Customer Reviews

The Society (The Society Series, Book 1)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Society is a keep-you-up-too-late book. I couldn't put it down until I finished it.

It's an urban fantasy, set in the real world, about people with inherent psychic powers. A covert arm of our government kidnaps these people and coerces them by drug addiction and torture to use their powers as formidable weapons. The heroine knows shes "different" but has denied it all her life. She lives a quiet life working as a psychiatric nurse and doesn't realize the existence of Sigma, the covert government black ops organization. But when she meets a man who wants to recruit her for an organization that opposes the secret government operation, The Society, danger threatens her former life and everything in it she cares about.

The book ends on a cliffhanger. I was so into the story, I wanted more! I can't wait for the sequel.

Saintcrow stands with the best as far as narrative drive, and her characters are real and often flawed.

This book blew me away! Rowan Price always thought of herself as a freak due to the feelings she'd get. One night coming home from her job as a nurse at a state mental hospital, she stops to investigate a light in a supposedly empty and haunted house. Instead of ghosts, she finds members of the Society who recognize her as an individual with incredible psionic talent. The Society decides to voluntarily recruit her in order to save her from Signma, a black ops government agency that forcibly recruits their members. Unfortunately, Sigma tries to kidnap her first and Society member Justin Delgado has to intervene. Justin was formerly a member of Sigma and knows how far they will go to keep those of psionic talent under their control; while in Sigma, he was tortured and addicted to the drug Zed. Justin trains Rowan but she begins to heal his heart. Sigma still wants Rowan, however, as she has powers beyond any previously tested. A trap is set and Justin is captured. The book ends with a cliffhanger and thankfully the next book in the series is already out so I can see what happens! Lilith Saintcrow has written a very powerful story that deserves far more than five stars. Highly recommended!

What is a psion? Do you feel things differently? Can you move things with your mind? Can you set things on fire just by thinking about it? If you can do anything like this then you are a psion and the government wants you! In fact they will pretty much do anything to get you. Kill your friends, family, and pretty much anyone that gets in the way.
Rowan Price knows that she is different. She feels the pain of it every day. She tries her best to live a normal life though and even becomes a nurse because she knows that somehow she can help people.
A secret government organization known as Sigma wants her though. They are evil and want to train her to be one of their operatives. Their version of training is getting her hooked on drugs and combining that with electric shock therapy. The Society is Sigma's counterpart. They want to find psions and save them from Sigma; training them and giving them the choice for how they want to live their lives. Rowan is brought in to the Society by Justin Delgado, a former Sigma operative. The Society saved him and he wants to save Rowan. Read this book to find out how he does it.
Their story is crazy, romantic, suspenseful and best of all it isn't over!

The editorial above neatly summarizes the plotline and I found myself getting really attached to both lead characters. Delgado is on the surface your standard dark hero type, although maybe he's a little more self-aware of his emotions. Rowan is in turns a little whiny, incredibly strong, indecisive, bullheaded - in other words, both of them are contradictory, which as written, is realistic in a relatively unrealistic story. Their relationship is beautifully drawn, especially as it's told more from the side of Delgado than Rowan's.

There are only a couple of reasons why I can't give this book five stars and while they're only little things, they bothered me enough to give an otherwise really wonderful book a slightly lower ranking.

There are quite a few timeline gaps. Weeks, if not months pass in the span of a chapter. While I understand Rowan couldn't go from neophyte to crack operative immediately, it was irritating to page to the next chapter only to read that suddenly weeks had passed. Also missing was any resolution to the material witness warrant issued for Rowan in the deaths of her father and friend.

What finally pushed me over the edge into irritation was the last chapter and that damnable phrase, "to be continued." Even more irritating, the book-ending preview of the follow-up says it will be released in October of 2005. Well, it's December and no release yet, nor is there a pre-release announced. I got hooked on Lilith Saintcrow with her Watcher series and am anxiously awaiting the final (?) book in that trio; at least each book had a beginning and ending of sorts. I was disappointed that this wonderful, well-written and intriguing story had to be so sloppily released.

