Déjà Vu (The Saskia Brandt Series Book One) [Kindle Edition]

Ian Hocking (Author)

Book Description

Winner of the 2011 Red Adept Reviews Indie Award for Science Fiction

Book 3 - The Amber Rooms - is available now

Buy the first three books as The Saskia Brandt Series Omnibus Edition

It is 2023. Scientist David Proctor is running for his life. On his trail is Saskia Brandt, a detective with the European FIB. She has questions. Questions about a bomb that exploded back in 2003. But someone is hunting her too. The clues are in the shattered memories of her previous life.

Déjà Vu takes the reader on a startling journey through a possible future, though digital minds, and through the consequences of the choices we make. It is the debut novel by Ian Hocking.

'You've never read anything like Déjà Vu before.' -- SFX

'A crisply-written, fast-paced thriller that makes assured use of cutting-edge science fiction ideas.' -- Ken MacLeod.

'Very cool and stylish. A new voice in British SF.' -- Forbidden Planet International

'Handled with casual panache. It's gripping, fascinating, and powerful, and really well written, with wonderful pace.' -- Ian Watson, screenwriter 'Artificial Intelligence: AI'

'[Hocking's] layering of the narrative is thoughtful and the way he makes events from different decades mirror each other shows quiet skill. This is a small-press publication; as such, it probably won't get the exposure it deserves. Larger publishers may want to take note.' -- Jon Courtenay Grimwood, writing in The Guardian

'A multi-threaded, thought-provoking sci-fi thriller. It is always a nice surprise to see a debut novel such as Déjà Vu. Thoroughly recommended.' -- SciFi.uk.com

'Excellent...crisp and professional. This book bodes well for the future.' -- Grumpy Old Bookman

'Breaks new ground.' -- Stephen Gallagher

'Shows mature confidence.' -- Stan Nicholls

'Inventive and witty.' -- The Alien Online

'Get ready to have a mind-blowing experience.' -- POD Girl

'Science fiction in the tradition of such fine exponents as Baxter and Clarke.' -- The Eternal Night

'Clever and satisfying.' -- Tregolwyn Book Reviews

Editorial Reviews

Review

'You've never read anything like Déjà Vu before.' -- SFX

'A crisply-written, fast-paced thriller that makes assured use of cutting-edge science fiction ideas.' -- Ken MacLeod.

'Very cool and stylish. A new voice in British SF.' -- Forbidden Planet International

'Handled with casual panache. It's gripping, fascinating, and powerful, and really well written, with wonderful pace.' -- Ian Watson, screenwriter 'Artificial Intelligence: AI'

'[Hocking's] layering of the narrative is thoughtful and the way he makes events from different decades mirror each other shows quiet skill. This is a small-press publication; as such, it probably won't get the exposure it deserves. Larger publishers may want to take note.' -- Jon Courtenay Grimwood, writing in The Guardian

About the Author

Ian Hocking is a British author and experimental psychologist.

Product Details

• File Size: 662 KB
• Print Length: 310 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Writer As A Stranger; 2 edition (March 6, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004QTOEZS
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,953 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #71 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Science Fiction > Cyberpunk

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Really enjoyed it! March 29, 2011

By Ken Kennedy

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Not bad at all! A quick read; fairly short (I don't know exact page length due to ebook-ness). Definitely a combination scifi/thriller. Hocking does a great job with the sf (personality implants, time travel, virtual worlds), and the story runs along quite well. It ends rather abruptly, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; sometimes the story you're trying to tell, well...just ends. There are loose ends that could be picked up for more stories, and that's never a bad thing!

The crypto is a bit silly, but honestly, most fictional crypto is. It's not enough of the plot to worry about. (unlike in The DaVinci Code, where Brown's continued [and much worse] mangling of cryptography runs on FAR too long.) Otherwise, the story moves along a quick pace, the characters (especially Saskia) are far more interesting than a generic thriller, and the plot draws you in. Well done.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A smart read filled with fresh dialogue March 13, 2011

By Debra Hamel TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

It is inevitable that David Proctor and Saskia Brandt, the two protagonists of Ian Hocking's futuristic novel Déjà Vu, will meet. Proctor is suspected of multiple murders, most recently that of his former colleague Bruce Shimoda, with whom he had once worked on the creation of a top-secret virtual world. He is also suspected of bombing the lab that he and Shimoda shared some twenty years earlier, back in 2002, an explosion which happened to kill his own wife. Saskia Brandt, in contrast, doesn't know her own back-story, but she does know that she works for the FIB, Europe's Federal Investigation Bureau, and that she's been ordered to capture Proctor. Saskia also knows that she is super-human insofar as manifold bits of information have been implanted in her brain. She quite literally knows things she doesn't know she knows: should she find herself in the cockpit of an airplane, for example, she may or may not discover that she is an expert pilot. Using investigative skills she'd been unaware she possessed, Saskia follows Proctor across continents, a high-tech chase scene that will leave readers, if not breathless, certainly interested.

Déjà Vu is a smart read filled with clever, fresh dialogue:

"Saskia stared, unfocused, at the wall. 'If I fail, what will happen to me?'

'For murder?' The death penalty. Although after the Richter ruling, you might be lucky and just have your brain wiped. Street-cleaning isn't so bad. They wear epaulettes.'"

The book offers readers an intriguing mystery right from the get-go: Saskia, who is being framed herself for murder at the book's opening, must solve the crime before a refrigerator repairman arrives in her office the next day. (Really. It is the scene early on in which Saskia discovers the corpse she's allegedly responsible for that hooked me on the book.) The plot of Déjà Vu is intricate enough to leave readers pondering its twists long after they've finished it. It may indeed be a bit too complicated, or may at least occasionally leave too much unexplained: I was left with a few questions that might require a second reading to clear up. In particular, the almost dreamlike segments in the book in which the characters are acting in the virtual environment Proctor helped create can be confusing and are less satisfying than the rest of the story. That said, I very much enjoyed the world Hocking has created and the characters with which he's populated it.

While the virtual world Hocking's scientists created left me cold, I was otherwise smitten with the author's view of the future, in particular with its cool gadgetry. In the 2020's, computers are everywhere. Driverless taxis tool around providing easy transport. Refrigerators self-diagnose and summon repairmen when appropriate. Best of all is the computer prototype that David Proctor makes so much use of: Ego is a close to omniscient, credit-card-sized personal computer that is forever increasing its own store of knowledge and performing helpful tricks. Ego constantly scans innumerable sources--the internet, police communications, spy novels--for information relevant to its master's situation, and upon command it is ready to act as an interpreter or magnetic card key, a voice-activated recorder or explosive device, a lie detector or, well, an iPod. In short, I want one. I just hope Steve Jobs is paying attention.

-- Debra Hamel

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Deja Vu did not give me deja vu! July 28, 2012

By Rachel Shelley

Format:Kindle Edition

I liked this book! I read it after getting the Amazon recommendation from my purchase of After the Cross because the pricing was irresistible at $2.99. I love the Amazon recommendations, because if you pay attention they do not disappoint. I am interested in the rest of this series, and you will be too once you've read this first book. Great read!

More About the Author

I'm the self-published author of the bestselling Saskia Brandt series (Déjà Vu, Flashback, and The Amber Rooms). Déjà Vu won the Red Adept Science Fiction Award. I'm currently writing the final book in the series, Looking Glass.

Represented by Kneerim, Williams and Bloom.