Mine to Possess

I really have to hand it to Nalini Singh. She's created a vibrantly-portrayed, interesting world somewhat analogous to our own, but set years in the future, where there are three types of people: Changlings, Psy, and normal humans. Back in 1973 on this world, the Psychically gifted instituted a program called Silence, which wiped all emotion from the Psy through a program of brainwashing and mental training. Not all Psy submitted or even thought it was a good thing, some broke away from the rest and disappeared, and now, over 100 years later, all Psy are cold and emotionless... or are they?

Holding the Psy together is a construct called the PsyNet, which links their brains together and helps enforce Silence. The Psy look down on the other two peoples who share their world, seeing humans as dull and ordinary, and Changelings as little better than animals. But the Psy are having problems. The minds that anchor the PsyNet are succumbing to madness, and with each anchor that falls away, Chaos grows in the PsyNet. The Shadow-Mind, the Shadow side of the Net Mind that oversees the PsyNet, holds the suppressed emotions of the Psy, and is projecting the dark emotions into the minds of the Psy. Weaker Psy affected by the Shadow-Mind become sadistic serial killers, acting out the repressed and hateful desires locked away by the Silence.

In past books in the series, Psy have met and fallen in love with Changeling warriors, and now the series adds an ordinary, or perhaps not so ordinary, human to the mix. Talin McKade works for an organization called Shine, which is dedicated to finding poor, orphaned and abandoned children of exceptional talent and seeing that they get ahead. But someone has been abducting the children and their bodies are later found beaten and mutilated, missing parts. Talin is angry and heartbroken over the deaths, but is seeking a young man from the Shine program named Jonquil, who has also been abducted. To do so, she seeks out a childhood friend named Clay Bennett, a leopard shifter.

Although they once were friends, Clay and Talin haven't seen each other in years, since the night Clay killed Talin's abusive foster father. Clay went to jail for the act, and Talin let him believe she was dead rather than face her fear of him. Clay might want to turn her down, as he can feel her fear very deeply, and it angers him. Clay has been a broken man since he was told Talin was dead, and he has nearly gone over the edge into forgetting his human self and becoming completely animal.

Talin has another secret she is keeping as well. She is dying, and no one seems to know the cause. She passes out or goes into fugue states where she cannot remember what she has done. She wants to find Jonquil before she can die, because she promised him she would stick by him. Of course, this lends a sense of mystery and urgency to the action, mystery as the reader and the characters around her are baffled as to what could be killing her, and urgency (of course) because there is a question as to whether she will live long enough to retrieve Jonquil. It is specifically stated that she was told by the doctors that she has less than six months to live.

Clay is willing to help her find Jonquil, but he also wants to find out why she had the foster-care people tell him she was dead in a car accident, and in the Changeling way, he touches her and pushes her around with his body, constantly provoking her and her senses. Talin doesn't want to have a relationship with him, other than friendship, but she finds herself reacting with jealousy to other women's relationships with him, and he can smell the hunger for him that she exudes whenever he touches her. Obviously, her body and her mouth disagree on what she wants (I can't even say her brain disagrees).

More details of the world as it is are unveiled in the book, as well as setting up the sequel, but both are introduced in such a way as to not have it obviously shoehorned in. Well, okay, it's a little obvious, but the way it is done still makes it integral to the story. Even in these modern (in terms of the book) times, not every Psy believes that they need to take the Silence a step further and change the Psy into a hive-mind, controlled by the council. However, it seems the council is taking their race in that direction via an implant directly into the brain. Even though there are many obstacles on the path to that goal, and the member of the council overseeing the project will accept any price to bring it to fruition, even the bodies of dead children and teenagers.

While mentioned in the beginning of the book (and in the other books in this series as well), this book delves into what happened to the Psy who dissented with the silence and with their descendents. The beginning of the book presents several speculations, including that they were forcibly brainwashed in "reeducation camps", were killed by the Council who came to rule the Psy and so on. But in the book, we get to see what happened, and how the recent defections from the PsyNet by the former Psy who mated and married Changelings has affected not only the Psy, but the humans as well.

Since this is a romance as well as a Paranormal Sci-Fi book, the story is also about the romance between Clay and Talin. There certainly is a HEA (Happy Ever After, for those of you unfamilliar with the term) that comes organically from the story itself, which makes it even more believable. But though this is a romance book, there is enough plot and backstory and world here to keep even an ardent Sci-Fi fan happy. So, if you are looking for an interestingly well-contructed world with a tense plot, this would fit very well. And if you are looking for a good romance? That, too. And that's one of the things I have to hand it to Nalini Singh for. Not only can she write an excellent romance, but she can write a cracking good Sci-Fi story and intertwine the two so that it feels like an organic whole, not just a romance novel with some vaguely Science-Fictiony stuff thrown in for good measure, and not just a Sci-Fi novel with the obligatory romance languishing in a subplot clearly delineated for it. Combining the stories, and combining them well, is where she excels, making the novel more than the sum of its component parts. Definitely one to grab.

Next up, "Kitty and the Silver Bullet" by Carrie Vaughn, the latest in the Kitty Norville series of novels.