Brilliance - Book Review
I had actually bought Brilliance, from Marcus Sakey, in 2013. As so often happens something more interesting came up and I completely forgot about it.
Then Amazon suggested it to me, and when checking it out they showed I already had it. I decided to try it out.
(why a supposedly data driven company which is a pioneer in advanced suggestions showed me a book they knew I had, isa mystery...)
It is pretty good. The base idea is not new at all - in the 80s, people started getting born with powers. They are called brilliants. Mostly these are the reasonable-I-could-see-this-working kind - better pattern recognition, for strategy, lie detection, financial markets, fighting, etc.
As also very tradicional, the people without powers and the ones with them are being mistreated and exploited (there are probably olders ones, but the X-Men come to mind).
The main protagonist is Nick Copper, which has powers and works in an agency dedicated to arresting misbehaving brilliants, and killing them if necessary.
A major attack occurs, and he tries to get the terrorist leader. I feel here it would have been a lot better if instead of explicitly telling us what he is doing, we actually believed he was going rogue and found out the true later.
Then there is a not very surprising twist, and everything changes.
While my review might sound lukewarm, it was mostly fun, just not great. I am almost finished with the sequel, and will no doubt read the third one too.
Then Amazon suggested it to me, and when checking it out they showed I already had it. I decided to try it out.
(why a supposedly data driven company which is a pioneer in advanced suggestions showed me a book they knew I had, isa mystery...)
It is pretty good. The base idea is not new at all - in the 80s, people started getting born with powers. They are called brilliants. Mostly these are the reasonable-I-could-see-this-working kind - better pattern recognition, for strategy, lie detection, financial markets, fighting, etc.
As also very tradicional, the people without powers and the ones with them are being mistreated and exploited (there are probably olders ones, but the X-Men come to mind).
The main protagonist is Nick Copper, which has powers and works in an agency dedicated to arresting misbehaving brilliants, and killing them if necessary.
A major attack occurs, and he tries to get the terrorist leader. I feel here it would have been a lot better if instead of explicitly telling us what he is doing, we actually believed he was going rogue and found out the true later.
Then there is a not very surprising twist, and everything changes.
While my review might sound lukewarm, it was mostly fun, just not great. I am almost finished with the sequel, and will no doubt read the third one too.
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