Rowan Price is a nurse in a mental health hospital. She has a remarkable ability to calm the most agitated patients. And she'll do anything to hide her 'special' ability from the outside world. On her way home from work one night, she runs into some people in an abandoned house, and starts a chain of events that starts tumbling like dominoes. Justin Delgado was one of the people investigating the 'haunted' house. When he sees Rowan Price, he knows, immediately, how special she is. He saves her from an abduction in the grocery store parking lot, and once again from a home invasion. Rowan goes with Justin in a state of shock, part of it that she can't believe there are other people like her in the world, people who belong to The Society. The Society works against a government agency called Sigma. Sigma recruits (or kidnaps) people with psionic talents and trains them to use their abilities - not always for the best. Justin knows this, from experience, as he was trained by Sigma to kill with his talents, but he was able to escape. Rowan has the strongest psi talent anyone has ever seen, and she begins to wonder which side is the good side. Just when Rowan begins to trust Justin and The Society, their stronghold is overtaken by Sigma operatives... Pretty good novel, followed by HUNTER, HEALER, which I haven't read yet. Lots of suspense, not cozy.

Yet another icy, dangerous, flat-eyed hero who falls for a moping heroine.

And every other page(!) we are treated to Delgado's innermost thoughts: OMG, I am falling for her. OMG, I must not fall for her. OMG, OMG, OMG. Not so heroic and really 2-dimensional. Thankfully, the heroine Rowan, whilst guilt-ridden and a little mopey, is not so downright silly.

Having said that, the story idea is good and overall the book is better than just sufferable. I'll just ignore the torn and ultimately whiny hero. ;)

A nice beginning. I wasn't thrilled with the semi cliffhanger ending which she has a tendency to do with her books. I like the way she fully integrates the world as a just slightly different from what we have now. There is enough "normal" world so you aren't trying to figure out all the different in's and out's of the world itself that you miss the well written plot and character development that she is so good at. Overall its a good book, so far the second one is just as good but since I haven't finished it I don't know if these are the only books in this series.
Overall a good read, with well developed character's and character development in a world easy enough to fall into step with and find yourself Believing in this slightly altered reality.

Well, this book had a good idea but... the writing was not what I would have expected from an experienced author. It was extremely frustrating reading so many "sorry this, sorry that". I enjoy reading about strong characters with some backbone, even if they start off weak but grow throughout the couse of the story. The character development was weak and didn't end up being believable. So, bottom line, if you like characters that are constantly saying sorry, crying, and gonna vomit all the time. Well, this book is for you. If you like strong characters with backbone, well, your gonna get really frustrated with this one.

I won't recap the plot because others have already done it. The Society Series seems to happen in the same world as the Dante Valentine series but before The Awakening -- long before Dante. It is a page-turner, for sure, with well-realized main characters I cared about, a healthy dose of sexual tension, engrossing action scenes and some good sex. Just ordered the second book -- can't wait till it arrives!

For other Saintcrow fans: I read the DV series first -- three times through, back to back. Then the 3 Jill Kismet books. I found the JK world, characters and chemistry to pale in comparison to the DV books, but tried this one anyway, just to see if the fire existed in other works by Saintcrow. I happily learned that it it does! Am I missing something about JK?

The storyline was promising, and the beginning chapters too. You'd think you'd go along for a ride as the heroine goes through self-discovery and growth as she learns about her powers, but instead you get switched as most of the story is told from the hero's point of view about how crazy he is for the heroine.

Other than that, about nothing much else happens, plot-wise, in the story. Mostly a two-dimensional, weak heroine who's 'moping' through most of the book (as one character even put it) and another two-dimensional hero who's only absorbed on her and forgets he has a life.

The plot is a bit more original or different than most paranormal romances, for which I would give it 3 stars, but the characterization just dissapoints. For true, well-rounded, believable human beings (or paranormal creatures) I would recommend something written by Ms. Jeaniene Frost or Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson series, who's characters are surprisingly fresh, real, and well-rounded, and has enough action to keep the pace strong. Two stars and a half for this book.