Julie's Review: Brilliance

Summary: In Wyoming, a little girl reads people’s darkest secrets by the way they fold their arms. In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They’re called “brilliants,” and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way. Nick Cooper is among them; a federal agent, Cooper has gifts rendering him exceptional at hunting terrorists. His latest target may be the most dangerous man alive, a brilliant drenched in blood and intent on provoking civil war. But to catch him, Cooper will have to violate everything he believes in—and betray his own kind. From Marcus Sakey, “a modern master of suspense” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “one of our best storytellers” (Michael Connelly), comes an adventure that’s at once breakneck thriller and shrewd social commentary; a gripping tale of a world fundamentally different and yet horrifyingly similar to our own, where being born gifted can be a terrible curse. ~amazon.com  

Review:  Fans of the tv show Heroes will thoroughly enjoy Mr. Sakey's new book, Brilliance. These types of books aren't really my thing but he lives in my city and I've only heard good things about his books. I was extremely surprised with just how much I enjoyed this book. It is well thought out and complex. It is not so complex that you can't follow it. It's a societal and political book in some ways but this didn't make me stop reading it. Mr. Sakey shows the underbelly of human behavior in this book. We humans aren't often accepting of people who are different than us even if they look like us. Bigotry and racism come in all forms. Difference isn't good during this time in the US.

Brilliants are people who have special abilities. It's not superhero like but more subtle. The ability to see muscle movement and read it without having the person say anything, the ability to move in crowds easily, the ability to see the data and how it will work, etc. They are smarter and able to see things that a normal person can't. This gives them advantages and causes a rift between them, abnorms/twists and people with out gifts.

Of course the government has a separate agency to help govern/track these abnorms. Nick Cooper is an agent of the DAR (Department of Analysis and Response). He's determined to track the abnorms who are terrorists and hurt innocent people. After being in the center of the latest bombing, Nick takes things into his own hands. He goes after the known terrorist, John Smith.

This is a fast-paced novel with a definite undercurrent of societal issues. Mr. Sakey does a great job so that it doesn't seem preachy and overt. It has twists and turns that keeps you guessing throughout the novel. The last line got me and I'm anxious to see what he has planned for the next book in this series. Even though this is out of my normal realm of genres, it's enough of a thriller that I plan to stick with the series. I really liked Nick Cooper and want to see him through the next phase.

Final Take: 4.5/5


Note: I will say that I wish the cover was a little bit better. It might grab more readers if it didn't look so rudimentary.

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