Blurb:

A Girl. A Mysterious Power. A Revolution

The Archon Dominion crushes all dissent. Mercy Hail wants change, no matter the cost to herself. But freak accidents keep happening around her, and she can’t explain why. So when she lights the fuse on an uprising, it’s not exactly a surprise when everything goes wrong at once.

The Dominion sends Dante Matter to Mercy’s world with a simple set of orders: Find the girl with emerging telekinetic powers and put her to work for us. Nobody warned him she’d be beautiful, though. Nobody warned him her gifts would be greater than his own. And nobody warned him that his hunt would be the first battle in an interstellar war.

In a world where gifts like hers have been all but extinguished, Mercy must choose sides in a war that will spread across the stars. To survive, she’ll have to learn how to use her power, learn how she feels about Dante, and learn the true story of the past that made her who she is.

Review:

First off, this story grabbed my attention from the opening paragraph, and threw me into a scene filled with tension, and a little bit of plastique. Nothing like explosive booby traps to set the tone for what followed!             

Enter Mercy, one of the main characters, the daughter of a farmer turned rebel, on the planet Summerwell, which had remained relatively free of the Archon Dominion’s brutal grasp. Until recently. The Archons use an army of enforcers, called “hogs”, carnivorous human-pig hybrids which are unleashed on those deemed traitors to Dominion rule. And their reach is increasingly growing throughout the Free Worlds Of Human Space. Archons are also Telepaths, those who have innate “magic” to manipulate the world, or the people, around them. They jealously keep these abilities to themselves, and actively search out “rogue’ telepaths to twist to their dogma. Or kill as traitors. 

Did I mention that Mercy’s exceptional ability to move like a thief is what spurred her recruitment by the uprising’s tech guru, Sorren? Her skill at arriving late to class, yet unnoticed piqued Sorren’s curiosity, and landed her a spot as his partner in infiltrating government offices and stealing any documents she could lay hands on, while Sorren scrambled the AI. 

Now enter our dark and power hungry young Archon, Dante Matter. A rather arrogant young man who sees his power as Archon as a means to get things from others, embracing the use of fear to achieve this. He will hold this threat over others and feels it is his right to do so. And it’s power he covets. His every action is motivated by this singular objective. And he’s been tasked with finding the rogue Telepath whose ripple of energy has attracted the attention of the head of the Archons, Char.  

One of the things I found to be atypical for me was that I enjoyed the teen hero/antagonist, going from enemies, to being attracted to said enemies, and teen angsty attitude of total disregard of your elders’ advice. I’m a little long in the tooth to find myself really connecting to main characters that could be my kids. That was not the case with this story.  

First, it was very engaging, the characters well written and following believable arcs. The premise of the story itself is one we can all cheer for; FREEDOM. From tyranny, in all its forms, such as surveillance in every aspect of life by AI embedded in the very materials used in buildings, the constant fear of being labeled a traitor by some arbitrary rule, the outcome being death by being eaten alive by giant pig-humans. 

The story has many surprise twists, and one is never quite sure who is really on Mercy’s side. There are some deeply buried agendas from those who seem to want to help Mercy develop her “rogue” Telepathic abilities. Both sides want to use her. It’s one of those story lines that makes the reader want to yell, “Don’t trust ANY of them! They’re all lying!”   

One of the threads running throughout the story is how the past keeps affecting the present, especially concerning Mercy. I rather enjoyed the backstory, and it made so many things that were now happening relevant. It wasn’t just thrown into the story but was an integral part of what was happening. It deepened the characters, and made motivations believable.  

I enjoyed this book as the writing was crisp, it was fast paced, and pulled me right into the story, and was fraught with tension throughout.  

A young, cocky power-hungry Archon Telepath, a feisty rebel girl with an ability she doesn’t know she possesses let alone how to control, and a fight between good and evil with cannibalistic pig-human hybrids? 

I recommend you find yourself a comfy place to read, and dive in!

Guest Reviewer Bio:

My name is Vivian Cicero, and I am one of the judges for the SFF Insiders SPSFC4 team. I will be posting guest reviews of the titles I’ve selected to read for the competition. I’m an alpha/beta/ARC reader, as well.