Extrasensory perception is a gift sought and often exploited. But what if society viewed telepathy as an affliction and instituted camps to keep telepaths under control?
Taralyn is a convicted telepath. She is tormented by guilt after her ten-year-old daughter is mind-wiped by the Association, a political group that imprisons telepaths for the good of the public. When she steals the child and flees Earth, she is pursued by Asher, an Enforcer of the dreaded psychic police force. Asher hunts fugitive mindbenders with an enthusiasm usually reserved for mass murderers.
As Taralyn searches the solar system for sanctuary, fear and desperation cause her telepathic powers to bloom in ways she never thought possible. But whatever she does, Asher is always one step behind.
When at last he captures her, he takes her to an internment camp on Mars where she finds nothing is as it seems. Not Asher. Not her daughter. Not even the Association.
War is coming. But will it be a war between telepaths and Earth or against a much darker foe?
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
Taralyn Stone leaned against the wall in the darkened hallway. As with a hovering camera, her sixth sense saw the layout of the clinic, saw the elderly guard asleep at his desk. It had been easy to scan his mind, easy to extract the location of the shipment. Now she needed to get the drugs and get out before someone discovered her.
She swept ahead telepathically, scanning the shadows as she walked. A left turn. Another to the right. She was taking too long. Voices echoed in the corridor. Taralyn froze. Opening a door, she hurried into a room.
Footsteps passed. She waited, scarcely breathing. When no one entered, she relaxed her shoulders and glanced about. A cabinet stood against the wall. It held a standard keypad lock. Taralyn sighed in relief. She had imagined retinal scanners or voice-code recognition. Keypads were easy to bypass.
Closing her eyes, she peered into the mechanism. She saw which keys had been pressed often, which had been ignored. Delving deeper, she felt the combination surface—like playing guess the cards when she was young. After a moment, she punched in the seven-digit code, and the lock opened.
Taralyn moistened her lips. “Be there. Please be there.”
If her information was wrong, she didn’t know what she’d do. Desperation goaded her down this path, but luck led her to the clinic. She’d heard about the hijacked shipment of Mask via a storefront newscast. Through a series of psychic scans, she traced it here.
Switching on a small light inside the cabinet, Taralyn searched the vials and bottles. Her haste left the neat rows in disarray. On a lower shelf, she found what she needed. She pulled out the tray.
The room lit, startling her.
A man said, “If you’re looking for Parazine, we don’t keep it in stock.”
Taralyn stood, tray in hand, thoughts whirling faster than her body. She saw the man point a gun. For a moment, she considered planting a false image in his mind, making him think he saw a nurse or a cat. But the tray tipped, spilling the vials over its edge.
The medicine for Gloriana.
Professional Reviews
Would love a sequel!
Mindbender was such an imaginative and exciting tale that I zipped through this book eagerly and excitedly all the way to the end. While this story is definitely sci-fi, the author did a magnificentjob in keeping it realistic enough that you could visualize the planets, taste and smell the volcanoes of Io and feel the cold of Mars. Beyond these descriptions, we have a strong and powerful psychic, Taralyn, whose love for her adoptive daughter is so maternal that you can feel her pain when she thinks she has lost her. There is also the child, Gloriana, whose possession is so creepy that I was actually frightened of her, and our handsome hero, Asher, who you're not entirely sure you can trust due to his past but who does everything he can to help, for better or for worse. Add to that the persecution and discrimination of the people that Earth views as `dangerous', and you have quite a tale! My experience with sci-fi is limited, but Roxanne Smolen's gift with writing prose has definitely hooked me as a reader. I can't wait to read the rest of her books!
Please, Ms. Smolen! Give Us A sequel!
Taralyn Stone has been on her own, living out of dumpsters in the back alley hovels of L.A., for six years, ever since she ran away from home at the age of fifteen. In an atmosphere of distrust and hate, she hides what she is—a telepath. Her goal: to stay off the Association's radar. If they were to find her, she'd be scooped up and imprisoned for the good of the public. She worries about what would happen to Gloriana, her adopted 10-year-old daughter?
The Association had already gotten their hands on Glori once. Taralyn had managed to break her out of the Association's compound, but she hadn't gotten to her in time. They'd done something bad to her. She was quiet, withdrawn...damaged, her beautiful empathic personality trapped somewhere deep inside her. And now, with the Association hunting them, they have no choice. They must flee Earth for sanctuary with the resistance cells on the Saturn moon of Io.
From the moment he first sets eyes on Taralyn, Association Enforcer Robert Archer has his own reasons for pursuing the pair from Io to Mars. He knows war is coming, but he thinks it will be between the Association and telepaths. Taralyn, however, knows the truth. War is coming all right, but with their true enemy. Now, if she can just get everyone to believe her.
In Mindbender, blind author Roxanne Smolen delves into the minds of telepaths in a way that's both imaginative and believable. Her talent for prose enables you to feel Taralyn's fear of the persecution and discrimination running rampant against telepaths on Earth. I could easily visualize the vast emptiness of space, the vivid colors of Innerspace and the beauty of the planets, complete with erupting volcanoes and the jolting sensation of the earthquakes on Io.
Out of the world
I can’t imagine fleeing from my world because of having the gift that Taralyn has—being a telepath. How horrible for a child to live in dumpsters to keep from being imprisoned. The worlds that Smolen takes you to made my imagination swirl with the visions. The journey is beautiful and terrifying, making it a wonderful read.
From this short synopsis, I can tell you are a very good writer and can create action and tension very well. While the human brain is quite remarkable and our evolved senses are quite versatile and vary between individuals, I don't believe in telepathy. That does not mean that technology may give telepathic abilities to people in the future. We don't know what the future holds.
So, I would put your novel in the category of science fantasy like so many planet hopping novels and stories these days. An allegory of current humanity problems and lessons transported into the future. From your professional reviews, Mindbender looks like a bestseller.
5-star Review on Amazon: "A terrific read about a very disturbing subject!! The book is exciting and interesting and chilling and alarming! A literary ride that is well worth the time and money."
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Aggressive AI invades young boy. Can he sav
