FORESEEN

Kinzie Nicolosi had always wanted the power to change the world; now maybe she will.

Smiles has created a universe in her sci-fi novel where two types of people exist: adepts and commons. Adepts can see and manipulate the atoms that constitute everything. They can influence people’s decisions and they can translocate: move matter from one place to another. Commons don’t have any of these special attributes. Kinzie Nicolosi, a loner and a powerful adept, is a freshman at Hutchins College. Raised by an overly protective single father, Kinzie is on her own for the first time in her life. When an experiment in her science class yields statistically impossible results, Kinzie’s uncle Mark informs her that she’s an adept—she can use her mind to change the world. First time author Smiles has devised a convincing supernatural culture. Her novel is so richly detailed that the reader accepts that this separate society of adepts exists and has its own storied hierarchy. The theoretical concept behind adepts is clearly explained so that even a reader who has never taken a physics course will find it easy to understand. One adept says: “You’ve observed the turbula, correct?...The tunnels branch, sometimes in multiple directions, each heading to a different possible future....We can influence the decision by subtly broadening one branch over another, making it more likely that is the decision which will be made.” By continually paying such close attention to detail, Smiles has proven that she’s skilled at crafting a nuanced page turner.

A worthy sci-fi thriller à la Dean Koontz.