City in Synch

It’s taken me a while to gather my thoughts on Michaelbrent Collings’ newest book. It felt more like a thriller than a horror to me–even though there’s graphic violence in every chapter, including a slaughter in a frat house. Maybe it was all the suits and sunglasses.

Seriously, I started singing “I wear my sunglasses at night” in the middle of reading.

“Synchronicity” revolves around the idea of psychic and telekinetic powers, so don’t expect to understand what’s going on until it’s thoroughly described (which it is…eventually).

Characters

The story is told through the “lenses” of three main characters:
Tyler “Book” Malcolm: a man who has “booked” away from situations and people all his life…and has a little psychic help.
Kane: a man who uses The Machine to mentally overpower people and literally become that person. He’s also ridiculously strong, ridiculously insane, and has no moral compass.
Jade: the good(?) version of Kane–or at least the pretty version–and isn’t chaotic evil like Kane. She follows a leader.
Which brings me to the secondary character, Axel. Book’s tale is fairly simple and arcs well, but it’s actually Axel’s backstory that feeds depth to this novel.

Story

So, when Book catches Kane’s eye (and thereby Jade and Axel’s attention), Book’s in more trouble than ever. He’s soon caught up in the secret invention of the SINC (AKA the Machine) that lets him mentally take over other people…at the price of their life.
With a serial story of my own about body-switching, I found this concept particularly fascinating.

Despite their telekinesis, the protagonists are very human and very flawed. While they’re all heroes to their own stories, they’re also all villains to each other…mostly.

Vulgarity

As mentioned earlier, there’s a slow massacre of an entire frat house and some graphic violence in every chapter. There’s also some swearing, but no f-bombs, and a few sexual references. Solidly within PG-13 range.

Still, this felt more like a thriller than a horror–not just because of the suits and sunglasses. There are a couple bomb explosions and even a car chase. Rather than working on fear of fear itself or terror of the unknown, “Synchronicity” themes around the fear of getting caught.

Final Rating

As with most sci-fi/super-power stuff, there’s a lot of time spent talking and explaining the tech and powers, which can seem dry. The ending also went in favor of “crazy twist” over continuity, so I can’t say this is my favorite of Collings’ books. Still, those were my only issues, so I give it ****4.3 stars****.

As for future installments of Book’s story . . . I found this posted on the author’s Facebook.

I’m seriously starting to consider doing an Avengers team-up with a book starring Legion (The Stranger series), John Doe (This Darkness Light), and [Book]…
Spoiler: they will NOT like each other.

At least not at first.

– Michaelbrent Collings

I actually read “This Darkness Light” after reading this post because I enjoy Legion that much and anyone who could possibly team up with Legion must be interesting. (In case you missed them, here are my reviews for “Stranger Still” and “Stranger Danger”).
I’m really not sure how John Doe would fit into the mix after he completely apocalypsed his world, but I can definitely see Legion and Book . . . interacting. To say they’ll “get along” is a stretch, so I’m very curious to see how a team-up would work.