"Driven sequel an edgy futuristic romantic suspense you will not want to miss!"
The year is 2093 in a post apocalyptic future Earth brought
on by the Noble Wars. The world has been divided into to
four sectors, the harshest of which is the Northern Waste
where bitter cold and desperate poverty are facts of life.
It is the home of Tatiana, the youngest of three genetically
enhanced test tube siblings. The siblings had been raised by
a computer and tortured by the maniacal Duncan Bane who had
forced them to hone their genetic gifts to the extreme,
building them into his soldiers. Her older siblings (DRIVEN) had been strong, but Tatiana had
been a late bloomer. It had taken her far longer to develop
her abilities and by then Wizard and Yuriko were gone. Her
siblings had chosen to endure Bane's wrath in her stead. Due
to her failures her sister was dead; her brother at best was
missing. Bane was dead now as well, but Tatiana still had
another madman to content with, his successor Dr. Gavin
Ward, a supremacist who had sliced her and diced her and
finally used her genome to produce a plague that would be
used to eliminate all those whom he considered to be
inferior. But when Tatiana finally bloomed her ability to heal
bordered on miraculous, her physical strength was
unsurpassed, she could endure the harshest environments and
was able to read other's thoughts, vicariously experiencing
emotion for she had none of her own. She had escaped Ward
six months ago and now earned what she needed to survive by
retrieving stolen items for those who were willing to pay.
Her latest assignment has taken her to Abbott's General
Store in search of two gun truckers. She notices another
customer meandering through the aisles, male, a settler. She
likes his smile, but can't read him, like most. He makes her
nervous; he intrigues her against her will. Tatiana gets her information from Abbott for a price. But
she has one more question. For that answer she offers a
rarer commodity than interdollars - real sugar. She requires
information about Tolliver, Ward's scientist, the specialist
who had helped him develop the plague. Find Tolliver-find
Ward's secret underground laboratory-stop the madness. Her
past inquiries had come up empty. She is disappointed again.
Abbott has no information. The truckers arrive. Tatiana's mission is successful. Not so
for the settler who had been in the store. Tatiana has
recovered the ring sought by her client and from the
trucker's memories her first solid lead pointing to the
location of Ward's lab and the mysterious Tolliver. Tristan had found the woman a fascinating enigma. Abbott had
not known her identity. Was it a coincidence that they were
hunting the same truckers? He hadn't interfered in her
battle, he was only interested in their cargo. Unlike
Tatiana however, he comes up empty. His microscope and
samples are gone. Tristan Tolliver had gone to work for Ward with the idea of
creating a special injectable, virally infected bacteria
that would induce temporary symptoms in a critically injured
patient that would give them the fight needed to make it to
a medical facility where they could receive help. He'd been
an idealist. He'd been blind. Ward had first infected
volunteers culled from society's undesirables, a band of
Reavers. Then he had turned it on his researchers. Soon the
plague Tristan had helped create would be unleashed on an
unsuspecting world and he would have to watch; a dinosaur
who would not age or become ill due to a government
experiment in the first half of the century. He was doomed
to watch them all die or die trying to save them. The
missing tissue samples are his only hope for a cure. No coincidences-they meet again. A test subject has escaped
from the underground lab. The researchers must contain him
before he infects others. Tatiana witnesses the event, is
injured trying to intervene. Her blood mingles with
victim's. To the others this can mean only one thing. And so
Tristan delivers Tatiana to her destination, Ward's
underground lab, another soul he has doomed-a brave and
beautiful woman he could have loved, perhaps already did
love. Little does he realize that Tatiana's genetic nature
brings with it a natural immunity. Soon this unlikely pair
will become partners in a quest to save their world and
perhaps something more. I had not thought that DRIVEN could be topped, but with
HIDDEN the author has done just that. HIDDEN has earned a
place of its own on the keeper shelf, making Eve Kenin a
"must buy" author. This is storytelling at its best. Ms.
Kenin is a pro at generating edgy suspense and building
relationships; pulling the reader in and making them care
about her gutsy protagonists and the state of their world.
Tristan and Tatiana are unbelievable strong and determined
but at the same time vulnerable and compassionate, in other
words - human. The emotional relationship between them
develops rapidly, perhaps a necessity in a world where
surviving to see another day is an uncertainty, but wholly
believable. Their courage in the face of what appear to be
insurmountable odds is awe inspiring. A highly recommended
tale, not to be missed!
Reviewed by Leslie Tramposch
Posted July 21, 2008
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