Review by Booklist Review
There's always been a tinge of Revenge of the Nerds in Sakey's Brilliance series, which comes to a thundering end with this third volume. A population of superbright people called brilliants are considered a threat and isolated in a redoubt in a corner of Wyoming. Fed up with abuse, they create super long-distance weapons and decimate chunks of the U.S. The public howls for revenge, but the president wants no part of it, so a war-loving secretary of defense assembles a ragtag army of patriots who attack the redoubt to show those smarties what's what. Here the novel shifts into overdrive, and the glimpses into the minds of everyday folk turned killers and the descriptions of high-tech weapons doing their worst are the core of the novel. Sakey doesn't hold back here; the mayhem goes on for a good while, and it produces one long adrenaline rush. From his drones to his old-fashioned assault rifles, Sakey deploys the standard weaponry of the postapocalyptic thriller with a sure hand and a wry wink.--Crinklaw, Don Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The searing conclusion to Sakey's Brilliance trilogy (after Brilliance and A Better World) updates the plight of the supernaturally gifted people known as abnorms, who constitute 1% of the U.S. population and first appeared in 1986. Thirty years later, federal agent Nick Cooper, who's an abnorm, realizes that the policy of fighting "monsters" (renegade abnorms) has turned government officials such as Secretary of Defense Owen Leahy into monsters themselves. With tragic results, Leahy has provoked conflict between the government and Tesla, the abnorms' Wyoming enclave, while Cooper, battling desperately for his children's future and torn between lingering affection for his ex-wife and his new abnorm partner, pursues evil abnorm genius John Smith, who's bent on annihilating normal humans. Though the rapid-fire cinematic cuts may disorient readers unfamiliar with the earlier books, this installment raises important questions about such matters as patriotism, self-sacrifice, conflicting loyalties, and parental devotion. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The war over a generation with superpowers comes to a final showdown. Sakey (A Better World, 2014, etc.) brings his cinematic series to a ferocious close, capping off a three-book experiment in futuristic violence, societal catastrophe, and hyperkinetic storytelling. The world is at war. The White House has been destroyed, cities burned to the ground, and society is crumbling. In Wyoming, the small percentage of the population with extraordinary abilities retreats behind the walls of the Jerusalem-like city of Tesla. They hide behind the Vogler Ring, a wall of microwave weapons that threatens to fry invaders in gruesome fashion. But a new group of extremists called the New Sons of Liberty is determined to exterminate the Brilliants at Tesla. Meanwhile, a mad scientist named Abraham Couzen has discovered a method to turn normal people gifted. Since testing out his strange brew, Couzen has become a multifarious threat himself. Terrorist John Smith and his creepy time-aberrant henchman, Soren Johansen, are determined to weaponize Couzen's creation, forcing evolution upon the planet. "I realized when I was eight years old that [this] wasn't a world I could live in," Smith confesses. "I decided to tear it down and build a better one. To pen a new history, one written in fire." The two people standing between Smith and the end of the world are government agent Nick Cooper and his partner in heroics, Shannon Azzi, who must pit their own gifts against the world's villains one more time, even at terrible cost. That said, it's not all so grave. Locked in combat with one of Smith's deadly henchmen, Cooper has a nice Indiana Jones moment: "All you need to do is tie him up long enough for the others toWait a second. You're carrying an assault rifle." This entry isn't the best jumping-on point but serves as a thrilling reward for loyal readers and those willing to take the ride. A bombastic final entry that combines larger-than-life futurism with convincing ultraviolence to deliver a satisfying, open-ended finale. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
