Masterminds
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
WMG Publishing
Trade Paper $18.99
Ebook $5.99
No, not the Retrieval Artist series, just the Anniversary Day Saga. Miles Flint and his associates will be back sooner or later.
Masterminds ends the eight volume Anniversary Day Saga. Reading this has been one of the highlights of the year for me. This is the one were everything comes together. It goes on sale in the next few weeks, so you’ve got time to get caught up if you’re a book or two behind.
Rusch has set herself a major task in trying to tie together all the threads in a coherent manner. I’m not going to go into any detail because I don’t want to give away any of the surprises. But I will tell you a few things. SPOILERS AHEAD.
First, if at all possible you should read this book as soon as you finish reading Starbase Human (review here). Masterminds opens with the scene that closes Starbase Human, but told from a different character’s point of view. There’s absolutely no break in the action.
Second, all the plot threads come together. This is one of only two complaints I have, and for reasons I’ll discuss in the next paragraph, I’ve decided it’s not a major one. There are several characters involved in the main story that aren’t part of Miles Flint’s team nor are they working with Noelle DeRicci in any capacity. They all show up at the same time with vital information. I found the timing a little too convenient to completely swallow.
Third, things move quickly, Very quickly. The conspirators are still out there. They’ve been playing a long game, planning their attacks for years. And they aren’t through yet. There is more to come. I found this aspect of the book to be so suspenseful that I was (mostly) able to ignore my sense of disbelief in everyone showing up at the same time with vital information. Rusch shows the tension everyone is working under and the trauma they’re trying to overcome with great skill. She gets into multiple characters’ heads and makes you feel what they feel. The result is an immediacy that makes the readers keep turning pages when they’re supposed to be doing something else.
There is another threat imminent. SPOILER WARNING:
This one also involves clones. I really liked how the clones were discovered. That was a very clever thing, having DNA of clones killed in previous attacks show up in the databases as belonging to people who died years ago. This is the other thing I had trouble buying. Granted the Moon has a large and dispersed population, and given that not all of the clones are on the Moon, over the amount of time involved, I would think at least one or two people who knew the originals would spot at least one or two clones, especially since some of them are in highly placed positions.
END SPOILERS
Neither of those things was enough to spoil my enjoyment of the book. I neglected other things I needed to be reading for review while finishing it.
Kris Rusch has attempted an ambitious project, one that succeeds. I think it’s one of the major science fiction stories of the year. Yes, there are plenty of loose ends. Something this big is going to change everything, and the fallout of the bombings, personal and political, will continue for years. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next in this universe. I know I’m going to have to wait a while because Rusch has said she needs a break. I understand that, and I think she’s earned it. Fortunately, there are some earlier Retrieval Artist novels I still haven’t read. They will have to tide me over while I wait.
In closing, I would like to thank WMG very much for providing me with copies of six of the novels in the Anniversary Day Saga, including Masterminds.