Book Review: Debt Collector Season One by Susan Kaye Quinn

Title: Debt Collector Season One
Series: Debt Collector #1-9
Author: Susan Kaye Quinn
Published: June 26, 2013

Format Read: Individual Ebooks
Length: 9 short novellas
Source: Purchased from Amazon

All NINE Episodes of Season One of Debt Collector in EBOOK and PRINT.

What’s your life worth on the open market?
A debt collector can tell you precisely.

EPISODE LIST - add them to your TBR!
Delirium - Debt Collector 1
Agony - Debt Collector 2
Ecstasy - Debt Collector 3
Broken - Debt Collector 4
Driven - Debt Collector 5
Fallen - Debt Collector 6
Promise - Debt Collector 7
Ruthless - Debt Collector 8
Passion - Debt Collector 9

or add the collections

Debt Collector (Vol 1-3) - Delirium, Agony, Ecstasy
Debt Collector (Vol 4-6) - Broken, Driven, Fallen
Debt Collector (Vol 7-9) - Promise, Ruthless, Passion
Debt Collector Season One - in EBOOK and Print

Teasers: I don’t pay attention to the payoffs—they’re all brilliant or famous or something. Making the world a better place with their brains and their lives. [21% from Delirium]

“You are adorable, just like Candy promised.” [49% from Agony]

Only ten percent of the population carries the genetic marker for collecting, and even with the marker, odds are still good you won’t express. [15% from Ecstasy]

Hit men. Of course, that’s what all debt collectors are. [34% from Broken]

Her hands are spread wide. They’re asking forgiveness. [12% from Driven]

His skin is unnaturally smooth, and he reminds me of the high potentials at the LifeLong medical complex: CEO-type, used to being in control, getting his life hits between high-powered meetings. [65% from Fallen]

She looks at me with a kind of disbelief, like she’s not sure if I’m lying or crazy or maybe have a concussion after all. [44% from Promise]

I give her a nod and hurry out of the room, scraping my dignity off the floor as I go. [44% from Ruthless]

The mercy hit burns brightest right before the darkness closes in. [65% from Passion]

Review: Lyrium is a debt collector a reader can root for in Susan Kaye Quinn’s Debt Collector Season One.

Quinn creates a gritty futuristic world where mobs terrorize people and debt collectors will take your life energies to pay off your monetary debt. The technological advances are spectacular and felt so realistic. I could believe we could have things like that in the future.

Although I read this as a nine-part serial, season one is complete. The use of present tense throws the reader into the urgency of the situation, and Quinn has a fantastic sense of pace. I enjoyed reading each story as a serial because it reminded me a lot of a TV drama.

Lyrium’s growth is so satisfying to read. He’s not had an easy life, but he rediscovers his soul throughout season one. Each character adds to Lyrium’s growth and the overall story. Quinn has a way of writing heart-breaking characters. You just wanted to find a way to protect so many of them against the evils in their world.

I absolutely loved Debt Collector Season One by Susan Kaye Quinn and look forward to Season Two.

Five Bookworms = I loved it!

Book Review: Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn

Title: Open Minds
Series: Mindjack Trilogy, #1
Author: Susan Kaye Quinn
Genre: YA Science Fiction

Format Read: Ebook
Length: Novel
Source: Purchased from Amazon

When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.

Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

Teaser: “I said I’d keep the Clan’s secret,” I said. [39% Ebook. Ooo, what is the secret? You’ll have to read to find out.]

Review: So what if you can read thoughts. It’s better to be a mindjacker in Susan Kaye Quinn’s Open Minds.

Kira Moore has a problem, since she can’t read minds like everyone else. She’s such a likeable character, and I enjoyed her growth from zero to hero. Raf is the smart and adorable boy-next-door type. It’s no wonder Kira has a crush on him. Each character has a place in this novel, but Kira and Raf are my favorite.

The dangers of Kira’s newfound abilities to mindjack people amp up the tension and increase the pace. I didn’t want to put this book down and purchased books two and three as well as the collection of novelettes as soon as I finished Open Minds. Quinn’s style is easy to fall into and be transported to a world of mindreaders, mindjackers, and zeros.

If you’re looking for fast-paced and edgy YA, you can’t go wrong with Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series!

Five Bookworms = I loved it!

M is for Mindjack Trilogy by Susan Kaye Quinn

 

For 2013's A to Z Challenge, I am talking about book series, particularly some favorite series as well as series I've been waiting to read for a LONG time.

 

M is for ... Mindjack Trilogy by Susan Kaye Quinn

I read Open Minds early January of this year, and man, I just loved it. The writing and storyline sucked me in, and I didn't want to stop reading. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to read the rest of the series, even though I promptly bought all of them after finishing Open Minds.

When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.

Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

When you control minds, only your heart can be used against you.

