Book Review and Giveaway Package: The Fear of God by B.A. Chepaitis

I enjoyed the intense suspense in this series.

The Fear of God: Jaguar Series by B.A. Chepaitis

• Paperback: 218 pages
• Publisher: Wildside Press (March 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1434430731
• ISBN-13: 978-1434430731

    Genre: Sci Fi
    My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Product Description
On Planetoid Three, Jaguar Addams enters the minds of criminals. She lives in the shadows of their fears . . . and chases them into the light. The followers of the Revelation Sect are preparing for the Second Coming. Stockpiles of weapons were found when federal agents stormed the home of the fanatical leader, Sardis Malocco. Now Jaguar must resort to using a virtual reality environment of Heaven to get to the root of Sardis's fear of God-before Revelation's zealots unleash their own apocalypse upon the world . . .

Review: The author does a grand job of building suspense through the last pages.

Jaguar is trained to work with criminals on a penal planetoid. The goal is to discover their deepest fears, make the “patient” confront them and hopefully then begin to rehabilitate them to return to society as a productive citizen.  Jaguar is also an empath and she is often able to use her skills to reach the patien” when normal means are ineffective.  Because of her success rate, Jaguar’s superiors allow her some leeway although the public sentiment does not favor using or even acknowledging empathic skills.

Jaguar is assigned to address the case of Sardis, a cult leader who has already allowed members of her ‘family’ to blow themselves up with bombs on the children. Her superiors have determined that the best way to reach Sardis’ fear of God is to place her in a virtual reality (VR) Heaven.  Jaguar doesn’t like working with religious zealots and she doesn’t like working in the VR environment. However one of Jaguar’s close friends, Rachel, has been infected with an unknown toxin by Sardis’ collaborator, Philo.  Getting Sardis to reveal her secrets may be the only chance to save Rachel.

There are a lot of threads in this short but intense story. Sardis is a hard case as she is so lost in her self made delusions.  Philo has escaped and has the ability to mold his physical aspect to appear as another person so he is slipping around the system as one guard and then another. One of the FBI agents, Claire, who brought Sardis to the planet is seducing Jaguar’s boss, Alex. Meanwhile Claire has secretly, and against Alex’s instructions, placed monitors on the VR system.  The VR program begins to have problems and Jaguar has to cope with an infuriatingly obscure retrojection version of herself in order to get clues to peeling the layers into Sardis.

This is book two in the Jaguar series.  Although it can be read as a stand alone I think you get a better picture of the primary characters and the setting if you read the first book, The Fear Principle. The reader has to wade through a small amount of techno jargon but you can catch the gist an move on with the meat of the story.  I really liked how this book reveals more of the complexities of Jaguar’s intense personality, as well as the complexities of her relationships with Alex and Rachel.  I also appreciated the twists and high level of suspense that kept me moving to find out what happens in Jaguar’s race to stop the apocalypse plagues set up by Sardis.
Again, I would like to read more about Jaguar and Alex and I look forward to more books in the series.

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Thank you to Pump up Your Book and the author for this book to read and review.  Also I am pleased to host the Giveaway of one package of both books to a lucky US commenter.

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY:
1. Visit the Author's Website and tell me something of interest you found there. This is required for entry.

2.  For an extra entry, become a follower or tell me if you are already a follower.

3. For two entries, blog, facebook, tweet (any of those networks!) about this giveaway and tell me where you did.

It isn't necessary to use separate entries unless you want them in different chronological order.
(Four total entries possible.)

* This contest is only open to residents of US.

* No P.O. Boxes Please - for shipping reasons.

* Limit one win per household.

* This contest will close 10 PM (Central) on August 12, 2011.
The winner will be randomly selected from all entries.
WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED on AUGUST 13 and will have 72 hours to respond by email or the winners form linked in the announcement.

Book Review: The Fear Principle by B.A. Chepaitis

This is a solidly entertaining, complex, suspenseful sci fi.

The Fear Principle (Jaguar Adams) by B.A. Chepaitis

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 510 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Wildside Press (March 14, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004S81HK2

     Genre: Sci Fi
     My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Product Description
Dr. Jaguar Addams knows about fear. On a satellite prison called Planetoid Three, she establishes a telepathic link to her subjects. She confronts their demons. And makes them her own . . . They were known as the Killing Times, when serial murder reached epidemic proportions. Victims of hard-edged crime demanded hard-wired punishment, and the new prisons were born. Now one determined woman, a survivor of that dark age, tries to rehabilitate killers by tapping into the source of their obsessions: their worst fears. Her name is Jaguar Addams, and she is about to face the most challenging subject of her career. The ultimate assassin. A dangerously disturbed woman who will teach Jaguar the true meaning of fear.

Review: This is an interesting and engaging sci fi.

Dr. Jaguar Addams is a complex and intense person. She is a skilled empath who works on a prison planetoid. Her job is to confront the hardest of criminals and force them to face their deepest fear. The result is they deal with their issues and can be rehabilitated .... or sometimes they die. Jaguar has the highest success rate of the ‘teachers’ but she has to shield her techniques as some people are afraid of empaths.

Jaguar has an ongoing case with a con artist, Adrian. As she sets up a con to get to his deepest fears, a high level assassin arrives under custody. The assassin, Claire, is as cold as an ice wall. Even Jaguar’s supervisor, Alex, who is also an empath, cannot reach Claire’s thoughts. The governmental directives on handling Claire include finding out who hired her for the latest assassin.  Alex determines that the only one who might have a chance to discover Claire’s secrets is Jaguar.

Jaguar is a survivor from the horrible Killing Times on earth when people went berserk and started killing in masses.  Jaguar has never shared her history as a young child coming through the horrors of those years. But another co-worker, Nick, was a cop who helped get her off the streets.  Nick is slipping in his abilities. He is angry, on the edge and jealous of Jaguar’s successes. He wants to be part of her team to work with Claire but neither Alex or Jaguar trust him.

There is someone else, The Looker, who wants Claire eliminated before she can disclose her secrets.  The Looker is connected to a government agency that has hidden plans to use technology to replace the empaths and take control. There is a traitor on Planetoid Three who is feeding information to The Looker and helping him to undermine Jaguar.  Jaguar discovers clues to a plot and reports to Alex. When Alex goes to earth to investigate Jaguar has to break a few more rules to rescue him.

I liked the characters, even the cold Claire who ultimately shares childhood abuse stories with Jaguar. There is a bit of psychology jargon (or babble as I termed it in my head) entwined in the empath plotline and the criminal mindsets. This caused some confusion but I determined to read through that and enjoy the overall effect of the unique world and the fast paced suspense. When I completed this book I was curious how the relationship between Alex and Jaguar might change in the second story.

Caution - The story has some dark and twisted aspects involving abuse and murder.

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This book was provided by the author for an honest review in conjunction with Pump Up Your Book blog tour for book two of the Jaguar Addams series.   Check in tomorrow when I will post the review of The Fear of God: Jaguar Series.