Published Date: June 13, 2017
Publishing Co.: Harper Voyager
Pages: 400
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Wooo boy, that was a trip.
Humans are the descendants of gods, making each human a demigod/goddess. However they’ve spent eternity ignorant of this small fact. It takes a new illegal drug on the market to begin waking people’s powers.
Muzi is a gay teen struggling with his identity. His grandfather is pushing him to the old ways of their African tribe while living in a world where everyone has their own personal assistant robot to help them through life. Drugs are a release from his daily worries but this new drug, the name of which is fucking alluding me right now, unleashes his ability to control people, bending them to his will.
Riya is a pop star. Selfish, uncaring of the people around her. She hides an illness that causes her great pain. She reveals in drugs and comes across this new substance, she gains power off her pain, off the pain of others, but she can use this power to heal.
Wallace Stoker is a politician. A politician who actually has interest in bettering his country, in improving people’s lives. His mother is pushing for him to become the premier of the country, but he’s not sure he’s ready for that. He’s leading a secret double life and he’s not sure which life is the one he wants.
Sydney is a centuries old demigoddess trying to reclaim her powers. She feeds off of fear. She’s planning mass destruction to help her kill off her newest competition, a tiny girl named Nomvula.
Clever 4-1 is a robot. A robot struggling with the first case of sentience. He finds a way to spread that sentience to other bots.
Nomvula is a small girl in the slums of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Her mother claims a man in the village raped her in her dreams and lives in a perpetual state of crying in bed. This same man teaches Nomvula that she in fact, is a demigoddess, a strong one. Nomvula’s life has been one of hunger pains and saddness, but this new sense of self comes with a high price.
Here we have a magnificent blend of humans awakening their god powers and a budding AI sentience that could turn the world on it’s head. This story was fast paced and fun, each character relatable. The entire read was intoxicating, unfortunately the ending falls a little flat. I think I came to expect much more from the climax.
Either way, I look forward to reading more by Nicky Drayden.
cupcakesandmachetes 
Looks good, nice cover art and I really like the premise for this – I’ll have to check it out!
It is definitely worth checking out. 🙂
Bummer to hear the ending fell a bit flat. Other than that it sounds really interesting. 🙂 Love the cover art, too.
It’s still worth the read. There is just such a grand build up and you’re so into the characters, that you think it’s going to have an amazing ending but it’s more like, “Oh, okay.” lol.
Well, you’ve captured my interest!
Yaaay! 😀