Edge by Thomas Blackthorne

Truly a keeper! 4 Talons!

It's not often that I am blown away by a novel anymore. I read so much, so often, that I take in an incredible amount of fiction on a regular basis. Most of what I read is enjoyable entertainment to me, and it helps me to pass the time.

However, every once in a while a novel comes along that really grips my imagination and truly engages every part of me on multiple levels. Edge by Thomas Blackthorne is one of those rarities.

To begin with I should introduce the author. Taken from the back of the book: Thomas Blackthorne is a pseudonym of a British science fiction novelist named John Meany. John Meany has written To Hold Infinity, the Nulapeiron sequence, Bone Song, Dark Blood and The Ragnarok Trilogy. His writing has been shortlisted  for the British Science Fiction Award, won the Independent Publishers Best Novel Award in SF/Fantasy, and won the Daily Telegraph Books of the Year.

Meany has been a teacher of business analysis, and software engineering on three continents. He is also a black belt in shotokan karate, and has cross trained in other (martial) arts. He is also a trained hypnotherapist. His short bio makes him sound like a man of many talents, intelligence, and personal discipline. For a somewhat nerdy gal with a bit of a background in martial arts like me, he sounds like a rather "hawt" gentleman. ;-) To see what I mean, read his more complete bio on his website: http://www.johnmeaney.com/bio.html

Edge is a science fiction novel that is set on Earth, not too far in the future. It's a recognizable Earth, just with slightly more advanced technology, and logically progressed political and economic situations from what presently exist today. It's as if the author has taken what exists to the known world today and simply pushed the clock forward, imagining the world as it might become if everything goes along just as it very easily could.

First of all, I love that it's set mainly in Britain, as I'm quite tired of the predominance of novels that are set in the same old, self-centric USA. Secondly I fell in love with the two central characters, the hero and heroine, Josh and Suzanne.

Josh Cumberland is a fascinating man - to me at least. He is a "retired" military man with very specialized training in combat and computer technology. He no longer really works for any one government, but is part of an elite team that trains other people for money.

Suzanne Duchesne is a beautiful, intelligent French born black woman who is a highly trained hypnotherapist. Her techniques and abilities to control and manipulate the human mind make Spock look like a Neanderthal.

Together they make one heck of a team. Then, add to the mix a bunch of Josh's hi-tech special forces "Ghost Force" buddies and you've got a miniature army capable of nearly anything...

In this novel they have two objectives.
1) Find and safely retrieve the young runaway son of a powerful British tycoon.
2) Expose and topple the highly corrupt people at the apex of the British government who are profiting from using the living bodies of poor young people as factories to create and farm new drugs in "Virapharm labs".

I particularly appreciated the extreme mental and physical disciplines that the protagonists immersed themselves in and exercised throughout the novel. Yes, there was a an extreme amount of violence involved (the legalized popularized public knife dueling is just a part of it), but having studied and practiced Jiujitsu myself at a younger age, I was able to relate to the high art and science of training your mind and body to survive under extreme conditions.

In other events which occur in the book, I could also recognize my own present life concerns and anxieties about how the US government is continuing to devolve into religious right wing extremism and fanaticism. When so much power is in the hands of people who are headed in such a frightening direction, the rest of the world really should sit up and take notice and be worried...

Anyway, I was riveted right from the start, all the way to the finish of this book, and when it ended, I nearly couldn't stand it, and I was already jonesing for more. It had such an impact on me that I literally do not want to return this book to the library. I've already renewed it once -- just because. It's almost like I can hold the characters in my hand and connect with them that way, through the book. Weird huh? Yeah, I guess I'm weird. :-)

Point, the sequel to this novel is already in the works, and hopefully it will be available for purchase ASAP!

Thomas Blackthorne aka John Meaney can be found at www.johnmeaney.com

He is one of those authors who I find so inspiring, that he makes me imagine all over again that maybe, just maybe, I could turn all of my own quirky inner ideas into a book/s someday. I'll be reading along and start going, "Oh hey, I recognize that thought/concept/philosophy/perception of the world! I can really relate on a very personal level!"  and "Oh, yeah, I love that character - he/she's something like what I've imagined before!" or "Gosh if these ideas and these characters and this writing can be successful...could it be possible for me as well?" And so on...but...sigh...I am most likely doomed to forever be a reader, not a writer...