Book Review: Fear of Thought

Originally posted on Amazon.

Some books start with a bang and end with the protagonist walking into the sunset into the "happily ever after" ending we've been given by Hollywood for a long time now.

This is not that kind of book.

In Fear of Thought, the protagonist, Rhikki, has mental abilities, I don't mean she can play chess really well or count toothpicks when they fall onto the floor. I mean she can control other people's thoughts, heal her own brain of damage, and, if you've messed with her, turn your mind inside out as the Doctor who kidnaps her discovers. Solution? Keep her drugged to the gills and study her to find out what makes her different. (She doesn't have gills.)

I don't want to spoil the book but will say the ending was one I loved. It ends where a lot of movies would start and I like that. I liked it a lot. In my mind's eye I could see her opening a door and a world of possibilities opening before her. What happens next isn't happily ever after. It's up to us the reader to wonder, guess, think about the what happens next part of the book and I really like that about it. Stories that make me think are the best stories.

If you like a thought-provoking sci-fi book with a tight cast and good guys & bad guys who are written in a way that leaves them solidly in the gray areas of who's the good guy this is a good one. I've often said that "bad guys" don't see themselves as the bad guys and we see here that the two main characters have an idea that they're not the bad guy. I really like that. Bad guys written well are really good bad guys.

Grab the book. I'm hopeful it's the beginning of a small series. I'm dying to know what happens next. I know that seems to fly in the face of my saying I like wondering what happens next, but something tells me subsequent books would be as free of bows tieing it all up nicely in the end as this one was. I just want to spend more time inside Rhikki's head... but I probably wouldn't want her in mine!

I first discovered the author, Veronica Giguere through the Secret World Chronicle and highly recommend that series as well. I listened to it as a podcast and can't recommend that one enough. If you like comic book type action & story telling style get that one too. Very different story telling styles in the two stories. Both are really well done. Secret World Chronicle, created by Mercedes Lackey, has several authors, not just one.