and her mother can’t look at her daughter without seeing the half that’s missing. Zuri can’t begin to face her sister’s little daughter—to Ruby, Zuri is the ghost.

Which is why she’s running away to work, again, on the anniversary of her sister’s death.

Then a power engineer walks into Zuri’s office and claims someone is stealing energy from Power Island One—and they’ve tried to kill her to cover it up. The more Zuri digs, the more it’s clear someone’s been tinkering in the shut-down fusion labs. They’re going to dangerous lengths to hide it, and it’s been happening right under her nose. Which is how Regional Directors lose their jobs.

Zuri’s already lost her better half—she can’t afford to lose this, too.

••••••••

REVIEW: YOU KNEW THE PRICE is the second instalment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s post apocalyptic, speculative fiction, hope-punk, series of interconnected story lines set in the year 2050. YOU KNEW THE PRICE should not be read as a stand alone as it picks up two days after the events of book one WHEN YOU HAD POWER.

Told from third person perspective (Zuri ) YOU KNEW THE PRICE follows Zuri Hill- Gray, the Great Los Angeles Regional Director for the United States Energy Consortium (USEC) in the face of possible sabotage of the power grid on the Pacific coast. Power Island One engineer Lucia Ramirez (When You Had Power) has made it her mission to provide as much damning information about a possible saboteur but with it comes the knowledge that someone has taken control, and Zuri is unable to stop the people whose actions are about to hold the world hostage in a matter of days. As Zuri and Lucia mount an offensive in the face of betrayal, Zuri quickly discovers that to act means the possible destruction of life as they know it.

YOU KNEW THE PRICE is an intricately detailed story of possibilities and the potential for Earth’s destruction. As the pandemics ravage humanity, environmental and ecological disasters continue to destroy the air,water and ground quality leaving the world’s population dependent upon the powerful few. YOU KNEW THE PRICE is a thought-provoking, dark and edgy storyline heavily based in both scientific fact and fiction, a fiction that may be closer to reality than we could have ever imagined.

Copy supplied for review

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OF KINDNESS AND KILOWATTS
(Nothing is Promised 3)
by Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: post apocalyptic, speculative fiction, Hopepunk, climate fiction

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RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2021.

Humanity is trapped in a loop.
As the world heats, it takes more energy to keep humanity from dying—a feedback loop that makes net-zero carbon increasingly impossible to reach.

Akemi’s job on the Public Utilities Commission has its own daily disasters—making sure the infrastructure of civilization keeps running is the most thankless job on the planet. When a double event hits—heatwave plus viral breakout—keeping the power on is an all-out battle. It doesn’t help that he’s distracted by his elderly father, who was struck down and neuro-compromised by the same virus that killed his mother the year before. Now his father is living in Akemi’s attic. They’d never had a relationship before, and that was a fair description of the state of things now.

Then an old friend’s daughter shows up with a mystery of physics… and a tale of stolen kilowatts and deadly intrigue. He would dismiss it outright, except she’s also the Regional Director of the power grid. Something isn’t right, and the Governor won’t accept excuses when the power goes out.

Sometimes, you’re the right person in the right place, whether you want to be or not.

•••••••••••

REVIEW: OF KINDNESS AND KILOWATTS is the third of four instalments in Susan Kaye Quinn’s post apocalyptic, speculative fiction, hope-punk, series of interconnected story lines set in the year 2050. OF KINDNESS AND KILOWATTS should not be read as a stand alone as it picks up shortly after the events of book two YOU KNEW THE PRICE.

Told from third person perspective (Akemi) OF KINDNESS AND KILOWATTS picks up immediately after the events of book two. Public Utilities Commissioner Akemi Sato is struggling in both his personal and professional life having lost his mother one year earlier, while his father’s mind slowly deteriorated as a result of the same pandemic but a visit from Zuri Hill-Gray (You Knew the Price 2) pulls Akemi into the search for the truth. As another airborne virus begins to ravage Huntington Beach, Akemi must begin an investigation into the blackouts, power surges, and the people behind a possible act of treason against the American people.

OF KINDNESS AND KILOWATTS reads like a PhD dissertation; a detailed and complex physics lecture, in both science fiction and fact, often overwhelming the story line premise. With the help of Zuri, and her tech-savvy friends, Akemi sets a plan into action to take down the people involved.

Copy supplied for review

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YET YOU CRY WHEN IT HURTS
Nothing Is Promised 4
by Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: post apocalyptic, speculative fiction, Hopepunk, climate fiction

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 9, 2023

When the world is drowning, diplomacy is more than handshakes and headlines.

