Customer Reviews

The Family: Special Effects, Book 1 (Family, Bk 1)

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In any argument over research methods, the CIA always backs Samuel Hunter Over Michael Hastings. For instance, Michael opposed Hunter's experiment that killed the three kittens and their mother. Now things are turning uglier as Hunter uses three people in his PSI Project. Fifteen-year-old Summer Mann possesses telekinetic powers. Eighteen-year-old James Powell has precognition abilities. Finally, twenty-two-year-old Kate Mimeaux is the emotionally most mature of the team when it comes to her abilities.

Hunter crosses the line when he tries to manipulate Summer into killing someone with her powers. Fearing for the trio and knowing none of them, including him, have any ties to anyone, Michael persuades the three subjects to flee into the night. They land in Los Angeles with new identities, but a local cop recognizes Michael from high school and wants to use the threesome to catch a serial killer. If they agree, Hunter would have a big lead into tracking them down. If they don't, they have to live in fear for the rest of their lives.

THE FAMILY, BOOK ONE: SPECIAL EFFECTS is an exciting opening novel that will please fans of such works as THE FURY and GEN 13, which this tale seems to parallel. The story line is entertaining and the psychic powers come across as genuine. The key players all have different personalities, which adds to the overall effect of Kevin McCarthy and David Silva's strong tale. His is a powerful novel for paranormal lovers.

Harriet Klausner

It is an idea that has been done before: A trio of kids with psychic abilities in a secret project run by the FBI that goes a little too far. In this case, the three children are taken by an agent who sees just how dark and wrong the project has become, and the four run to Hollywood to hide and try to have a normal life. Unfortunately, the FBI Agent who took the kids bumps into a friend from highschool who is now a detective, and when a strange serial-murder case stumps the police, this new "family" gets involved to try and catch the killer.

There are a two serious flaws to the book that come glaring through, however, and really detract from what could otherwise have been a good story. One is mechanical: my copy had at least a half-dozen typos. "Spider planet," instead of "spider plant," and more than a few misplaced quotation marks that turned an otherwise tense scene into a matter of confusion.

The other flaw to the tale is one that often comes with science fiction stories focused on psychic abilities: the kids only seem to remember they have these abilities when it is climactic to the plot. When one of the kids is left in a coma, the coma goes on for days before one of the other kids decides to even make a telepathic attempt at recovery.

Still, if you do enjoy tales with psychic characters, the idea isn't poor, just the presentation. Given that it is sub-titled "book one," likely this was also very much a set-up novel, and the next might be more fluid and less clumsy. If you'd like a more stirring tale of psychic runaways from the FBI, pick up a copy of the classic Stephen King "Firestarter," instead.