Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Jin Donovan, code named Topaz, is a psi-talented hacker, a technomancer with the power to enter the electronic world found inside computers and most electronic devices. Recruited to the Organization—a clandestine group dedicated to protecting the world from crime syndicates—right out of college, Jin is their top technokinetic. He teams up with Damon Champion—known within the Organization as Steel—a sometime assassin, bodyguard, and biokinetic. The pair find themselves mutually attracted and give in to temptation after they conclude their mission successfully. But attractions like theirs aren’t approved of in their line of work, and Jin cuts Damon off immediately. Unfortunately, being an operative for the Organization isn't a safe profession and Jin vanishes without a trace. Now it's up to Damon to find Jin, the man he’s fallen in love with, and rescue him from his captors… if he isn't already dead.

Book Review

Psi-powers fascinate me, and as “unreal” as they may be according to accepted wisdom and opinion, I can’t help but think there is some truth to their existence. How else would we have come up with them? There are quite a few “traditional” powers like telekinesis, telepathy, etc. – all of them dealing with the manipulation of physical objects. Biokinesis, Damon’s ability, fits that bill even if the focus is inside someone’s body rather than any outside objects. But Jin’s ability is special. Technokinesis - making Jin a technomancer/technokinetic with the ability to manipulate electronics and data inside computers - has got to be new since humans haven’t had computers all that long. But if we assume that “traditional” psi-powers evolved as human society grew from tribal hunters and gatherers to sedentary farmers and eventually industrialized beings, it stands to reason that new powers could emerge now that we have entered the technological age.

This story is set about a hundred years in the future (my guess) and is about Jin and Damon, two agents with psi-powers who are working for a mysterious group called the Organization. Their job is to take out crime syndicates, something they both believe is the right thing to do. But then, right after they have sex for the first time, something weird happens when Jin disappears without a trace, and Damon decides to find him. What follows is an action-packed adventure in the best tradition of spy thrillers but with a futuristic touch. Jin and Damon are both put through the wringer, and while I was biting my nails pretty much through the entire second half of the book, it was an exhilarating journey!

But there is another side to this story as well. The relationship between Jin and Damon starts out as a forbidden encounter between fellow agents, but it sits deeper than either of them suspected. Damon is driven to find Jin, no matter what, and Jin can only hold on because he keeps thinking of Damon. Their physical union has consequences neither of them (and probably not many others) have foreseen, and it made the psi-power side of the story very powerful. I loved it!

If you like stories about agents, secret missions, and the betrayal some of them may face, if two men who aren’t supposed to develop feelings for each other yet manage to fall in love sound interesting, and if you’re looking for an action-packed read set in an imaginative future, then you will probably like this novella as much as I did. I think it’s very creative and, despite its futuristic setting, manages to have a human relationship at its center that had me rooting for both men from the beginning.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novella, 93 pages/34930 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	25-November-2015
Price	$4.99 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/worth-more-than-words-by-michael-barnette-3494-b