Mindguard

The Mindguard Saga #1

by Andrei Cherascu

An alternative cover edition for ASIN B00N9YTICU can be found here

Called out of semi-retirement, the telepath and Mindguard Sheldon Ayers is tasked with protecting an information package located inside the mind of a young woman who claims the knowledge she holds is vital to the future of mankind. Sheldon and his team must help her cross the most dangerous territory in the man-inhabited universe - the Djago Desert.

Hunted by the Enforcement Unit - the all-powerful Military arm of the Interstellar Federation of Common Origin - Sheldon’s team must fight to keep the carrier alive and guard the integrity of her mind. But nobody suspects that Sheldon also has a dark secret, and it could end up changing the fate of the mission.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

295 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2014

About the author

Andrei is the author of the science fiction series The Mindguard Saga. His debut novel, Mindguard, was chosen Book of the Year 2014 by scifi365.net. Its sequel, The Vintages, was nominated for Best Science Fiction at the 2016 eFestival of Words. Martyrs of the Mind, the fourth book in the series, is scheduled for release in March 2019.

When he isn't working on his novels, Andrei is busy running his jazz-themed website The Music and Myth, where he reviews records and gigs and posts interviews with artists like Sofia Rei, Bill Frisell, Al DiMeola and Patricia Barber.

A full-time writer by day, he enjoys spending the evenings drinking wine and listening to music with his wife, Ioana and their Bichon puppy, Jazzie.

Want to be notified of new releases? Join the mailing list here: http://www.andreicherascu.com/newslet...

You can get in touch with Andrei through his website http://www.andreicherascu.com/
He is also on Facebook and Twitter (@CherascuAndrei)

Reviews

[Darryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting new science-fiction!

I used to read sci-fi as a kid and was looking to get back into it when I came across MindGuard by Andrei Cherascu. I’m glad I chose such a good place to rekindle my love of the genre.

Mindguard is set in the far future where telepathy is used to reach into minds and gather information illegally. The story follows two Mindguards, specialists charged with protecting VIP’s minds from these hackers (think psychic bodyguards), as they escort a special ‘package’ through dangerous territory. I won’t spoil it any further, but suffice it to say you won’t be disappointed with the story.

Cherascu takes a modern fear and flings it far into the future. In true science-fiction tradition, his story is a warning about our current society, in particular unfettered invasions of privacy and abuses of information. It’s no easy feat to create a convincing future world, however Cherascu skilfully crafts a realistic and well-thought out universe with well-defined characters to match.

I’d recommend MindGuard to any science-fiction fan who is looking for a new voice in the industry.

[Dragos · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hackneyed space opera but, nonetheless, ambitious.

From an overall perspective the book is not boring and not uninteresting. The plot is dynamic but a bit melodramatic and twisted by preestablished sci-fi paradigms in foreseeable ways. The story is more about present anxieties than about future possible events. It tackles the concepts of privacy and individuality as opposed to transparency and swarm behavior. The resulting antithesis based on this dichotomy becomes the main theme of the book and is evidently expressed by the ideological conflict of some factions with different agendas.

As it always turns out with man, he discovers a new toy which happens to also be the potential source of his downfall. When this last realization appears, committees, organizations and special units are created in order to contain the situation. This also creates an ideal environment for brinkmanship which is used in the book to maintain a constant feeling of urgency and tension.

I cannot help but notice the omnipresent and continuous literary experimentation done by the author which in some ways is appealing and in some not. For example there is the linguistic plasticity with rare constructions like "inter-gender etiquette", or the intentional juvenile logic like "She wondered how he would be in bed. His careful, protective nature predicted only good things". Other examples are the situations when things regarding the author region of origin slip into the book through construction like "an expensive piece of furniture made from Carpathian elm" or "Ross glanced at the book’s title. “Wolfmen : A History of the Dacian Population”". But this venturing also contributes in decreasing the willing suspension of disbelieve. For example characters are created and destroyed by some 'George Martin' rules or iris scanners are used in an era when implants, DNA scanners or even neural-fields scanners exist.

Speaking of technology, there is nothing new under the sun; nothing original, extravagant or intellectually provoking. Funny enough, in the good old fashioned sci-fi way, new theories and technologies are named by some absurd hard to remember names like "Muench-Henriksen" or "Weixman". The same old bio-implants, wormholes or genetic manipulation processes are used but in a clumsy intricate way which makes me think that the scientific part is just a means to an end. One issue regarding technology is the way future soldiers avoid full augmentation in favor of some Zen-Buddhist philosophy of the mind and body. While this is romantic and all, it's something which even the Dalai Lama would have a hard time believing it. Warfare always involves advanced technology in order to create the ultimate killing machine. I mean just take a look what DARPA is doing this days with exoskeletons. Personally I would have preferred a readjusted form of the old mind over matter philosophy with some theory about the synergy between mind, body and machine.