Nitara Desai has spent her life negotiating international agreements, easing points of conflict, and averting disasters. Worst-case scenarios belong in her nightmares, not the IEC’s daily reports. On a calm day, being a director at the International Energy Consortium only requires fixing CarbonCon translators for flustered Brazilian delegates. A thankless job, but the world is still drowning in CO2—there’s no choice but to keep treading.

On a bad day, it’s not just the Brazilians acting up, but the Americans walking out, and now the Governor of Southern California insisting on a clandestine meeting. Then a text comes from Matti, her solid rock in the stormy seas: Guess what? We’re getting married!

Suddenly, an earthquake is slow-rolling through her personal life as well.

She waited too long: to tell Matti how she feels, to quit the unwinnable race to net zero, to grab hold of the things that make life worth living, not just trying to stay afloat. When the governor reveals an impossible technology that could save the planet, but it’s in the hands of a murderously ambitious man, it’s a catastrophe she can’t turn away from. And it’s almost enough to distract her from everything falling apart. Work first, always.

And maybe that’s been the problem all along.

•••••••••

REVIEW: YET YOU CRY WHEN IT HURTS is the fourth and final instalment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s adult, near future NOTHING IS PROMISED post apocalyptic, speculative fiction, Hopepunk, climate fiction series of interconnected story lines set in the year 2050. YET YOU CRY WHEN IT HURTS should not be read as a stand alone as it picks up shortly after the events of book three OF KINDNESS AND KILOWATTS.

Told from third person perspective YET YOU CRY WHEN IT HURTS follows one man’s determination to take control of the world’s power supply. The people of Earth are struggling to find or make a clean, renewable source of power-Miller Zendek and James Ellis have developed something called zero point energy or ZPE, a system that opens up the universe and extracts energy, but in an effort to take control, Miller Zendek is ‘auctioning’ off the rights to the D-10 countries (think G7), hoping to become the world’s richest trillionaire. Nitara Desai, international treaty negotiator, is determined to stop Miller Zendek, at all costs, placing herself in the direct line of fire, a line that is quickly leading to her death. With the help of her team, and her best friend Matti, Nitara releases all of the specs and information about ZPE to the world, effectively destroying Miller’s quest for domination in the process.

Author Susan Kaye Quinn is a rocket scientist and an environmental engineer, and like the previous instalments YET YOU CRY WHEN IT HURTS reads like a PhD dissertation; a thought-provoking, detailed and complex physics lecture, in both science fiction and fact, often overwhelming the story line premise with copious acronyms (I had to keep a list), numerous people and culturally-specific names, as well as scientific terminology (again, both fact and fiction). The premise is well written, edgy and dramatic but often confusing and complicated; the characters are numerous, energetic and determined. The NOTHING IS PROMISED series is a cautionary tale of what ifs and whys.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

 

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The Last Mystic (Singularity #4) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

THE LAST MYSTIC (Singularity #4) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

 

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 7, 2020

What if you knew there was life after death?
Eli is back from the dead… and determined to stop the powerful ascenders who blasted him out to the void. But in the three days he was gone, the world moved on. The girl he loves is determined to build an army of augmented humans to fight the ascenders—with herself as the next Offering. The ascenders are lining up in a death cult based on the charismatic ascender Eli accidentally released from storage—and all the restraints that have kept the ascender world in balance are now off. Everyone is rushing to be the first to bring a Second Singularity—to reach the numinous world from which Eli just returned—regardless of the cost. And the chaos and bloodshed of the first Singularity show just how high that cost can be. How can he stop the world from hurtling off the cliff when he’s the one who proved there’s something to reach, if only you could learn how to fly?

••••••••••

REVIEW: THE LAST MYSTIC is the fourth and final instalment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult SINGULARITY sci-fi/ dystopian series focusing on the merging of mind, body and soul with the technology of the future.

BACKGROUND: The ‘Singularity’ resulted in most of the world’s population transforming themselves into a hybrid known as the Ascended-part man/part machine but the few remaining humans become what is known as the Legacy-the true descendants of humankind. The Singularity series looks at the struggle between the Ascended and everyone else.

Told from first person perspective (Elijah Brighton) THE LAST MYSTIC continues to focus on the war between the Ascended and the Legacy. It has been prophesied that the world is approaching a second singularity whereby all of the human population will become the Ascended but Eli Brighton, once dead, but now resurrected, is the face of the resistance, a resistance that will soon discover the second singularity has already begun, with the help of Eli himself. As Eli continues to bridge between the living and the dead, the resistance is targeted by the ascenders, time and again.

Eli Brighton has the power of life and death, resurrection and renewal. With his ability to resurrect the dead, Eli’s friends realize that they are at the outset of a new world order.

