Author: Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: Science Fiction
Published on: December 14, 2012, self-publishedWhen your mind is a weapon, freedom comes at a price.
Four months have passed since Kira left home to join Julian's Jacker Freedom Alliance, but the hole in her heart still whistles empty where her boyfriend Raf used to be. She fills it with weapons training, JFA patrols, and an obsessive hunt for FBI agent Kestrel, ignoring Julian's worries about her safety and repeated attempts to recruit her for his revolutionary chat-casts. When anti-jacker politician Vellus surrounds Jackertown with the National Guard, Kira discovers there's more to Julian's concerns than she knew, but she's forced to take on a mission that neither want and that might be her last: assassinating Senator Vellus before he can snuff out Julian's revolution and the jackers she's come to love.
After the second book, I got hooked on the Mindjack Trilogy. So I quickly bought the next book, eager to find out what happens next. Free Souls didn’t disappoint, but it could have been better. A few months have passed since Closed Hearts. Kira is now an active member of Julian’s Jacker Freedom Alliance. She’s also discovered new powers derived from her mindjacking ability. In the previous two books, Kira showed that she could jack into her own mind. This led her to unlock some pretty handy abilities.
Kira shows one of these new skills right at the beginning. During a mission, she goes into a hyped-up state. That’s what Kira calls going into her mind to dose herself with adrenaline. She also converts her muscles from slow-twitch to fast-twitch. Not sure how plausible that last bit is, but I chose to suspend disbelief. The conversion lets Kira run at superhuman speeds. This skill has a side effect, though. Kira refers to it as a blowback, a short period in which her entire body is completely sore and tired.
Another skill Kira shows is combining her powers with those of another jacker. She does this with Ava, which greatly extends their reach. Kira has been doing this to track down Agent Kestrel, the series main antagonist. He’s an FBI agent who has been doing horrific experiments on mindjackers. During their mental search, Kira and Ava detect Senator Vellus—another antagonist—miles away. He’s the most outspoken anti-jacker politician. Senator Vellus will prove a huge threat for the JFA. He orders the National Guard to surround Jackertown, their base of operations.
With Jackertown surrounded, the JFA finds itself between a rock and a hard place. Julian and his team will need to enlist Kira's father's help to get close to Senator Vellus. Patrick Moore has been working as Vellus’s mindguard (mental protection against jackers). The mission is soon rendered unnecessary when Vellus arrives at the perimeter of Jackertown. Did he just hand himself on a silver platter? Or will Kira and Julian face an unpleasant surprise?
The rest of the book keeps the excitement going. One thing I noticed is that the pace never seems to slow down. It almost appeared that Free Souls takes place over a single day. This makes some stuff seem hardly believable. For instance, Kira activates her hyped-up state several times. Knowing that she experiences hard blowbacks afterward, you’d think she would need a lot of rest. Mindjackers are just humans with special mind powers. Kira should have all but killed herself halfway through the book. One day is also nowhere near enough time for the multiple missions Kira and the JFA execute. I'll have to re-read to get a better sense of how much time the story takes.
All in all, Free Souls was a satisfying conclusion to the Mindjack: Kira Trilogy. The book could have been better, but it didn’t disappoint me. The ending was unexpected, although there were few ways the mindjackers could succeed. The way it happened, while questionable, was rather fitting.
My rating: ★★★★
4 stars - Definitely enjoyed it!
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