Review: Powerful book!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 2, 2014
What happens if you are a member of a minority that is feared and hated? The recognized members of this minority (psychokinetics/telekinetics i.e. people with the power to move objects with their minds) are known to undergo mental deterioration rendering them violent - generally killers. The across-the-board solution is to lock them up as soon as their abilities are manifest. This is the quick and easy way out .... if they're not violent and have done nothing wrong, don't worry, they will! But, if they won't? Can't be bothered!Two men break into protagonist Leonard Samson's home, beat him unconscious, kill his 6-year-old son who tries to help his dad, beat and rape his wife and are dragging his 10-year-old daughter into the other room to be raped when Leonard regains consciousness....Police arrive to find the home in shambles and the two killers/rapists brutally murdered, allegedly by someone with psychokinetic powers. The police suspect Leonard and in this paranoid society suspicion is sufficient to lock someone away for life. Leonard denies having and such powers and runs.The scene switches to the prison where psychokinetics are held under appalling conditions. The outside of the building is pleasant since appearances are everything. The inside: filthy, stench-filled, inedible food, etc., along with powerful magnetic impulses that are able to interrupt telekinetic processes, preventing the incarcerated from using their powers. What the magnetic fields may be doing to the fragile minds of the inmates isn't even asked. The threat of being locked up in this house of horrors is enough to send anyone running for cover... but with funding so limited, why bother to spend more on people who will be losing their minds anyway? But what if some telekinetics are perfectly normal in other ways, will not go mad, and are no danger to self or others? Tough!Leonard tries to find a way out for his family and himself while police and an unscrupulous bounty hunter are after him. And a jailed homicidal psychokinetic is doing his best to overcome the magnetic restraints....While the outcome of this tale is almost inevitable, the real issues are the hows and whys.I definitely recommend this book!