THE LAST MYSTIC and the SINGULARITY series focuses on the mind, body, and soul: a spiritual storyline that questions the existence of God, and life after death; and if there is something beyond the here and now, where is it, and who will be in charge?. The ascended believe they no longer have a soul, a belief that will be questioned every time Eli enters the ‘fugue’ but Eli’s own death, resurrection and self-actualization becomes the benchmark by which everyone measures their own experience.

Susan Kaye Quinn pulls the reader into a fantastic world of speculative fiction using supernatural, paranormal, science, and futuristic concepts. A world of robotics and AI fused with the human mind allows for the possibility of immortality but at the cost of one’s soul. THE LAST MYSTIC is a fascinating and mesmerizing look at the possibility of the impossible.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
The Legacy Human
The Duality Bridge
The Illusory Prophet
The Last Mystic

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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Broken Wide (Mindjack #6: Zeph #3) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

BROKEN WIDE (Mindjack #6: Zeph #3) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 16, 2018

All he wanted was peace; all he had was hope.
Zeph had spent half his life hiding what he was—keeping his mindjack powers away from dangerous men and running away from everyone he loved to keep them safe. Now that his life is finally coming together—his mom and sister are safe; the girl he loves in his arms—the world is falling apart. The mindreader backlash against jackers is growing daily. Jacker-bigot politicians are stoking fear and gaining power. And jackers on the Fronter’s Purity list are winding up dead on the streets outside Jackertown.

Even the Jacker Freedom Alliance is tearing itself apart.

All Zeph wants is a chance to build a life with Tessa—but even she is losing faith. If there’s no peace between jackers and readers, what future could they have? Then a protest goes terribly wrong, the president starts talk of a Jackertown siege, and a MINDWARE CEO races to develop a dangerous mind-blasting technology. It seems foolish to even hope for peace, but one thing becomes very clear—the only way to put the world back together is to bring down the powerful people breaking it apart.

The conclusion to the bestselling Mindjack: Zeph series, where daring to hope for peace could be the most radical—and dangerous—move of all.

•••••••••••

REVIEW: BROKEN WIDE is the sixth full-length instalment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult (YA) MINDJACK urban fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian series, and the third and final instalment focusing on Zephyr ‘Zeph’ MacCay-a young man with the ability to lock down, lock out, unlock and scramble the human mind.

SOME BACKGROUND: In a world where mindreading is the norm (due to decades of contaminated or purposely poisoned water) there are those with more powerful abilities than most. These are their stories of discrimination, betrayal, retribution and control. Throughout the years the human population has developed various forms of mind-reading, mind altering and mind controlling abilities due to environmental toxins. And to complicate matters those without the ability to mindjack are purposely setting out to bring war between the have and the have-nots fearing for their own peace of mind.

Told from first person point of view (Zeph) BROKEN WIDE continues to focus on Zeph, and his underground group of mind ‘readers’, and mind ‘jackers’ as they struggle to prevent anti-jacker technology destroying them all. Zephyr MacCay, blessed with powerful abilities beyond anyone’s comprehension finds himself imprisoned by warring government factions whose primary goal is to eradicate the mind jackers, and everyone they love. From the proverbial frying pan into the fire Zephyr must ‘sell’ himself to the man in charge but not before placing a plan into motion to reveal the truth about what happened and what is about to go down.

BROKEN WIDE is an infinitely detailed, well-written, extensive look at discrimination at the highest levels. From ‘fake news’ to autocratic and authoritarian government leaders BROKEN WIDE reveals the fight for power and the destruction of the mind as greed, authority and the right to control are at the center of a decades old scientific disaster that has led to the bigotry, hatred and injustice for all. Susan Kaye Quinn pulls the reader into a potential future marred by secrets, lies and inexcusable experiments resulting in a world determined to destroy itself one mind at a time.

Reading Order and previous reviews
Mind Games (Mindjack Origins 1)
Open Minds
Closed Hearts
Free Souls
The Locksmith
The Handler/ The Scribe (Mindjack Origins 2 & 3)
Keeper (Mindjack Origins 4)
Locked Tight
Cracked Open
Broken Wide

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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Cracked Open ( Mindjack #5) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

CRACKED OPEN (Mindjack #5) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

Cracked Open

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date July 15, 2017

Zeph always knew he was a weapon. He didn’t count on being a spy.
But he made a dangerous bargain with the Director of the Jacker Technologies Division of DARPA—he’d let Wright test his mutant mindjack ability if she’d release his parents. Simple. Occasionally painful. And the screams of his victims fill his nightmares. But it will be worth it as long as she can’t crack open his head and find out his sister, with her super-surge jack-ability, is still alive. And if his parents are finally set free.

Once that happens, he’s gone. Even if it means giving up everything he’s just now getting back. A home. Friends. A girl who believes in peace and love even when the world is falling apart.