Eight months ago, Kira Moore revealed to the mindreading world that mindjackers like herself were hidden in their midst. Now she wonders if telling the truth was the right choice after all. As wild rumors spread, a powerful anti-jacker politician capitalizes on mindreaders’ fears and strips jackers of their rights. While some jackers flee to Jackertown—a slum rife with jackworkers who trade mind control favors for cash—Kira and her family hide from the readers who fear her and jackers who hate her. But when a jacker Clan member makes Kira’s boyfriend Raf collapse in her arms, Kira is forced to save the people she loves by facing the thing she fears most: FBI agent Kestrel and his experimental torture chamber for jackers.

 

When your mind is a weapon, freedom comes at a price.

The final installment of the Mindjack Trilogy is here!

Four months have passed since Kira left home to join Julian’s Jacker Freedom Alliance, but the hole in her heart still whistles empty where her boyfriend Raf used to be. She fills it with weapons training, JFA patrols, and an obsessive hunt for FBI agent Kestrel, ignoring Julian’s worries about her safety and repeated attempts to recruit her for his revolutionary chat-casts. When anti-jacker politician Vellus surrounds Jackertown with the National Guard, Kira discovers there’s more to Julian’s concerns than she knew, but she’s forced to take on a mission that neither want and that might be her last: assassinating Senator Vellus before he can snuff out Julian’s revolution and the jackers she’s come to love.

Book Review and Teaser: DELIRIUM by Susan Kaye Quinn

Title: Delirium

Series: Debt Collector, #1

Author: Susan Kaye Quinn

Published: March 20, 2013

Format: Ebook Novelette

Source: Author

Genre: Futuristic Science Fiction

What’s your life worth on the open market?
A debt collector can tell you precisely.

Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He’s just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja’s sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane… until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn’t what she seems, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone—a dark pit he’s not sure he’ll be able to climb out of again.

 

Teasers: Only I’m not healing him, I’m killing him. If only it didn’t feel so damn good. - 14%

I don’t pay attention to the payoffs—they’re all brilliant or famous or something. Making the world a better place with their brains and their lives. - 21%

But then the transfer starts, and it kills any desire in me to smile. Ever again. - 32%

I’m going to regret this. I know I am. - 56%

She glances at me, then crosses her arms across her red slicker. The movement reminds me that I still don’t know what’s underneath. - 58%

Review: Susan Kaye Quinn’s Delirium sets up a great introduction to her new episodic series, Debt Collector. 

Delirium sweeps the reader into Lirium’s world. As a debt collector, his job is to take the life energy from a dying person and transfer it to the people who will make the world a better place—or so they say. Each transfer creates a blot on his soul. Lirium is dark and tragic, yet I cheered for him and felt connected to his plight. Apple Girl is brave and full of an inner light that makes the reader care about her. She’s a good foil to Lirium. I love how Quinn sets up the minor characters and creates a distrust in the ones with “high potential” as well as the life energy accountants.

This fast-paced episode does its job to set up the main character as well as future problems that could happen in the storyline. The present tense gives an intense edge and sense of immediacy to the story. The amazing futuristic setting is dark, gritty, and has a noir feel—minus the detective. Quinn’s writing rips open the emotions—sadness, horror, smiles, and smirks. I feel like we’ve just scratched the surface, and I can’t wait for future episodes.

The first of nine episodes, Delirium by Susan Kaye Quinn has the reader craving for more, just like a debt collector taking a sweet hit of life energy.

 

Five Bookworms = I loved it!

Q is for . . . #atozchallenge

For the A to Z Challenge, I will be featuring up to three authors per letter (via their last name). Some of the authors responded to my request for authors to promote. Others, I found. Please check them out and their books. Thank you!

I follow Susan Kaye Quinn's blog, and she's about the only author I know with the last name starting with "Q." I've had her novel Open Minds on my to-read list for a while.

Our "Q" Author 

Quinn, Susan Kaye

I grew up in California, where I wrote snippets of stories and passed them to my friends during class. My teachers pretended not to notice and only confiscated my stories a couple times.

I left writing behind to pursue a bunch of engineering degrees (B.S. Aerospace Engineering, M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering) and work everywhere from NASA to NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) to a little Venice Beach restaurant called The Green Bean (I was the bookkeeper). I've designed aircraft engines, studied global warming, and held elected office (as a school board member). Now that I write novels, my business card says "Rocket Scientist and Author," and I don't have to sneak my notes anymore.

Which is too bad.

All that engineering comes in handy when dreaming up dystopian future worlds or mixing science with fantasy to conjure slightly plausible inventions. For my stories, of course. Just ignore that stuff in the basement.

My middle grade boys clamor for more middle grade books with magic and gadgets and less teen novels with kissing. Unfortunately for them, I enjoy writing both.

I write from the Chicago suburbs with my three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as much as I can handle.

You can find me on Twitter way too often. Or you can reach me the old-fashioned way: susankayequinn (at) comcast (dot) net.

 

Links: Website

Now, if you like fantasy flash fiction, please visit my other blog participating in the challenge: Cherie Reich - Author. To find the other participants, click here.