layvina

What's good about this book is very, very good. There were a couple of things that bothered me enough to take away a star, though. Vic and Jacob discover that their old buddy, Lisa, seems to be missing from her training center in Santa Barbara, California. A couple of trainees have disappeared without a trace. The clock is ticking and they need to find her. The mystery is pretty great. Vic, once again, discovers new gifts to go along with his other talents and Jacob and he continue to learn about his strange, undocumented, abilities. I love all that except for one thing. We start the book in a kind of backslide from where we left off after Camp Hell. Vic is once again wandering around in a daze. He had so much development in Camp Hell, was so much more proactive, it was disappointing to see him back in the zombie-fied behavior. At one point I really had to wonder what Jacob sees in him since Vic seems to give so little positive feedback. But, as with the other books, he wakes up at a certain point and starts to truly become an active part of the story. I think he's ready to start the books in that place, but maybe that's just me. Once we get to the training center and other elements come into play, Vic steps up and it's really enjoyable to read. The descriptions of his stunning new gift, his realizations about others' insecurities, and his devotion to Jacob are all top notch story telling. I loved it. My biggest gripe I really mention because it seems to be laying foundation for further stories. Peppered throughout is this narrative that people who fear Psychs are "prejudiced". This idea runs completely counter to the Psy-Cop world building so far. Here's one quote that stuck out to me: ...we now had a better appreciation of how vulnerable Psychs actually were to the superstitious nutjobs who perceived us as serious threats. ReallY? Only superstitious nutjobs could perceive people who can enslave their minds from across a room within seconds as "serious threats"? They ARE serious threats! Just because most of the ones we've met are "good guys" doesn't mean they're harmless. If Lisa goes off the rails (and it would be completely organic for any of them to do so considering the psychic stress they deal with daily) she could potentially trigger a world destroying sequence of events. Most of the books in this series deal with someone using their psychic abilities to do harm. So why is anyone who's concerned about that possibility a prejudiced nutjob? I'm assuming the focus of any future story lines will be on those who take their concerns to murder and mayhem, but there's plenty here to suggest that we're supposed to believe leeriness of these walking potential WMDs is "prejudice", "narrow mindedness", "superstitious". Frankly, anyone with half a brain would say WTF and never stop saying it if one day psychic abilities like these were confirmed. And on top of it, many of them are being trained by the government. That should make everyone feel safer. In UF it is crucial that logic and reality be strictly adhered to and this through line simply doesn't make sense. People are afraid of them because they should be. What they do with that fear and the way the Psychs approach that completely justifiable fear (keep humanity safe, keep the loose cannon and evil Psychs on lock down, accept that they've introduced a potential catastrophe to civilization) is how the plot progresses. Otherwise it's just the author telling me what to think after several installments that show me otherwise. Still, this is a great series so far. That is the only thing that has ever stood out to me as a possible problem and I only even bring it up because of the potential for story lines founded on this false premise. If you haven't started Psy-Cop, you really should do it. If you like M/M romance and UF you'll really enjoy it.

2023-06-13 13:03