Another shady subject is that of the gateways. In the beginning we are introduced to the fact that this type of orbital devices just got upgraded to work on the surface of the planet but with very high costs and in specially arranged places ("platform that resembled a heliport"). We are also made aware that not a lot of people afford them just to find out 2/3 of the book later that one character happens to carry a 'portable' one, and this is just to create continuation for the story. It seems hard to buy into, it's like Graham Bell announcing the iPhone the day after getting his telephone patent. This type of approach in which logic is sacrificed to enhance stylistic contrast or plot cohesion is nevertheless often encountered in literature but for the sake of the 'sci' in sci-fi it should be less visible in this case.

The characters are strong and authentic. It looks like the author went to great lengths to conserve their personalities and he did so elegantly. But there is at least one character who was constructed from a onion stuffing recipe, again just to fill the plot. I also had a constant deja-vu while familiarizing with them, they always reminded me of someone else. For example Villo resembles Tom Cruise playing Morpheus, Tamisa seems like a female Anakin Skywalker and Maclain like Hulk playing in the '6 million dollar man' show.

The work invested in this debut is huge and admirable and deserves some form recognition. The story itself, enriched by some 'exquisite' epigraphs, is not bad but I keep wondering if it's ontologically deep or ontologically shallow. I guess this is not a bad outcome because ambiguity leaves some room for interpretation which in turn can be a good debate subject. For the less sci-fiish audience this book is a great 'gateway' into the genre but for the more demanding reader the feelings could vary a lot.

[Andie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a great original story. There's something for everyone in here: action, comedy, drama, thought provoking discoveries and mind-bending ideas. The characters are vivid and, whether you like them or not, you will find yourself rooting for someone one way or the other. It's a highly quotable and endlessly entertaining read.

[Desiree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful debut novel! Mindguard is not only about a mission to safely deliver a humanity changing packet and the government's attempt to stop the mission. Mindguard is about humanity, the advancement of science and technology, and how we, as humans in our different roles in society, confront all of social, legal, and ethical implications of this fast changing world. This fast-paced cinematic story goes beyond mere entertainment and posses interesting and important questions about humanity's future. If we had the technology and power to do it, would we use our mind to control others? To read their minds? To strip individuals of their free will? If we had technology that could infringe in our most basic human rights, would we use it? If yes, when? These and many more questions will haunt you long after you have finished this book. I also loved how the novel masterfully reveals each character little by little, making us think- who really are the good & bad guys in the story? This is just a fabulous read and I do hope to reading a lot more from Andrei Cherascu!

[Liquid Frost · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out so interesting, then peaked, and turned toward too much religion. There were a handful of typos, which I can get past as the writing was well done. By the time I completed reading this adventure, I found that I didn't really connect with the characters and have no desire to do so. Some of the characters started out interesting but that halted and continued as/is.

You've got some good Sci-Fi elements here: Galactic Empire, The Force, enhanced bodies, teleportation and plenty of planets. You've still got socio-economical divides, zealots, monks and such, and of course the whole slant of individualism vs. enlightened collectivism. No spoilers here - but I was on Heratio's side.

In all, it was an entertaining diversion from life.

[Andrew Hindle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had fun reading this story, which was a very interesting and page-turning adventure with some compelling characters and fascinating sci-fi tech. Tamisa, highly-trained living-weapon soldier of the Interstellar Federation of Common Origin's Enforcement Unit, was sufficiently reminiscent of a Legionary of Moros to tickle my nostalgia bone and enjoy reading about her struggles.

The story centres around a team of private security specialists - Bodyguards and Mindguards, for the physical and telepathic safety of the client - and their efforts to get a person carrying sensitive information through a gauntlet of hostile environments and a space-fascist-y government under the heel of a military wing long since gone rotten. Every side in the story has its own secrets and every motivation has its own complexities, and I was left wondering who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. Ultimately, I suppose the lesson was that things are never that simple. And I like that.

Our characters' journey takes us through one of the most dangerous "deserts" in the human interstellar empire - I really enjoyed the concept of lawless or otherwise contested regions of space being deserts, by the way. Telepathy and teleportation / portal use are relatively commonplace. Also there's a planet (or part of a planet) of space lepers, which is great. No notes.

A few things didn't make sense to me as I was reading. The uploaded-consciousness thing was cool and all, but if it was a new discovery how was it much of a carrot for Sheldon? He could have (and probably should have) just refused to take the mission, and waited for the technology to become common. He'd waited this long, what's a little longer? Go public with the knowledge and wait for his turn. Still, I suppose it was tightly controlled and exclusive and - well, we needed the plot to happen. I also wasn't sure what was going on with Tamisa's phobia of her own beauty. Was it a veiled method of talking about how attractive she was, or was it a clever way of showing her mental damage after growing up on rape planet? Why not both?

