Helpful Score: 1
Lindskold definitely has a better grasp of the fantasy genre than sci-fi. She starts out well with a good premise - on the terraformed planet of Arizona, we have Smokey, a whore who has used her secret telepathic ability to become the best in her business. Her problems begin when she detects an alien mind in one of her clients. When her friends are murdered and she appears to be set up for the killings, she is forced to flee with her young daughter, joining a hitherto unknown group that is battling these alien invaders. The book proceeds at a nice pace with good character development, but somewhere in the middle the author falters and the story slows down. Then it picks up again toward the end, but Lindskold shows her weakness in the field of mystery/suspense with a feeble murder "investigation" and a listless climax. I also found the romance aspect of the story quite lacking. She has potential for sci-fi but if she can't improve on this, she should just stick to fantasy, which she is brilliant at. Fans will find this disappointing book tolerable but it makes a bad introduction to her work for first-timers.
