“Warped State” (“The Gifted of Brennex” No. 1) by Jo Miles
Jasper Wilder is an activist, not a spy, but he’ll become one if that’s what it takes to stop Ravel Corporation from reviving the research project that devastated his home planet.
His plan is simple enough: Break into the secure facility. Steal the research data. Find a weakness and sabotage the project. But all that goes out the airlock when he meets Havoc, a passionate but politically naive labor organizer trying to reform Ravel from within.
Havoc could help Jasper, but instead, he’s fighting for a lost cause. Jasper knows that if he sticks with his own plan, Havoc will likely take the blame—and Ravel doesn’t treat activists kindly.
With an elite security operative closing in, and time running out to sabotage the deadly project before it launches, Jasper needs to find a way to team up with Havoc… before his mission hurts the person he’s coming to care about.
Review
I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters were interesting and I had fun getting to know them. I also liked the way various methods of advocating for change were explained and discussed in the book. It was interesting seeing how the main characters, Jasper and Sowing of Small Havoc were dealing with the various issues. I thought it worked out well to explore why Havoc was so loyal to the company (Kovari cultural reasons) and that there were others who felt differently among his people but it took work for him understand it. I also liked that while Jasper had ideas about how to do things he was willing to work with Havoc later on to resolve everything.
I liked the way the friendship developed between Jasper and Havoc and I was okay with the potential romantic relationship developing because it came later on in the plot and didn’t distract from what was gone on. The main villein was a bit ridiculous but given how certain people in the current administration are reacting to criticism it clearly isn’t as far fetched as you’d think.
One somewhat frustrating part was the existence of a villain character who had augmented legs while also being addicted to pain killers. The addiction only seemed to exist as a method to allow the ship he was using (which has at some point become sentient) to help Havoc and Jasper with their work as the character was unconscious at the time. Nothing is ever mentioned about it again after that.
I did like that there were other people on the planet that were working to free themselves from Rival’s occupation and that it was a mix of both Human and Kovari – seemingly with Kovari in charge of that group. I also liked that there was at least one disabled character (a wheelchair user) in that group to balance out the evil disabled character.
I’m interested in reading the next book in the series though and seeing more of this universe.
Book Details
- Author’s Website
- Jo Miles
- Publisher / Date
- Self Published, September 2023
- Genre
- Science Fiction
- Page Count
- 398
- Completion Date
- April 12, 2025