Getting busted for shaving her head was kind of stupid, and the lesson (learn to embrace your advantages, in this case do the va-va-voom trope and be all beautiful and stuff) was a bit on the nose. I think her arc from victim and escapee from rape planet to relationship-haver with Villo with occasional head-smashing outbursts was more than enough without adding that additional facet to it. But fine. It's there. Incidentally, I was convinced as soon as Villo turned up that he was definitely going to betray Tamisa by the end and they would have a fight and be evenly matched and predictable and then she would win by being unpredictable. I'm still not sure if I'm relieved or disappointed by what happened. Why not both?

The action ticked along nicely and there were enough twists and turns for it to be compelling. The chapter introduction-texts either added rich background or tantalising snippets of what was coming up in the story without spoiling what was happening, and I liked that. Thomas Anderson's showdown with the Millers around the mid-point was fun and tense, marking the point of the story at which I really started to get invested and leaving me uncertain what was about to happen, and who I wanted it to happen to. Why not b- oh.

I was a little put off by the fact that all the female characters were described in great detail while the male characters (aside from Maclaine 'Mac' Ross and his bigness and tight shirts) were barely described at all. A notable exception being Horatio, who - well I still don't know what he looked like, but oh boy, his problems have got problems, don't they? That fuckin' guy, man. Nicely written.

The finale, tying together the action and intrigue and motivations of the main players, revealing a very satisfying mystery and even tying the leper planet back into it, is top-notch. Maybe a little over-extended, but definitely nice. I was left wanting to see what our heroes and anti-heroes did next, and that's never a bad thing.

Sex-o-meter

Aside from gross rape planet (I joke, but the ugly events and culture on Tamisa's former homeworld are really only alluded to in order to provide a backdrop, it's not all that explicit) and incidents thereon, there's a couple of sex scenes and a bit of skin-crawling nastiness from Horatio but none of it's particularly graphic. I'll give it a single sexual-performance-enhancing body-modification and two-thirds of a deep-seated emotional instability out of a possible ... uh, Horatio.

Gore-o-meter

We get some excellent fights, killings, and police brutality. People's heads are reduced to barely-recognisable lumps after their attackers lose track of how many times they've bashed them with whatever, which is something I always look for in a beat-down. Three-and-a-half flesh-gobbets out of a possible five.

WTF-o-meter

Like I was saying, the reader is treated to some excellent sci-fi concepts and a lot of good world-building in this book. But I wouldn't say there was much in the way of WTF to contend with. The Opus Caine was something of a WTF, and there were some great psychic moments, but I was rather expecting more of that sort of thing, in a story that seemed like the telepathy version of a bodyguard adventure. Even so, it was fine. I'll give Mindguard a diving sideways in slow-motion shouting "NOOOOO" out of a possible doing all that only in your mind.

My Final Verdict

Three stars for Mindguard on the Goodreads / Amazon scale. Not much more to say, this was an enjoyable read with some great characters. Also Horatio was there.

[Linda Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wide ranging, sometimes confusing, ultimately satisfying

The confusing bit first - there is a certain amount of jumping backwards and forwards in time (not time travel, but the narration of events) which threw out my mental gears. The most confusing was a report that announced the results of a mission which had not even started and which forms the bulk of the book. I was tempted to abandon it at that point, and a couple of times later on. I’m still doubtful that including the report was beneficial to the story.

The world building is good and the characters are well drawn and complex, with deeply hidden motivations that are gradually revealed, casting new light on what is happening. The scope of the story and the long-term manipulation of people and events by some of the characters reminded me of the style of Asimov’s Foundation series.

[Dion Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued from the outset about the concept of guarding minds. The idea that humans had developed telepathy and the ability to send and receive information so that one’s mind now needed protection. The early stages of the book set up the promise that this was going to be a sci fi thriller with lots of action and near escapes. Instead the book seemed to take forever to get going and fractured off into several stories. It was at times also unclear who the villain was and whether the protagonists were doing the right thing. While the stories did come together at the end, I was left feeling disappointed. The protagonist, the one I’d invested in, was killed off and the psycho bitch villain was escalated in status for no reason that was apparent to me. So not just disappointing, but confusing. I won’t be bothering with anymore in this series.

[Scooby Doo · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF 91%
Gave up as the characters motivations and actions became silly and unbelievable. They were drawn overly emotional and melodramatic. The writing was overwrought, long passages of redundant background. Characters with juvenile emotional reactions and motivations. There was one plot point that intrigued me that kept me reading but eventually that wasn't enough to keep my interest. About 70% the story takes a turn that tries to be profound and philosophical but just sounds cliche and hackneyed.

