ARTIMA'S TRAVELS

A teenage girl of the near future hailing from a remarkable family discovers that a half brother is part of an incredible cyber/psychic experiment, providing a literal window into an ancestor’s World War II years.

Dustin offers a YA-skewed follow-up to her techno-thriller Artima’s Travels (2020). Erstwhile hero Artima “Arty” Ressols is a single mom whose advanced sense of smell led her to clandestine computer operations involving fragrances, Navy intrigue, and Covid-19 fallout. Now, the narrative turns to her daughter, Ella, 17. Ella learns of the death of her long-estranged father and reconnects with that branch of the family tree, especially a half brother named Colton. Using deceit to escape Artima’s supervision, Ella ventures to California to meet Colton, and they become fast friends even though something about the boy strikes Ella as odd. In short order, Colton reveals that he is part of a project, via a shady agency called Recor, to enhance human intelligence and computer interfaces. Colton has a brain implant that effectively gives him encyclopedic data base knowledge and the proverbial photographic memory. Moreover, he demonstrates a talent for psychometry—touching an object, he mentally divines details of its history. Family relics and a neural link to a Recor handheld screen device (looking much like a smartphone) take Ella and Colton back to World War II and their ancestor Albert. He is a rising engineer, and, while no Hitler follower, he finds himself forced unwillingly to work in the Third Reich’s secret weapons factories. When he shows psychic abilities during the testing of a V2 rocket, a personal visit from Heinrich Himmler inducts Albert into the SS elite seeking to weaponize psi phenomena and the occult via microwaves. Albert is shocked that among the “subhuman” concentration-camp inmates used in cruel experiments is Simon Silverstein, a Jewish friend from his younger days. Back in the 21st century, revelations that Colton’s enhancements may have been extrapolated from Nazi research throws Ella’s newfound relatives into a more sinister light.

The YA-leaning tone does not simplify the SF narrative, but it clearly keeps the tale out of R-rated territory when it comes to delineating grisly Holocaust atrocities (the previous book, sort of a workplace suspense drama, expressed adult concerns, though also with taste and decorum). Here, the storytelling neatly incorporates fact-based information on German research at the pioneering missile base at Peenemünde, mystical secret societies, the “Lebensborn” Aryan-breeding compounds, and some dubious quasi-science “achievements” of the Soviet Union and the United States. Dustin fact-checks herself in an afterword, and it is indeed shudderworthy to discover how much of this yarn has roots in the truth. The chronological leaps into different timelines at uneven intervals give the story a slightly choppy effect, but the voice is still a strong and effective one. The author thankfully does not fall back on the YA paranormal cliché of a female lead trapped in a maddening romantic dilemma. Another installment featuring these intriguing characters is promised at the end.

An engaging, time-jumping sequel that skillfully brings Nazi supernatural secrets into SF territory.