Claire Shannon is a killer. She uses no weapons, only her mind.Born on a planet locked in a long war, Claire is a psycher, a woman with the ability to attack minds and infiltrate a biological computer network where psychers battle to the death. But when the war abruptly ends, Claire must hide her psycher’s ability to survive. She is deported to a new planet, a vivid beautiful place, where she … where she meets Venturo Escana, a powerful psycher, whose presence overwhelms both her mind and her body.
She thought she had left war and death behind, but now she must fight for her new life and this battle might just cost her everything…
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Silver Shark is the second novella in the Kinsmen series. It starts us off on a mining planet at war where we meet Claire who is a talented psycher ripped from her mother at a young age to train and battle in the bionet.
We get a little suspense when Claire agrees to help a young boy from her home planet. There was intense moments and a nice build up with the chemistry and secrets.
I liked this one more than the first. I think it had to do with the Bionet and the psycher power. I found these aspects to be fascinating. The story wrapped up nicely and I enjoyed.
Rated: 4 Stars
Each entry into the Kinsmen universe is lush with unique flavor, characters, and situations all in a futuristic sci-fi world. In this case, the suspense was there at the get-go and never quite let up and the relationship build of people from two very diverse backgrounds was a pleasure not to be missed.
Silver Shark is the second in a series of standalone novellas.
Claire is from a planet that has been war-torn for centuries. She is tired of the war, but she is a protector and one of the strongest psychers in her military. When their side loses, she is destined to be put to death so she masks her psychic ability and allows herself to be deported as a refugee to another world full of Kinsmen that have their own odd, bloody ways, but a lush, paradise of a world loaded with more resources than she knew existed. Her life is now in technicolor from monochrome and she must face the new experiences all while, irony isn’t dead, working as the admin for a powerful psycher running a security company.
Venturo Escana is a complicated man parts generous and giving, but also ruthless and driven. He is her sort of man except she can’t let him know the real her so where does that leave her?
The detail of the two futuristic sci-fi worlds and the attention to the characters and their backstories was fabulous. I was fully immersed into the story and was disappointed when it came to an abrupt end. I loved it all, but if I had a niggle it was getting a bit more description there at the end when things seemed to rush to a close. Not that it was missing any vital plot piece, but I relished the characters and wanted that last action moment to be more described and the closer to be less summary and more dialogue.
But, that said, I enjoyed getting Claire as the narrator who left a stark dreary existence and got a second chance and chose to live fully and dream. I loved how Venturo was perfect for her and even though he didn’t know the whole truth, he appreciated Claire from the beginning and his appreciation only grew. It was a little cute the way she misread his signals because she didn’t understand so much about her new world and the way things were.
All in all, it was exactly what I’ve come to expect from the author team and another of their series that I will anticipate each new release. Those who enjoy futuristic sci-fi romance involving action-packed plot and gifted people should definitely give this one a go.
4 stars – It was really good
Claire Shannon is a psycher with the ability to read, control, and destroy minds of enemy psychers. She has spent her life fighting in a futile war but when it ends abruptly she finds herself running and hiding what she is.
This book was a slow burn, especially compared to the first one. Claire was a wonderful and very interesting heroine. The psycher ability was fascinating and quite deadly. Claire struggles at first to live a civilian life but quickly finds her stride and excels. I enjoyed watching Claire open up and embrace color, food, and love.
Venturo was a great hero. He was her boss but never pushed her or abused his position. He went out of his way to make sure he wasn’t, which I appreciated. I liked that he didn’t hold her past actions against her and embraced everything about her. These two may have had a slow building romance but the tension was there from the beginning and I loved it.
This world is fascinating because of all the different abilities and worlds. I really found the psycher ability fascinating, especially since they imagine themselves and very interesting animals. Overall, this was a great addition to this series and I can’t wait to read the next story.
Fabulous, sci-fi, paranormal romance
Claire Shannon is a 30-year-old “kinsman,” a human born of a biologically enhanced lineage, who were initially bred for the sole purpose of serving as soldiers or assassins. Kinsmen have many different superpowers. Claire is a psyker who can kill with her mind and, with a fellow psyker, she can engage in telepathy.
Claire was born on the planet Uley, which was colonized 327 years ago by the Melko Corporation and the Brodwyn Mining Consortium, with the sole purpose of exploiting every last ounce of natural resources on the planet. Seventy years ago, the competition between the two conglomerates exploded into war, which has dragged on ever since. Claire’s family is on the Brodwyn side of the planet. As a psyker, Claire was snatched from her family at the tender age of 14 and never allowed, during the past 16 years, to have any close, personal relationships. This is because every person on the planet with a drop of kinsman blood is routinely turned into an alienated, battle-focused killer in order to gain advantage during the endless war. Very few resources on Uley are allotted for the personal use of the citizens of the planet. The war gobbles up everything. The air and water are polluted, everyone’s diet is bland “nutritional paste,” everyone, not just the military personnel, wears dull, dark clothing, and everyone is assigned cramped living quarters that are as barren as prison cells.
