Audiobook review: Minder’s Rising by Carol Van Natta
Returning to this exciting, colorful, and intriguing future world in the distant stars the author created was exciting and I was ready to press on for more. If you want it to make some sense scientifically while keeping the wonder of the inexplicable beside an action, suspense, and romance blend that will keep you turning pages, here you go.
Minder Rising can operate as a standalone story, but when reading/listening to the books in order, one sees the connection each book has to the Central Galactic Concordance series. It shifts focus to a new setting and new characters, but just as much danger, suspense, future fun, developed characters, and slow-burn romance as the previous two (depending where you see the series listed, the first book might be listed as the prequel or book one).
Lieren Song works for the Citizen Protection Service which is an organization to protect the people with Minder powers from being in danger, but also protect null humans from the dangers of Minders gone bad. He is part of secret mission unit who track down the really bad ones. He has two Minder powers that he can employ in his work.
Unfortunately, he is put on light duty and office work while he recovers from a mission that went pear-shaped when his partner died and he nearly did. While he is recovering, he encounters single mom and bartender, Imara Sesay and her twelve-year-old boy who has strong Minder gifts. He spends time with regular people for the first time since he was sent away to train his Minder gifts for service and realizes his life is missing quite a bit.
But then he starts to realize that someone is disposing of everyone in his unit for an unknown reason even while he gets suspicious of the testing the CPS is doing on children like Darren Sesay, to determine their Minder gifts, the strengths, and who gets placed. He has always been loyal to the system, but now sees that things aren’t adding up particularly when Imara’s son is on the verge of being tested and someone keeps trying to kill Lieren. Imara doesn’t want to get involved with Lieren no matter how wonderful he is because he is not sticking around and she has to think of her son.
Another brilliant entry in the series. The plot is layered and well-paced, exciting, but also develops well. The characters are, again, what drives the story most for me. They are involved in the action, but also progress through growth internally.
Lieren is an interesting hero. He’s one of those little seen beta heroes. Sure, he’s part of a special policing force who go after the big bads, but he’s an interrogator who is brought in after the capture, not a soldier. His loyalty to his team and his purpose is his whole life until he is grounded and makes friends brings him to the point of change. He’s gentle, kind, polite, and self-effacing to a fault. He doesn’t have to be in charge and, in fact, doesn’t want to be. He is not threatened by Imara’s leader personality. He respects her quick analytical mind and planning ability and follows her lead several times without it being a difficulty. Imara is a great counterpart for Lieren. When she was married, she let her husband lead and trusted him to make the decisions and provide. She learned to step up when he was gone for her son and herself. She never wants to go back to that helpless and passive woman she was again. She works two jobs that require her to be tough and decisive. She has strict rules about not getting involved with someone who can’t commit to the long haul so tries to keep the attractive Lieren in the friend category. He is tough to keep there the way he warms her heart by being good to her son and herself.
There is a mystery and also a political intrigue element like the earlier ones. These drive the action to a pulse-pounding big scene and some good twists. Even though this is a standalone story, I could see how it fit perfectly with the other stories like they are all pieces of the same puzzle and each adds to the overall picture.
Nicole Poole’s narration work is excellent as usual. She wowed me with not just all her voices including gender, but the woman had to add in accents from Indian to Scottish and more than one Asian language with some phrases. She didn’t miss a beat. And, her grasp of tone and pace was spot on. I can’t imagine enjoying this series without her telling me the stories. In an aside, I just noticed that audio copies are no longer available and are being re-worked the author’s website says.
In summary, this was another abso-fab entry in the series leaving me thirsty for more. Having sci-fi and suspense mashed with romance is the best blend ever and I highly recommend these.
My Ratings
Story: A
Narration: A+
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
A covert agent asked to train a prodigy telepath discovers he must first keep the boy and his mother alive in a gleaming city full of danger.
An injured agent on the galactic capital planet must evade whoever is killing off his covert interrogations unit and make an impossible choice–save his own skin, or save an innocent woman and her prodigy son. Can he discover who is subverting the mission of the Citizen Protection Service, before they fulfill their dark plans?
A millennium into the future, the Citizen Protection Service tests all children for minder talents, and recruits the best. Injured agent Lièrén Sòng is recovering from a near-fatal crash in Spires, the gleaming capital city of the galaxy. He should be preparing to return to interrogating criminals for the Citizen Protection Service, but he’s made unexpected friends with a woman and her son. The boy has strong telepathic talents similar to Lièrén’s, and his attractive mother makes Lièrén long for the stability of family.
Imara Sesay works hard as a road crew chief in Spires and part-time bartender to provide for her son Derrit. For him, she even breaks her ironclad rule never to get close to a customer, when she trusts Lièrén to teach her son how to control his growing telepathic talents.
However, new fatalities in his covert unit make Lièrén suspect he isn’t a lucky survivor, he’s a loose end. He should pull away from Imara and Derrit to keep them safe. But when the local CPS Testing Center shows a more than usual interest in the boy, Lièrén must make an impossible choice–protect the boy, or run for his own life. Can he stay alive long enough to save Imara and her prodigy son?
Author: Carol Van Natta
Narrator: Nicole Poole
Series: Central Galactic Concordance #2
Genre: Sci-Fi, Space Opera
Audiobook Release Date: March 26, 2015
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Source: Purchased
Audio Speed: 1.2x