Dystopia Time: Review & Contest: MIND STORM by K.M. Ruiz

Ready for the end of the world as we know it? Today, I’m looking at Mind Storm, a dystopian science fiction novel from K.M. Ruiz, and the first in a series. It’s a dark, action-filled story about some really scary people (well, modified people) in a dark, Blade Runner-esque post-nuke society. And, of course, I’ll be giving away a copy, so read on!

THE OFFICIAL BLURB: Two hundred and fifty years after the world was nearly wiped out by nuclear war, what's left of society fights over the scraps of the Earth as the rich and powerful plan to ascend in secret to another planet. But the deadly new breed of humanity that the rulers have enslaved to protect their interests are about to change everything. K.M. Ruiz's Mind Storm is the rip-roaring tale of Threnody Corwin, a psion with the ability to channel electricity like lightning through anything she touches. As a soldier-slave for the human government, Threnody is recruited by an unknown enemy: the scion of Earth's most powerful (and supposedly human) family, the Serca Syndicate. But Lucas Serca is far from human and he intends to make Threnody and her fellow psions meet their destiny, no matter how many people he has to kill to do it. Mind Storm is the first of two books chronicling the fight for survival by the psions and other gene-trash humans, before they're killed by the racist world government or left to die on a crumbling Earth

MY THOUGHTS: Ready for a dark and dangerous ride? Mind Storm sets you down in the action as psion Threnody and her partner Quinton Martinez are on a train en route to the only remaining outpost on the west coast, Slum of the Angels (yeah, once upon a time it was Los Angeles). Threnody and Quinton failed their last assignment—she refused to terminate some unregistered human children (because if the government says you don’t breed, you don’t breed). Now, unless she and Quinton locate the mysterious Lucas Serca, they’ll be terminated themselves. Because scions who don’t follow orders don’t live, and Threnody’s already on shaky ground.

            Of course, nothing’s quite that simple, especially in this world where scions hold genetically manipulated powers and the human body is no longer big enough to contain the mind. Yep, this is a very complex bit of worldbuilding that Ruiz has done. Mind Storm is not going to be a book that yields its secrets quickly. If you want a fast one-day read, this one isn’t going to be it. Promotional materials call it a cross between “Blade Runner” and “X-Men,” and that’s probably a fair assessment.

            What Ruiz does manage to do, however, is put a bit of humanity into her scions, so that everything isn’t quite as black and white as an “X-Man” story—it never crosses the line from horrific dystopia to cartoon, and that’s a good thing.

            Mind Storm won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But if you like dark dystopian stories with complex worldbuilding and lots of action, you might want to take a sip of this one.

Want to win a copy of Mind Storm? You know the drill: +1 for comment, +1 for blog follow, +1 for Twitter follow @Suzanne_Johnson, and +1 for Tweet or Retweet. *sends psion-like mental order for you to click “comment”* And if you have trouble commenting--because Blogger is having issues these days--you can email your comment to me directly and I'll make sure you're entered!