Claire is a captain in the military, working in the top secret Psych Corps. She has engaged in 842 combat psyker missions, during which she has killed untold numbers of enemy combatants, and she has spent over 40,000 hours on the biological network AKA “bionet,” a highly advanced type of artificial-intelligence technology for securely transporting and storing data. Suddenly one day, the long war is abruptly over, and the Brodwyn side has lost. Every Brodwyn psyker is scheduled for termination, but Claire’s talent is so enormous, she is able to fool the Melko enemy into believing she is an ordinary human, a “dud,” which allows her to avoid execution and instead be exiled to the planet Rada. The leaders of the planet Rada are kinsmen clans, and they have flatly refused to allow any Uley kinsmen exiles on their planet, only duds.
Claire is assigned to the city of New Delphi, which is located in the Providence of Dahlia, named after that flower. The clean air, beautiful natural environment filled with flowers, grass and trees, the smiling, colorfully dressed citizens, and the delicious, chewable food constitute massive culture shock for Claire—delightful, but overwhelming. The Rada Immigration Officer in charge of Claire assigns her an apartment and an “aerial,” a flying vehicle, both of them free of charge during her three-month probation period. At the end of that time, she must have a job to take over paying for them herself. She will be offered five job interviews and must be hired by one of those employers, or she will be deported back to Uley, where she will be put to death. Her first interview is for an administrative assistant position at Guardian, Inc.: Extrasensory Security Protocols and Biocybernetic Safety, a huge, wealthy corporation owned by the Escana kinsmen family. The position is for a “drone,” the Rada term for a dud. Claire is terrified that someone among the many psykers filling the Escana company headquarters will instantly expose her as a forbidden psyker, but to refuse to go to the interview will rouse suspicion, so she has no choice.
Claire discovers the position she is interviewing for is as personal assistant to Venturo Escana, the 33-year-old head of the Escana family. He is gorgeous and charismatic, and she is stunned into speechless awe by his sheer magnificence. Though he is an incredibly powerful psyker, throughout the interview, Venturo keeps his mind firmly away from delving past the surface of Claire’s mind in an exquisitely polite gesture, rather than instantly battering down her protective mental defenses, as she had assumed would inevitably happen. After her interview is completed, because she can read minds without exposing the psychic shields she has over her psyker power, Claire easily overhears the telepathic conversation about her taking place right in front of her between Venturo and his Aunt Lienne, who is another officer in the Escana corporation. Because Venturo both feels sorry for Claire’s life-or-death situation with Immigration and respects her relevant job experience, he hires her on the spot.
Though I don’t typically read science fiction, I willingly follow these authors anywhere they choose to go with their paranormal romance, and they have never disappointed me, in this or any other novel they’ve ever written. Every detail of the advanced technology utilized in this story is easily understandable, and the authors never offer any boringly extraneous techie details that might slow down the rapid, forward motion of the story.
This entire novella is written solely from Claire’s point of view but, even so, the story is written so well, and Claire is so rational, observant, and not narcissistic in any way, she is a very reliable narrator. Through her eyes, the reader is able to get to know Venturo very well, and he is a truly wonderful romantic hero.
One of the aspects of this story that I loved the most is that the psyker powers of Claire and Venturo allow them to communicate telepathically. This is one of my all-time favorite tropes in paranormal romance, and it is fabulously done here.
As always with the über talented Andrews writing team, this paranormal romance contains lots of action scenes, which are exciting and fast paced.
I have read this terrific novella many times over the years, and I recently had the chance to experience it in audiobook form as well. The narrator is excellent.
All in all, this book is one of my most treasured keepers!
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5 stars
Hero: 5 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars
Science Fiction Setting: 5 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Audiobook Narration: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars
Claire Shannon, a powerful psycher that has been fighting in a war that is finally lost, manages to reach the planet Rada as a refugee, hiding her powerful mind beneath an indestructible shell. She ends up with a job as personal assistant to Venturo Escana, one of Rada’s most powerful psychers. As she gets to know Ven, she admires him but knows she must keep her secret or be deported back to Uley and certain death. Claire becomes involved with a group of refugees, one of whom took care of her mother as she was dying, so she can’t turn them away when they ask for help. Of course this causes all sorts of problems and the story becomes even more exciting. I loved the descriptions of the bionet and the way the psychers move through it. This short story didn’t feel like one, except that I read it so quickly and was left wanting more. I look forward to reading the newest story in the series, Fated Blades.
This was sad and brutal, but overall came to be beautiful. If you don’t immediately choose to read it because it’s Ilona Andrews, it also kind of has a Catherine Asaro Ruby psions vibe.
This story and its prequel, Silent Blade, pulled me in and kept me there long after the last page was read. Both stories had such wonderful imagery that you felt like you were there and smelling the scents with the characters.
I really wish there was more to this evocative series.