But as the shock of assassinations and bombings and hate killings continue to pull at the threads that hold society together, Wright hands him a mission he can’t possibly complete. If he does, it will tear everything apart. If he doesn’t, he’ll lose everyone he loves.

Sometimes being a powerful weapon is the most dangerous thing of all.

•••••••••••

REVIEW: CRACKED OPEN is the fifth full-length installment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult (YA) MINDJACK urban fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian series. CRACKED OPEN is the continuing story focusing on mindjacker Zeph MacCay- a young man with the ability to lock down, unlock or scramble the human mind.

SOME BACKGROUND: In a world where mindreading is the norm (due to decades of contaminated or purposely poisoned water) there are those with more powerful abilities than most. These are their stories of discrimination, betrayal, retribution and control. Throughout the years the human population has developed various forms of mind-reading, mind altering and mind controlling abilities due to environmental toxins. And to complicate matters those without the ability to mindjack are purposely setting out to bring war between the have and the have-nots fearing for their own peace of mind.

Told from first person point of view (Zeph) CRACKED OPEN furthers the struggle of Zeph MacCay and his underground group of people hoping to take down the Director of the Jacker Technologies, as well as the man who has developed anti-jacker technology that renders the victim all but paralyzed or dead. CRACKED OPEN follows Zeph MacCay as he struggles to free his family, imprisoned by the Director of the Jacker Technologies, and his fraudulent assignment as boyfriend and bodyguard to the daughter of an evil technology giant. With help from a couple of rogue agents and soldiers, as well as his intrepid gang of underground jackers Zeph MacCay puts into a motion a series of events that place him on the anti-jacker radar, once and for all. Success is measured by the tiniest of wins and in the end their struggle is only going to get worse.

CRACKED OPEN is a comprehensive, intricate and action packed story line of discrimination, fear, power and control. Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult MINDJACK series looks at the breakdown of humanity, the power of politics and control of the mind, and the people on the fringe trying to survive, one day at a time. Lives will be lost; minds will be broken; friendships and families will crumble and die. CRACKED OPEN is a powerful look at a possible future if and when chaos and oligarchy preside. Susan Kaye Quinn is a master storyteller

Reading Order and previous reviews
Mind Games (Mindjack Origins 1)
Open Minds
Closed Hearts
Free Souls
The Locksmith
The Handler/ The Scribe (Mindjack Origins 2 & 3)
Keeper (Mindjack Origins 4)
Locked Tight
Cracked Open
Broken Wide

Copy supplied for review.

Reviewed by Sandy

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Locked Tight (Mindjack #4) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

LOCKED TIGHT (Mindjack#4) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

Locked Tight

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 17, 2017

In a world filled with mindreaders, being a mindjacker is a good way to end up dead.

And Zeph is no ordinary jacker.

He can break open the toughest minds—or lock the weakest ones—but that just makes him a weapon every jacker Clan wants to control. To keep his family of mindreaders safe, Zeph does what his Clan leader says and tries to shut out the screams—but when jackers are revealed to the world, he has no choice but to hug his kid sister goodbye and leave home.

Passing for a reader is something Zeph does well, but when readers start changing into jackers and his family disappears, Zeph must return to a city filled with jackers who hate him, trick a mindware CEO into helping him, avoid a girl who knows him too well, and spy on the most powerful jacker in the state.

All without dying or revealing his abilities—or being caught in the firestorm of hate between jackers and readers that’s threatening to pull the world apart.

The bestselling Mindjack Series continues with an all new character and a world of mindreaders and mindjackers as you’ve never seen it before. LOCKED TIGHT is the first of three Mindjack novels from Zeph’s perspective. (See The Locksmith for Zeph’s origin story.)

 

••••••••••

REVIEW: LOCKED TIGHT is the fourth full –length installment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult (YA) Mindjack urban fantasy, dystopian series. LOCKED TIGHT and the prequel novella The Locksmith are the beginning of a new arc in the Mindjack series. No longer focusing on jacker Kira Moore, the series shifts focus to eighteen year old mindjacker Zephyr MacCay who has the ability to lock down or unlock the human mind.

SOME BACKGROUND: In a world where mindreading is the norm (due to decades of contaminated or purposely poisoned water) there are those with more powerful abilities than most. These are their stories of discrimination, betrayal, retribution and control. The human population developed various forms of mind-reading, mind altering and mind controlling abilities. And to complicate matters those without the ability to mindjack are purposely setting out to bring war between the have and the have-nots.

