Thrust into a plot to sabotage vital medication, an Elegrian technician fights vehement bigotry, physical and mental pain, and his own people to gain a woman’s trust and save a hospital full of human children.

Lots of fun and well written, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the way the author took her main character and put him through every trauma possible, and then increased the intensity. There came a point where I thought she’d gone too far, but even then, she would give him some kind of logical influx of energy, just enough for him to be tortured some more. There was enough misdirection through the story that although I was pretty sure I knew who the saboteur was, I could never be certain. I also enjoyed seeing one character change, while another couldn’t get over the prejudice, as the main character tried to overcome his family’s failings, getting deeper into trouble. The ticking clock didn’t do much for me, as it seemed a little too exact for a medical crisis, but gave them a good reason to rush. Looking forward to the next installment!

I’m part of a writing group with this author, although we’ve never met, and only exchanged a couple of emails. It’s always hard to write an honest public review for a friend, or in this case a potential associate with a shared mentor, which is why I was reluctant to do this. I shouldn’t have worried, though, because from the first page the writing is excellent, the character work is great, and even the dialog, for the most part, is realistic.

I liked Erys and Kaytee, the two main characters. Erys has a lot of baggage, which we learn gradually throughout the story, and which becomes more relevant as the story goes on. He’s sent to the planet Loridan to fix a malfunction in the intelligent data stream of some medical equipment healing a children’s pandemic. Kaytee of course has a personal stake in one of the sick children, her niece Marta. If they don’t get the equipment fixed in five days, she’ll die.

I always have a problem with these kinds of ticking clocks when they relate to a medical problem. Every body is different, and responds to disease and medication differently. They might know on average how long it takes before the children will die, but can they be so exact? It seems to me that the longer they don’t get her the cure, the more side effects or damage she’ll have in the long run. I suppose the intelligent data might be better than our current technology and prevent something like that, and would allow the story’s happy ending.

Elegrians are telepaths, and as such are feared and despised by humans. After first contact, when both Elegrians and humans wanted this planet, first contact led to war, because Erys’ father, frustrated at the lack of progress, initiated a telepathic link, which killed the human representative. Elegria lost the war, and were brought into the Alliance as second-rate citizens except on their own planet. They have to wear clothing with a mark proclaiming their species, and are forbidden to use telepathy, though how that could be enforced except by fear is unclear.

Elegrians are of course misunderstood. As Erys explains throughout, a telepathic society must by definition honor privacy, or else it either falls apart or becomes a hive mind, with the strong domineering the weak. They don’t read minds or gain secrets except with mutual agreement. The exception, which causes fear among humans, was Erys’ father.

The author put a lot of thought into making Elegrians into a consistent species with certain needs and a lot of history. They eschew technology because a technological disaster destroyed their planet’s ability to create a nutrient essential for their survival. They found it on Loridan, but were forced from the planet by humans. They are, in essence, humans except for this special gene. While in hiding, Erys discovers a cave in the mountains with Elegrian and Terran flora, leading to a theory that they both originated on Loridan. I was hoping to learn more about that, but hopefully it will come in a sequel. The constant alien swearing was hilarious (as was Kaytee’s question if there was more to their language).

With ignorance comes fear, and humans fear Elegrians, especially on Loridan. Kaytee doesn’t want anything to do with him, but as he’s incapacitated, first through bureaucracy, then technicalities, and then through prejudice, she gets to know and trust him. Even when she doesn’t want to be part of what he’s doing, she’s curious, and as he does more through her, her fear lessens.

The security chief Krenshaw was another matter. He was obviously created as a character we’re meant to hate, because he can’t get over his prejudices, no matter how trustworthy Erys shows himself to be. But his dialog was forced and clipped, and he came across as simply argumentative for the sake of argument. He fixates on partial sentences to feed his prejudice, never letting any little slip of the tongue go. One could argue this is a good stereotype of many humans, but I found the character more annoying to read.

The short trip to Earth was almost unnecessary, as Erys is attacked, but then goes to see the Elders, who after trying to remove him from duty follow him back to Loridan. I’m not sure there was a real point to this, and it made their appearance on Loridan suspicious, especially in the way they seemed to be able to hide their arrival, but nobody was suspicious when they did show themselves.

Of the Elders, the author created a nice mix of xenophobic but empathetic, to completely antagonistic, to the disapproving father figure. Any of these could have been the saboteur, and since we didn’t see any other Elegrians, the saboteur had to be one of them. But their loyalties were so shady that it could have been any of them through most of the story. The culprit solidifies into Tares, though, when his support doesn’t show up, or does so too late, at the caves. At that point, I wasn’t fooled by Vald’s attempt to kill Erys, so after he’s saved and Erys convinces Krenshaw and Kaytee to take him to Marta’s room, it wasn’t a surprise when Tares finally comes in and tries to stop him once and for all.

The climax seemed to go on a little too long, as they make progress, get attacked, make more progress, get attacked again, get saved then attacked by Krenshaw, and finally, when Marta stops breathing, Tares makes his final attack. In all this time, Erys gets weaker, his shields fading, his energy low, his wounds bleeding, and his morale faltering. But he gets support from the Markie device and from Kaytee, who has the ability to maintain a link even when they are not touching, something Elegrians can’t even do. It was a very cool revelation, and something I hope the author explores in a future book.

In the end, of course, Marta is healed, and they fix the system so that all of the children recover. As I said above, unless the Intelligent Data has some other special properties that I missed, I have trouble believing that everyone recovered without complications. Marta stopped breathing until Erys linked with her, after being in a coma for a week. Will this not leave her with other problems later on in life? In reality, it’s only a device to provide a ticking clock, something that is referenced throughout the book to provide Erys and Kaytee with the motivation to continue.

It’s nice to see, though, that there were repercussions for Erys. He was dismissed from the human technical corps, but deemed not liable for the sabotage or the illegal mind links. Tares, although deemed guilty, was not put to death as per the law because Erys swayed them to keep him living, which makes me suspect he’ll either escape or be let go in the future to create more havoc for Erys.

In any case, Erys and Kaytee have now joined in an organization of their own. I’m very interested to see where they go from here.