Author: _mpre_

Genre: Science Fiction

What I liked about this book:

I am uncomfortably invested in this story. When I saw it was about kids with powers I went 'meh', but I've never seen it done quite like this. The kids are prisoners. Their powers are due to experimentation. They are stuck in the Russian tundra. All of it could be so, so cliched if the author hadn't worked hard enough making me give a shit that I forget that it's supposed to be.

The powers don't always give them advantages, either. Trick's strength doesn't make him less prone to being injured, and he's got fibromyalgia to boot. Maverick's mindreading doesn't make him incapable of being detected. 

Lots of people die. It was a good, solid read for only nine chapters. The prose was also clean except for a few typos, and the author is stylistically fun to read.

What I did NOT like about this book:

I sorta wish I had more on Trick and his background in the beginning, but I forgive that because right now it feels like reading the first chapter in a trad novel. I don't see this as a full story, and I want to see him come around and get advantage on a government agency somehow. But it feels like there's something missing I can't put my finger on. 

The pacing also might be slightly off and might be benefited from just a teeeensy bit of slowdown. This is a super nitpick.

One of the bigger issues is with the medication that Trick takes for his fibromyalgia, Milnacipran. The author writes it as if it wears off at a specific time, and taking more of it makes the pain go away more, as if it were a traditional painkiller along the lines of an NSAID (like advil) or an opiate.

**WARNING** SCIENCE GEEK AHEAD **WARNING**

Milnacipran is an SNRI, a type of antidepressant that dulls pain signals by interrupting the action of norepinepherine, which your body needs to process pain signals. This was actually a good move research-wise, because Milnacipran is ONLY approved for Fibromyalgia. But the way it was described is inaccurate.

I am on a similar drug for back pain called Amitryptiline, a tricyclic antidepressant, or TCA. It works on the same nerve pathways via a different chemical process. The thing about both these medications, along with anything else that works by screwing with your norepinepherine levels, is they take at least six weeks to work, and need to be taken at the same time every day. 

If you don't take them, you don't get a slow weardown. You get withdrawal. Withdrawal feels like shit. Oftentimes the pain comes back, and you forget how bad it was because your nerve pathways were previously not working as intended. It's a gradual onset. And when you get back on your antidepressant, you are looking at a week and sometimes longer before they work again.

It's not a toggle effect. This kind of drug MUST be taken consistently, or it won't work and you will also feel like garbage.

Again, that's nitpicky. I mostly enjoyed this book and am kinda frustrated it's on hiatus.

Overall:

Pretty good book. A few small, nitpicky complaints. Why is it on hiatus?

Rating: 

8/10. Really solid read.