Told from first person point of view (Zeph) LOCKED TIGHT follows eighteen year old mindjacker Zephyr MacCay as he searches for his family (and thirteen year old sister) he hasn’t seen in years-a family of mindreaders whose lives were threatened by the existence of their eldest son. Zephyr has the ability to hide his abilities but a threat of another nature finds our hero caught between three potential enemies never knowing who is telling the truth or out right lies. What ensues are Zeph’s attempts to locate his sister as several warring factions battle for control of Zephyr himself.

LOCKED TIGHT is an infinitely detailed, brilliant and remarkable look at a world struggling with the fall out of chemical contamination of the human population. From mindreaders to mindjackers Susan Kaye Quinn’s MINDJACKER series looks at the dysfunctional relationship between a hierarchy of mental and physical powers, and the breakdown of society between the ‘have and have nots’. The Mindjacker series focuses on betrayal, revenge, discrimination, specieism, and the battle for control, and the potential to create a weapon of unimaginable strengths. The premise is unparalleled with a profound and innovative message as well as a frighteningly realistic look at the future where fear and anarchy reign.

Reading Order and previous reviews
Mind Games (Mindjack Origins 1)
Open Minds
Closed Hearts
Free Souls
The Locksmith
The Handler/ The Scribe (Mindjack Origins 2 & 3)
Keeper (Mindjack Origins 4)
Locked Tight

Reviewed by Sandy

Copy supplied for review.

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The LocksmithTHE LOCKSMITH
Mindjack Origins #5-a novella
by Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: YA, dystopian, UF

FREE ebook at Amazon :Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / BAM /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 9, 2015

SHORT NOVELLA (STANDALONE) in the Mindjack universe

When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.

In a world filled with mindreaders, Zeph is a mindjacker who wants to stay hidden—even if it means the cute mindreader in his Latin class is forever out of his reach. He locks and unlocks minds for a ruthless mindjacker Clan in exchange for protection and the chance to have a normal life with his parents and little sister. But when a girl he doesn’t know reveals the existence of mindjackers to the world, Zeph is forced to make a choice: unlock—and ultimately destroy—the mind of a young jacker changeling… or turn his back on everyone he loves.

The Locksmith is a short novella (standalone) in the Mindjack universe. It can be read independently of the other Mindjack stories, in any order. It is 11,000 words (or 44 pages) long.

•••••••••••••

REVIEW: THE LOCKSMITH is the latest novella in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult Mindjack urban fantasy dystopian series.

In a world where mindreading is the norm (due to decades of contaminated water) there are those with more powerful abilities than most. These are their stories of discrimination, betrayal, retribution and control. The human population developed various forms of mind-reading, mind altering and mind controlling abilities. And to complicate matters, those without any special ability declare everyone with altered minds as an enemy of the state.

The novella focuses on Zeph, a young seventeen year old mindjacker who has the ability to lock down or unlock the human mind. As a mindjacker, Zeph has become part of a Clan and has been commanded to lock down the minds of potential Clan workers. When something goes horribly wrong, and Zeph is unable to stop the carnage, he runs-he has no plans to become the next victim of society’s ills.

Susan Kaye Quinn adds another dimension to her young adult Mindjack series. THE LOCKSMITH is a fast paced, quick read that will tease a new reader into wanting more. For fans of Susan’s Mindjack series, we are hoping that Zeph survives the upcoming fallout of the impending war.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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Awakening (Stories of Singularity 5) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

AWAKENING (Stories of Singularity 5) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

Awakening

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 2, 2017

Sister Amara prays she won’t be the last of the twelve sisters to reach her awakening—after all, the salvation of their Masters depends on them. But with the interrogations growing more deadly, being last may be best… especially when you’ve been created to touch the face of God.

Awakening is a standalone novella that provides a glimpse into a dark corner of the Singularity novel series.

The Stories of Singularity can be read independently from the Singularity novel series.

READING ORDER
Singularity Series
The Legacy Human (Book 1)
The Duality Bridge (Book 2)
The Stories of Singularity #1-4 (Novella Box Set)
The Illusory Prophet (Book 3)

Stories of Singularity
(novellas)
Restore (Story 1)
Containment (Story 2)
Defiance (Story 3)
Augment (Story 4)
Awakening (Story 5)

•••••••

REVIEW: AWAKENING is the fifth novella in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult Stories of Singularity dystopian, sci-fic series- a companion series to Quinn’s Singularity Series. AWAKENING can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty.

BACKGROUND: The ‘Singularity’ resulted in most of the world’s population transforming themselves into a hybrid known as the Ascended-part man/part machine but the few remaining humans become what is known as the Legacy-the true descendants of humankind. The Singularity series looks at the struggle between the Ascended and everyone else.

