In Darkness Bound by Christine Price
Series: the Society
Publisher: Carina, 2010
Genre: Science fiction
Sub-genre: Paranormal
Rating: 2 1/2 pints of blood
The cover is... well, first of all it's blue, which is probably supposed to give a feel of sci-fi/paranormal, but really just looks blue. We're making out in what looks to be the hallway from my high school. To be fair, I'm sure my school saw more than its share of makeout sessions, although the topless ones might not have been right out in the middle of the hallway. That they chose to place a ménage à trois right on the front cover speaks volumes, all of them about sexy times. What these three bleached blondes are telling me is that we're not dealing with anything high-brow or intelligent or particularly plot laden. This book be all about pretty men getting it on.
To an outsider, Chris appears to be your average brilliant student, able to absorb information so fast it almost seems as though he's cheating somehow. Only his closest friend knows the truth: Chris is, in fact, cheating. He's a psychic, and he pulls the information from his teachers' heads to get his grades. One of his teachers suspects something must be up and begins giving Chris a hard time about it, raising a fuss until some of the higher ups hear about it. A woman named Dalhousie takes special interest and invites Chris to an interview where, to his surprise, she begins subtly testing some of his abilities.
The next thing Chris knows, he's waking up in a cell. He's been kidnapped for further testing, a lab rat along with a few other special people. No longer called by name, he's known only as 331. He's not permitted any contact with the other test subjects, but Chris's abilities allow him to discover and speak with Vance, who's been imprisoned in this secret research facility for a very long time.
The two men forge a strong bond, enabled by Dalhousie's "pet" minion Simon, who seems to have a complicated history with Vance. They take solace in each other when the testing pushes their limits and dream of the things they'd do to their captors if they were able to escape. Dalhousie's tests are growing crueller as she spirals into madness, and if they want to survive, the men are going to have to band together.
At the heart of In Darkness Bound is a love story, but instead of your traditional love triangle where one party must choose between the other two, this involves a trio of men who have to figure out how to balance their needs and passions amongst all of them. There are some lovely complexities, including Simon's inability to believe he deserves a happy-ever-after. To make a reader believe in the love between two characters is a difficult feat, but Price manages to make the reader believe in three integrated romances. The men's shared experiences in Dalhousie's research facility help a lot with this, giving them almost a "war buddies" sort of bond on top of the romance.
The first portion of the book follows only Chris, and information on the other characters is given as he discovers it. I had settled in for a nice sci-fi tale with psychics, so I wasn't expecting to meet other paranormal types. I could have done without demons and vampires, but your mileage may vary. My expectations might be colouring my experience, but then again, the other paranormals aren't introduced until nearly halfway through the book, so I might not be the only reader thrown for a loop. And let's be honest here, psychics aren't nearly as overdone as other paranormal critters, so that may have something to do with it too.
There were a couple of loose ends left at the end of the book, one involving Brennan and one involving subject #66. It's possible these were left open on purpose to be dealt with in future volumes (this is the first of a series), but they left me with that niggling feeling after I turned the last page, which isn't the reaction you want when you finish a book.
In Darkness Bound will be available as an e-book on September 13. My copy was generously provided by the publisher.
Publisher: Carina, 2010
Genre: Science fiction
Sub-genre: Paranormal
Rating: 2 1/2 pints of blood
The cover is... well, first of all it's blue, which is probably supposed to give a feel of sci-fi/paranormal, but really just looks blue. We're making out in what looks to be the hallway from my high school. To be fair, I'm sure my school saw more than its share of makeout sessions, although the topless ones might not have been right out in the middle of the hallway. That they chose to place a ménage à trois right on the front cover speaks volumes, all of them about sexy times. What these three bleached blondes are telling me is that we're not dealing with anything high-brow or intelligent or particularly plot laden. This book be all about pretty men getting it on.
To an outsider, Chris appears to be your average brilliant student, able to absorb information so fast it almost seems as though he's cheating somehow. Only his closest friend knows the truth: Chris is, in fact, cheating. He's a psychic, and he pulls the information from his teachers' heads to get his grades. One of his teachers suspects something must be up and begins giving Chris a hard time about it, raising a fuss until some of the higher ups hear about it. A woman named Dalhousie takes special interest and invites Chris to an interview where, to his surprise, she begins subtly testing some of his abilities.
The next thing Chris knows, he's waking up in a cell. He's been kidnapped for further testing, a lab rat along with a few other special people. No longer called by name, he's known only as 331. He's not permitted any contact with the other test subjects, but Chris's abilities allow him to discover and speak with Vance, who's been imprisoned in this secret research facility for a very long time.
The two men forge a strong bond, enabled by Dalhousie's "pet" minion Simon, who seems to have a complicated history with Vance. They take solace in each other when the testing pushes their limits and dream of the things they'd do to their captors if they were able to escape. Dalhousie's tests are growing crueller as she spirals into madness, and if they want to survive, the men are going to have to band together.
At the heart of In Darkness Bound is a love story, but instead of your traditional love triangle where one party must choose between the other two, this involves a trio of men who have to figure out how to balance their needs and passions amongst all of them. There are some lovely complexities, including Simon's inability to believe he deserves a happy-ever-after. To make a reader believe in the love between two characters is a difficult feat, but Price manages to make the reader believe in three integrated romances. The men's shared experiences in Dalhousie's research facility help a lot with this, giving them almost a "war buddies" sort of bond on top of the romance.
The first portion of the book follows only Chris, and information on the other characters is given as he discovers it. I had settled in for a nice sci-fi tale with psychics, so I wasn't expecting to meet other paranormal types. I could have done without demons and vampires, but your mileage may vary. My expectations might be colouring my experience, but then again, the other paranormals aren't introduced until nearly halfway through the book, so I might not be the only reader thrown for a loop. And let's be honest here, psychics aren't nearly as overdone as other paranormal critters, so that may have something to do with it too.
There were a couple of loose ends left at the end of the book, one involving Brennan and one involving subject #66. It's possible these were left open on purpose to be dealt with in future volumes (this is the first of a series), but they left me with that niggling feeling after I turned the last page, which isn't the reaction you want when you finish a book.
In Darkness Bound will be available as an e-book on September 13. My copy was generously provided by the publisher.