Telepath

Reread March 2021
Wow. Not only did I forget how good this book was, I think I liked it even more the second time around. (Probably a 5 star read, now.) Love the characters, of course, but the world building is simply amazing, too.


Original Review

Pretty sure if you'd take the characters from this book and send them to the Earth Girl world, I'd love it so much. For me, the plot wasn't something I love, but the characters are, so that makes up for a lot. I really, really hope the second books gives us some girls to the Strike team. The romance is great and, no matter how it may first appear, there is absolutely no love triangle involved.

Overview - if you want a great mystery, a fun adventure, an interesting setting and food for thought: This is a great book. After 1st Reading: This book follows an 18 year old girl, but don't stop reading, I know there's a lot of books like that but this is not a cheesy “Dystopian Love Triangle”. This is a solid SF adventure story in the grand tradition of making you think while telling a fun adventure with likable characters. This book is written to be approachable for Young Adults, without assuming that such readers are dumb (as some YA books do). This author is a really good writer.There is no cliché love triangle, though there is a great, well-told romance running through the story.Set in the future, urbanisation has reached it's logical conclusion and humanity now dwells in vast buildings that are largely self-sufficient and mostly underground, the are called “Hives” and essentially function as city-states. This high density living is enabled by a government of Systems – rather than a parliament or dictator, they just have procedures are in place for every eventuality and computers monitor and oversee the implementation of these Systems. Everyone is analysed through adolescence and finally given extensive psychological testing at maturity, this allows everyone to be given a job which they actually enjoy, while being useful to the Hive.This is all pretty good, everyone is happy... more or less.The problem comes with the wild card unpredictable factor or “Wild Bee”. With everyone living in close proximity and relying on the smooth running of Systems, the potential for collapse is catastrophic. One individual going postal could bring about mass rioting which could lead to deadly infrastructure damage and knock on effects, potentially destroying the Hive. “Wild Bees” need to be stopped before they can cause damage.Fortunately it has been discovered that telepathy is possible. Telepaths are vanishingly rare, but in a vast population such as a Hive it is possible to detect such rare individuals. Telepaths are recruited to lead special strike teams to detect “Wild Bees” as the Hive's first and only defense against collapse.This book has is all - Characters you care for, a multi layered mystery to solve, some tough questions about society to ponder, some edge of the seat action and a nice seasoning of just enough well written romance to bring a nice glow to the book. This is book 1 and it is clearly building up for a much bigger story. I've read her “Earth Girl” books which were very different but equally good. I seriously look forward to more from this excellent author. My only advice for her is - less cheesy covers. Everything inside her books are top quality.After 3rd Reading: This book is really good, and the author just gets better. After reading the latest book in this series ([b:Borderline 49123502 Borderline (Hive Mind #4) Janet Edwards https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1575756887l/49123502.SY75.jpg 73281674]) I officially appointed Janet Edwards as my favorite living writer - yes she's that good. Book 1 in the series shows her rounded characters, fascinating settings and interesting mysteries. These are really good. Believe me, in her later books these get even better. Her mysteries are top notch detective stories, her action scenes leave me holding my breath, and perhaps most of all - when I finish the books, I really miss the characters.I'm really glad I read this book.After 4th Reading: I've been trying to resist rereading these books for a long time - I mean I should read something else right? I just couldn't resist any longer, Janet Edwards is just a great storyteller - not only do I love reading about these characters - the setting is so complex and is such a great mystery in itself, that on each reread I'm spotting more details, leading to “aha!” moments and bouts of nerves for what may be revealed in coming books.After 5th Reading: Once again I found it hard to resist slipping back into a reread of this series, but knowing that there is a new book coming out in the spring gave me the excuse I needed. After 6th Reading: Six times. Do I recommend this series? Obviously. This is now clearly confirmed as my go to series if I want something to grab me and suck me in. It still does that after six reads.This is clearly just quality!