Told from first person point of view (Sister Amara) AWAKENING follows Sister Amara as she ‘awakens’ to the world around her. A combination of artificial intelligence and cloistered humanoids ‘created to touch the face of God’, Sister Amara and eleven other ‘clones’ just like her are in a constant state of hyper vigilance as each approaches the famed ‘awakening’. But as the ‘experiment’s continue each sister will inevitably fail to reach her potential, and the people in charge will do anything to avoid an experimental disaster. Sister Amara is one of the few who will reach her potential (and beyond), and with it will gain her freedom from the onslaught of constant pain and strive for perfection.

AWAKENING is an intriguing look at the world of Singularity. An interesting and powerful concept born of the mind of Susan Kaye Quinn that focuses on humanity’s desire to live forever.

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Reviewed by Sandy

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The Illusory Prophet (Singularity # 1-3) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

AN/ THE DUALITY BRIDGE / THE ILLUSORY PROPHET (Singularity #1-3) by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

(The Legacy Human / The Duality Bridge -Singularity #1 & #2-reviews)

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 13, 2016

What if you could paint with reality?

Elijah Brighton can bring a girl back from the dead, travel outside his body, and absorb a lifetime of memories from anyone he touches in the fugue state. Everyone seems to think he’s the prophet they’re waiting for… including the girl he’s falling in love with. The truth is, the fugue is bleeding over into reality, bringing his sketches to life and haunting him with visions of a girl in metal armor. She stabs him with her blade and denounces him as any prophet worth the name—and it’s not like he disagrees.

People who change the world generally aren’t losing their minds.

He just wants to hide out in his tent and kiss Kamali, but a vision of his death and an attack on the Human Resistance Movement convince him something bigger is coming. Maybe Augustus—the power-mad ascender he barely defeated. Maybe the Makers, a tinkering cult with their own kind of ascendance. But when his best friend Cyrus disappears, questions of destiny and prophethood will have to wait—because the fugue is always showing a version of the truth, and Eli must discover that truth before his terrifying visions become reality.

The Illusory Prophet is the third book in the Singularity series. This young adult science fiction series explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world.

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REVIEW: THE ILLUSORY PROPHET is the third full length installment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult (YA) SINGULARITY sci-fi/ dystopian series focusing on the merging of mind, body and soul with the technology of the future.

BACKGROUND: The ‘Singularity’ resulted in most of the world’s population transforming themselves into a hybrid known as the Ascended-part man/part machine but the few remaining humans become what is known as the Legacy-the true descendants of humankind. The Singularity series looks at the struggle between the Ascended and everyone else.

Told from first person point of view –seventeen year old Elijah Brighton -THE ILLUSORY PROPHET is the continuing story of man versus the hybrid machine known as The Ascended. As the face of The Resistance Elijah’s presence is both a curse and a blessing- our hero has the ability to bring the recently deceased back to life; travel outside of his body; and absorb the memories of those he touches while in the ‘fugue’-all of which are a threat to those battling for command and control. Elijah’s trips into the ‘fugue’ find our hero straddling between the body, mind and soul but it is Elijah’s growing abilities that threaten to destroy any semblance of peace when he is targeted for destruction.

Susan Kaye Quinn merges spirituality and God with a transcendental philosophy of abstract beliefs and the battle for power and control. The premise focuses on a belief system wherein all that is human is found in the souls of mankind, and with it the possibility that the Ascended have lost their souls when they opted for immortality and life ever after. The connection between body, mind and soul is a constant theme throughout the series. The search for the truth finds our hero battling for survival and the lives of the people he loves.

The Singularity Series blends the familiarity of The Hunger Games and Divergent with Star Trek nanobyte technology ala The Borg, and an artificial intelligence of the collective mind. The cult-like factions of the Resistance battle one another for dominance but are at a distinct disadvantage as the Ascended continue to prevail. Elijah Brighton is thought to be the ONE-the savior foretold to deliver mankind from the destructive nature of the Ascended.

Susan Kaye Quinn’s SINGULARITY series is brilliant in its inception; a post-apocalyptic ‘movie’ for the mind where technology, omnipotence and the battle for control is a threat to the survival of man in the future. The writing is flawless; the author’s imagination is intelligent and inventive; the premise is dramatic, energetic and wondrous.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

 

THE LEGACY HUMAN
(Singularity #1)
by Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: young adult, sci-fi, speculative fiction

ebook copy 99¢: Amazon.com / Amazon.ca /

About the book: Release Date March 2, 2015

Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.

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REVIEW: THE LEGACY HUMAN is the first installment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult, Singularity Dystopian, Sci-Fi series that looks at the merging of technology with the body, mind and soul. Following the ‘Singularity’ that resulted in the most of the world’s population transforming themselves into a hybrid known as the Ascended, the few remaining humans become what is known as the Legacy-the true descendants of humankind.

