It started as a subtle whisper. It grew into a roaring, laughing maniac. The voice inside Jonathon Browne’s head grew so loud that it took him over, both mentally and physically. The worst part is he knows who the voice belongs to, but can do nothing to stop it. His mental intruder hijacks his body, takes it to his his top-secret government office, and spills blood. With a looming battle within, … within, Jonathon must get control and escape from his own team before they execute him. Will a life in exile be his only choice? Or worse?
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A Poisoned Mind by Andre Gonzalez is a nice introduction to the writing of Andre Gonzalez. It is a short story available on Amazon for USD 0.00 (otherwise known as free). At only 74 pages, the story moves along briskly with a few surprises about the fate of several of the characters. This is not a dystopian novel but reading the first several pages might lead a reader to believe that this is where the story is going. This is more of a threat novel; react quickly and correctly or this will be your fate. At the end of this short story, there is further reading from a novel that is the parent novel to this short story, Followed Home, a 182-page novel on sale for USD 2.99 or free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.
Johnathan Brown is a special operations guy but a covert one, not a military type. As a result of an application he developed for police use while still in school, an attentive military recruiter, Colonel Griffins has offered Johnathan a job. Johnathan cannot know what the job is until after completion of background checks and an interview with Col. Griffin. Only after he accepts the job will he find out that part of his job is to track extraterrestrials who periodically invade Earth. The invasion has been going on for several years following a path of advance guard reconnaissance, a trial invasion, and an extraterrestrial retreat. This action is followed a few years later by a renewed attack with more aliens. Earthlings have been successful in defending their planet but with each invasion, the aliens learn and change their tactics. Readers join this story as recruit Johnathan joins battle with the aliens.
The story moves along briskly and has a conclusion that surprised me. This is science fiction and is not a genre I usually read but something about the blurb attracted me. Seasoned readers of the science fiction genre may not be as surprised. From a writing perspective, I would read further works by this author. I won’t because it is not my area of interest, but the writing is overall good. I did not like the ending and for that reason, I gave the story only three Amazon stars.
This short story was pretty damn good. I listened top it on Audible but am writing a longer review.
It was eerily familiar as it is based in my current city of DC, so I can easily imagine the buildings and the areas he is talking about. Reagan national, Potomac River and the like. It is just up my alley with the Alien information and it made me laugh because I live 10 minutes from Homeland Security and I just let my imagination run wild.
I felt bad for Johnnie as he gave a good 3 years to this Org and it was wiped out in a matter of minutes, maybe an hour or two. I feel bad for his wife, and contempt at what it made him do. It was a nice listen to my way to work and I look forward to listening to and reading more of his work.