Sci-Fi & Scary

Source: Netgalley

It had everything my little heart could desire. Geniuses, super-powers, intrigue, shoot’em-ups, a hint of the wanna-smooches, and a surprisingly gentle and solid relationship between a husband and his ex-wife that didn’t include a lust to get back together.

Brilliance, first in the Brilliance trilogy, is a well-written exploration of an alternate history for our world, where ‘norms’ are forced to face the fact that they’re quickly becoming obsolete in the face of evolution. Naturally, there’s fear and anger (understandably so. That’s how humans always react to crap they don’t understand.) and those two emotions are swiftly fueled into a firestorm that could potentially destroy America as tensions build to a head.

Sakey has a great (if not unique) plot, and a solid writing style. This book had all my little “Happy-spot” triggers. So, why in the world did this book not appeal to me? That’s what I’m still trying to figure out.

Brilliance was a difficult book to read in a way that’s hard to describe. The simplest way I could put it is it didn’t hook me until almost the very end, but it never bored me. It was just an extremely easy book to walk away from. I read so many short stories and other books in between spurts of reading this book. I always enjoyed it while I was reading it, but I never had the drive to finish it.