Setting: Annapolis, Maryland – her apartment, the art museum, the ‘tomb’ – bomb shelter under 3 mansions, forgotten, abandoned asylum used for general’s experiments;Theme: power, patriotism to the extreme; abuse of power and other’s talent; insensitivity to humanity; learning of extent of ones power; love; Characters:Amy Shane: 20 years old; computer geek; reclusive; works from apartment, volunteers at animal shelter; mother died when she was 3, father died when she was 5 – of apparent suicide – leaving his daughter to find him; has a sense of someone there for her when feeling sad or worried – thinks it might be her father’s ghost; can see auras around people – ‘seeing’ their emotion and character; hears voices as falls asleep, but ignores the voices – but when encourage to listen, she finds they are the voices of the dead – like Cyrus; until 5, friends with 5 other children;Orn’ry: loud, obnoxious parrot she adopted from shelter, that has bonded with her;Lucas Vanderwyck: dreamweaver, like mother; grew up with Amy, and stayed connected to her; he would get visions of her as she was growing up… he was able to go to her if she was sad… and he learned to focus his power to be in her dreams… the last 6 months he has entered her dreams and made love to her; he would get premonitions at night, sit up and draw them furiously… he learned that if he drew the same 4 nights in a row, it would happen… and he learned how to intervene… a year earlier, he ‘saw’ her being raped at a marina… and he worked each night to figure out where it was going to happen… and he figured it out in a nick of time, stepping into the fiend’s head as he stalked her… and he rescued her – though his belly got slashed; raised with the Aruda’s when his parents died;Eric Aruda: lead Rogue – an Ultra – both parents psychic; pyrotechnic & can remotely see; first aware of being monitored/followed and turned the tables on the follower; very sexual – though knows / respects boundaries; can cause a person to burn (accidently killed stepmother many years earlier), and has a level of enjoyment of it; loyal to his friends; an interesting mix;Petra Aruda: Eric’s half sister (mom fooled around with another psychic and brother their child); a balance for Eric; has excellent hearing; her touch is soothing/healing (until the end, only used in massage on family, in end she finds she can heal even a bullet wound); sense of drama and makeup;Randall Brandenburg: one of the five children; can see 10 seconds ahead; uses talent in casinos, and uses money for grandmother who raised him… and for neighbor woman whose daughter has cancer, and she tried to raise money for aid by yard sales; Uncle Cyrus Diamond: friend of her father’s; stay connected to her, like an uncle; worked the Dark Matter experiment in the beginning – and knows of its failures; works for the CIA as an anti-terrorist agent; made the error of telling Darkwell that Amy had some psychic ability – seeing auras – which led Darkwell into checking out the other children of the people experimented on; tries to protect Amy, though he lies to her… and when he sees that Darkwell is going over the edge, he tries to save her by meeting up with her and providing her the means to run, and remake herself; but he was followed, and takes the bullet meant for her, dying;Bill Hammond: one of the 3 children assigned to Cyrus to watch over; Cyrus befriends him… but an overzealous Darkwell guard overreacts and kills him, making it look like suicide… the 5th child?Ozzie Stavros:, neighbor, friend, fellow computer geek; he is a green extremist; Amy’s friend – who wants to be more; sees conspiracy in all – and eager to figure out what is happening to Amy, and to help her… I wonder how his character will play out in future books.Gerard Darkwell: aka ‘The Devil’ (so named by Lucas); Department of Tactics and Defense; Blue Eyes / Dark Matter; sees the rogues as useful test subjects without limits; has recruited two to his side… and manipulates them, but does not give them drugs; Obsessed with proving worth to 5 star general father, and does not hesitate to use the enhancement drugs on the rogues, to try and perfect it, knowing that the Rogues will be crazed by the drug, increased sexual desire, and then die; uses Lucas (by promising to keep Amy safe – a lie) – drugged, and in sensory deprivation he gets Lucas to kill two terrorists, and then Gerard’s military brother, who threatened Gerard’s experiments… hmmmmRobbin: the doctor under Darkwell’s thumb; he is ambivalent about what they are doing… though one of the terrorist Lucas killed, was responsible for the death of his family; hmmmOlivia: works at the asylum; a nurse; believes the prisoners in the asylum are convicts and did horrendous things; medically helps Lucas when opportunity presents self;The Pope: called in by Darkwell in the end to help clean up; Darkwell reluctant to do so, and Pope shows interest in what Darkwell is doing… taking copies of the files, and wanting updates;Trevor Gladstone: one of Darkwell’s agents, a bit off; following Eric, Petra, and Lucas; they identified him as following them, so they turned the tables to kidnap him… got a small amount of info from his computer; Eric goes back after other two leave him in warehouse… determines that he will kill them… so first time Eric uses his pyro powers to kill;Calvin Hobson, president of the Society for Psychic Phenomena: wrote a letter to Petra’s father in regard to his wife’s death, saying he knows something was off and offering support…. I’m guessing the group will be helping out the Rogues; Summary:Lucas, Eric, and Petra are trying to dig up the truth of their powers, and their background and what happened to their parents… they identify Amy in the database, and Lucas has visions of her… and he goes to her to warn her… but is captured by Darkwell’s men… he was able to give a little information and a warning of betrayal before taken…Amy goes to the art museum (after Petra gives her a flyer for the museum, but gives others flyers for a car wash)… and she sees pictures Lucas has drawn/painted of their dreams… she now knows the man of her dreams is the man who came to her apartment. Petra and Eric chlorophorm her, take her to the Tomb, try to find out what she knows… return her to the museum… Lucas joins her in her dreams again, telling her to not endanger herself and delve any deeper or to try to find him… But Amy is determined to rescue him… she joins up with Petra and Eric… and after some chases, some computer hacking, rescue from the men who killed Cyrus, and finally sharing more of what both know… she pushes them into rescuing Lucas… she listens to the voices finally, and Cyrus tells her Lucas is kept in an old asylum… and they go in, just before they are going to give him the 4th, deadly injection, and rescue him… and he is almost dead, but Amy nurses him back to health (cooling cloths, water, and after fever breaks, naked body warmth)… and he insists they go back to rescue Rand… which they do… So we have an introduction to the players… hmmmmMemorable scenes:Killer Grape – her purple couch that sucks down sitter like quicksand; As already mentioned from the others, this is a book about the Offspring, a group of (in the beginning) two men (Lucas and Eric) and a woman (Petra). They all have a special force which makes them see in the future or to be able to set fire to everything they want. But they have to fight to stay alive.I bought this books some months ago, after I read a shortstory in Bitten by Cupid and I got caught in the story. Right now, I finished the fourth book of the series and it gets even better. The protagonists are vivid and you kind of get to know them really good.
What do You think about A Perfect Darkness (2009)?
I really like this series. It's a nice change from the usual vamps and demons. Sort of like "Fringe"
—IamJustin
This is a great book. I can't wait to read the next book in this series.
—Aaron
What an awesome series with energetic, lovable, addictive characters!
—iHound
Hmm, this series looks promising, but I need to read more.
—Cailyn