The storyline follows seventeen year old Elijah Brighton who desperately wants to Ascend. An artistically gifted young man whose Ascended ‘patron’ Lenora knows there is more to Eli than a canvas and paint but Elijah’s talent comes at a price. When Lenora’s second (lover) Marcus offers to ‘sponsor’ Elijah for the Legacy Creative Olympics, Elijah jumps at the chance to become one of the Ascended in order to keep his ailing mother alive. With life ever lasting and access to all knowledge the ultimate prize, the Ascended are both revered and despised by the human population. To become one of the Ascended, technology must marry the body, mind and soul-but what becomes of the soul when your humanity is stripped away? To be Ascended means to become part of the whole; your choices are no longer your own.

THE LEGACY HUMAN parallels some of the premise and many of the scenarios found in Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games and Veronica Roth’s Divergent. Young men and women, under the age of eighteen must compete against one another to become one of the Ascended. If they win, their families and friends will benefit from the Ascended privileges but there is also the probability that they will never make it out alive. Sides are formed; allegiances sworn; a revolution is on the horizon. The Resistance is waiting for Elijah’s next move.

The world building is amazingly detailed, well organized and revealed as the storyline develops; the characters are colorful, eclectic and unique. Susan’s imagination knows no boundary.

Susan Kaye Quinn looks at the philosophical and theological questions: Does mankind really have a soul? To become one of the Ascended do we lose the freedom to think; to love; to believe in a higher power? If you had the choice to become one of the Ascended, would you risk your soul for everlasting life?

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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THE DUALITY BRIDGE
(Singularity #2)
by Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: young adult, sci-fi, speculative fiction

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca /

About the book: Release Date August 15, 2015

What does it mean to be human?

Elijah Brighton is the face of the Human Resistance Movement. He’s the Olympic-level painter who refused an offer of immortality from the ascenders—the human/machine hybrids who run the world—in solidarity with the legacy humans who will never get a chance to live forever.

Too bad it’s all a complicated web of lies.

Worse, Eli’s not even entirely human. Few know about the ascenders’ genetic experiments that left him… different. Fewer know about the unearthly fugue state that creates his transcendent art—as well as a bridge that lets him speak to the dead. But the Resistance is the one place he can hide from the ascender who knows everything the fugue can do. Because if Marcus finds him, he’ll either use Eli for his own nefarious purposes… or destroy him once and for all.

The Duality Bridge is the second book in the Singularity series and the sequel to The Legacy Human. This thrilling new young adult science fiction series explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world.

••••••••••••••

REVIEW: THE DUALITY BRIDGE is the second installment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s young adult, sci-fi Singularity dystopian series focusing on the merging of mind, body and soul with the technology of the future.

BACKGROUND: The ‘Singularity’ resulted in most of the world’s population transforming themselves into a hybrid known as the Ascended, the few remaining humans become what is known as the Legacy-the true descendants of humankind.

Told from first person point of view –seventeen year old Elijah Brighton-THE DUALITY BRIDGE is the continuing struggles of man versus hybrid machines, and the battle for control of the power and the collective mind. Our hero Elijah is more than just the face of the Human Resistance Movement, he is believed to be the ONE sent to save the world, but Elijah is more than the sum of his mother’s DNA-Elijah is a genetic experiment whose powers are slowly being revealed.

THE DUALITY BRIDGE is a storyline awash in familiar sci-fi and dystopian scenarios found in The Hunger Games, Divergent, and a little bit of the Matrix and Star Trek cyborg nanobyte technology. But THE DUALITY BRIDGE also takes a close look a God and spirituality; a system of belief wherein the sum of all that is human is found in the souls of mankind, and with it the possibility that the ascended have lost their souls when they opted for immortality and life ever after. There are definitive cult-like scenarios both in and out of the collective mind; and the promise of forever for those who worship at the altar of the ascended.

THE DUALITY BRIDGE has a large ensemble cast of characters that continuously loop between reality and the fugue. The premise is a study in philosophical, psychological and transcendental assumptions, knowledge and understanding-even the Dhali Lama pontificates about man, technology and the otherness.

The world building is a movie set for the mind. Elijah Brighton is the BRIDGE-the Duality-the ONE-foretold to be the savior of the world-Susan Kaye Quinn’s mind knows no boundary as it takes the reader into a future where man is no longer in control.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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The Debt Collector Season 1 & 2 by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

The Debt Collector Season 1 &  2 by Susan Kaye Quinn-a review

Debt Collector Season 2

Amazon.com

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 15, 2014

What’s your life worth on the open market?
In this gritty urban fantasy, debt collectors take your life energy and give it to someone more “worthy”… all while paying the price with black marks on their souls.