[Pedro A. Ribeiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great sci-fi book

It was certainly one of the best sci-fi books I read in the past few years.
Starts with a great premisse, and as the story develops, it turns into a more deep and complex philosophical question about humanity.
Every single character is well thought, well developed. You find yourself having mix feelings about them.
It's a book I gladly recomendo, and look forward to read the next one.

[Arref Mak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upon closing the book, my thoughts were, "certainly the most depressing SF I have ever read"

Not bad. Fully intended and carefully crafted.

If this had been written in the 20s or 30s, it might have been a classic and quite absorbing. It compares to Asimov's Foundation. Sadly, passionately portrayed characters on plot rails is not as convincing in modern times.

Nothing feels genuine here. Motives are flatly articulated.

Series to avoid.

[Liza · Rating 1 out of 5]

dnf (43%) The book just had too many sexist overtones.

Set in the future but the Enforcement Unit has never had a female member. At the start, she was suspended for 6 months because she dared to cut her hair.

On the other side, there's the boss who spends lots of time/money upgrading his physical attributes and then screws his secretary (who seems pretty dim) and any other women that he wants.

Rip out the sexism and it might be okay.

[Barry Edstene]

We are in to July and this is my 70th book, I need to say that it may be the best read so far this year! The story was perfect and the writing was flawless. This was a true pleasure to read. I will not spill the beans and tell you anything about the story. Just jump in and be amazed with the characters and plot. Well worth your time. I was not disappointed.

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking

The book was hard to follow in some sections but the characters were intriguing and oon occasionally went into unexpected directions. I thought provoking read. I'm trying to decide if my brain is ready for the next installment.

[laurie moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Traped

You know it's a good book when you can't put it down. The story took me through bends and turns I wouldn't have traveled on my own. It opened up and changed how I persevere things. It was grate can't wait for the next one.

[emarel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a great original story. There's action, comedy, drama, thought provoking discoveries and mind-bending ideas. The characters are vivid and, whether you like them or not, your response to their actions will be visceral It's a highly quotable and endlessly entertaining read.

[Eric Aeschliman · Rating 5 out of 5]

EPIC Page-Turner

Thick plot, yet not only easy to follow, but also addicting! I inhaled it like a drowning man vaccuums air as his head breaches the waves! I shell seek out Mr. Cherascu's other "Opi" with the same enthusiasm!

[Jim Kratzok · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more

Some books just don't work for me. This was one of them. Although it got better approaching the end so it was still painful to read. The characters were so cardboard stuff and unlikeable and the dragged on and on....

[sharon sobzak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging

Set far into the future with a different construct... Many different planets and the ability to get there through portals... Takes more energy to focus on the story and therefore escape this world.

[ROBIN CONKEL-HANNAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Suspenseful, well written, wonderfully believable interesting characters.. Makes you think about the existence and character of God and the power of the human mind.. The ending may surprise..

[Dudley Mercer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Sci Fi story.

The as yet unthought of technology is cleverly woven into believable present day tech
The multiple themes come together in a believable manner and the characters are developed sufficiently meet the needs of the story.

[V.L. Stuart]

An interesting well-written story with some unusual twists. The ending seemed a bit forced. I was surprised that this is a series as it could be a stand-alone read.

The mindguard idea was fascinating and reminded me of Johnny Mnemonic - he could have used a mindguard.

[thomas l troske · Rating 1 out of 5]

Misogynistic, mansplaining, sneaky religious. If the religion is so great and part of the authors lives why do a lot of them resort to tricks? Too bad as the writing and subject matter is pretty good. The women just fulfill the authors views.

[John Cristion · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a good read. Meandered all over the place. I wish I didn't feel like I had to finish every book I started. I wasted a few hours finishing this.

[Alayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the idea behind this book intriguing, which is why I bought it. However, I found the writing very poor. I felt like I was being lectured a lot of the time - the old author's rule of show, don't tell needed to be applied here - and also a lot of repetition. That's without the glaring errors of grammar and spelling. I was tempted to just leave it, but I was involved in the story so I finished it.

[Jenny Hambleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inventive and different than a lot of the Si-fi I've read lately.
An up and comer I would guess. Easily held my interest from start to finish.

[Hw Huyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

great story, extremely well written

Another cant put down story. Traveling through space and memory seems to be a theme well entwined in the story.

[Eduardo Dias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice!

Really enjoyable reading! Easy to read! I like the fact that even the main characters can perish. I shall continue reading the series.

[Joanne Porter Speiser · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mindguard

Too much violence for my taste. Slow reading to follow story line. Unrealistic attributes , mentally and physically to take seriously

[Targle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me

Obviously this is a book that has been written with great love and attention to detail.
It's really not for me....