Wraith is a shadow in the night, haunting the bedrooms of the rich “high potentials” who have stolen life energy from the desperate and dying. The justice and the sweet mercy hit that follow keep her from falling into her own personal abyss. Her secret nighttime work also keeps her on level for her real mission: carrying on her father’s legacy of attempting to bring an end to debt collection as a whole. But when a mysterious debt collector interrupts her in the act and discovers her secret, everything Wraith loves may be destroyed by the one thing she can never fix– the original sin of being a debt collector herself.

Contains mature content and themes.

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REVIEW: 4.5 stars–THE DEBT COLLECTOR Season 2 is the second installment in Susan Kaye Quinn’s urban fantasy, dystopian Debt Collector cyber-punk series where you pay your debt with your life. This is reluctant debt collector Alexandrea ‘Wraith’ Sterling’s storyline- a story that looks at the moral, ethical and illegal complications of taking a life for the sake of beauty, youth and life ever lasting.

Originally released in serial format, THE DEBT COLLECTOR Season 2 is a storyline that looks at the potential of too much power in the hands of too few. There are emotional, psychological and moral implications of a society that takes a life for payment of a debt. In a world where the rich and powerful have all of the control, the poorest of the poor will pay with their lives in an unending cycle of debt collecting and payout and in the end everyone owes a debt to the man above.

Wraith is a reluctant debt collector whose entire life has revolved around stopping the government sanctioned debt collecting. She is the epitome of everything both she and her late father hate-someone who pulls the life energy from the people who owe a debt to someone more powerful and in control. But a man named Moloch and his band of rogue debt collectors known as the Gehenna are willing to risk everyone in order to prove that trying to control the collectors will result in the deaths of thousands.

The principle characters are colorful, energetic and not without some conscience. The evil layer of society discovered that the debt collecting is a business of which they wanted to control, and in this our heroes and heroines are caught between what they do and what they know has to be done. The world building continues to look at the illegal collection of life and payouts to those who can afford.

I read THE DEBT COLLECTOR Season 2 in a nine installment serial format. Whether you are a fan of the serial stylization or not, it is recommended that you read Season 1 before reading Season 2. There is a vast amount of information revealed in each season, leading towards the culmination of the series in Season 5.

Susan Kaye Quinn fast paced, energetic, dystopian cyber-punk world of the Debt Collector will make you think about society’s direction and just how much IS your life really worth?

Copy supplied by the author.

Reviewed by Sandy

 

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THE DEBT COLLECTOR
(Vol 1-9 Season I)
by Susan Kaye Quinn

Debt Collector Season 1ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 2013

Amazon.com / Barnes and Noble

What’s your life worth on the open market?
A debt collector can tell you precisely.

Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He’s just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja’s sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane… until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn’t what she seems, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone–a dark pit he’s not sure he’ll be able to climb out of again.

The Debt Collector serial is a dark and gritty future-noir about a world where your life-worth is tabulated on the open market and going in debt risks a lot more than your credit rating. What’s a serial? It’s a sequence of stories, like a TV series, where each episode is connected to a larger story arc. Each episode is 11-15k (40-60 pages) in length, and each collection of three episodes is the length of a short novel. There will be nine episodes in the first season.

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REVIEW: THE DEBT COLLECTOR Season 1 is the first Season in Susan Kaye Quinn’s urban fantasy/sci-fi / cyber punk series focusing on a world where your debt is paid with your life. A Debt Collector is one who has the ability to remove the remaining life force from those about to pass on and transfer the energy to others -but- with death comes responsibilities and there are those who use their abilities for illegal and financial gains. Told from first person POV (Lirium) this is the story of Debt Collector Delirium (Lirium) Joe Miller.

Originally released as a nine part serial series, Season I focuses on a few weeks in the life of Lirium Miller-a Debt Collector with a conscience-one whose guilt will eat away at what is left of his soul. The deeper Lirium falls into the program the more he discovers that not everything and every assignment are ethically or morally true. Our hero will discover that the people assigned to ensure his mental and physical safety are the same people who will betray Lirium when he needs them the most.

THE DEBT COLLECTOR Season I takes the reader into a futuristic world where the human value is worth only as much as the debt that is owed and that debt must be paid with what remains of one’s life. This is a story that looks at the ethical side of the end of life; the termination of life forces; and the big business of medicine, government and life ever lasting. For those without the ability to pay for their medical care, a Debt Collector will take what remains of their life and give it to someone with the potential to do better.

Susan Kaye Quinn pulls the reader into an imaginative tale where medical ethics and human morals are at war with one another. When humanity has reached a point where one’s debt must be paid with one’s life, who becomes the winner in a game of the haves and the have-nots?

Copy supplied by the author.

Reviewed by Sandy

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