Rarely Pure and Never Simple Variant Configurations Book #1
Science Fiction, Gay Fiction, Science Engineering
Mischief Corner Books, LLC;
June 28,, 2022
Kindle
260
Amazon
Variant children are vanishing at an alarming rate. It will take a uniquely mismatched pair of trackers to untangle a web of conspiracy and misdirection to find them.
In his isolated cabin, variant Damien Hazelwood avoids human contact as much as possible to prevent attacks of blind berserker panic. But his rare talent as a locator makes him the go-to contractor for tricky missing person's cases and when agents bring him a troubling contract involving missing variant children, he finds it impossible to refuse.
Licensed tracker Blaze Emerson can't help being irritated when he's expected to follow the strange, twitchy locator's lead on his latest case. He works alone, he's damn good, and as a variant sparker, he has both the fire and the firepower to take on anything out there. Though he has to admit there's something intriguing about a man who can find people with his brain.
With vastly different temperaments and backgrounds, Damien and Blaze need to negotiate quickly how to work together if they're going to crack this case. Add in the sudden appearance of Blaze's outlaw ex, the perils of tracking in the wilds, and a maddening lack of discernible motive or method, and they soon find themselves in as much danger as the kids they're trying to rescue.
Variant Configurations takes place in a future Earth where humanity is reclaiming its spot in a gradually healing world. This book contains mentions of past abuse, action-adventure style mayhem, and the beginning sparks of a slow burn, series-spanning relationship.
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Earth in the future, plagues, weather causing property damage and destroying crops causing starvation, wars and 80% of population wiped out. All of that is scary but the scariest thing is trying to convince myself that none of that is occurring now and that our future will be a lot brighter. In this future the Fredamine Project has resulted in the births of variants, children born with various gifts and not surprisingly bringing out the protestors. People insist on laws governing these children from wearing collars to being locked away.
Damien Hazelwood is a rare variant with the ability to locate, an ability that resulted in severe abuse as a child from an uncle who thought he could locate precious items, never believing that he could only locate people. Now forty variant children are missing from an academy they attended, and Damien is assigned to find them. Damien isolates himself; he is unable to tolerate people being near him, but he won’t turn down an assignment involving children.
Blaze Emerson is a private investigator, a variant and a sparker able to easily create fire. Damien is not happy about having a partner, but this assignment could be dangerous, and Blaze is the man for the job.
These two men should never have been able to tolerate each other and although Blaze is angry at the world and Damien has so many quirks it is hard to keep up, but they manage to make it work. Despite their differences Blaze surprisingly becomes a buffer for Damien and can hold him and even lay next to him. The search for the children leads them to two dead kids and hopefully the rest of the kids are alive.
Before long they are joined by Shudder McKenzie a who is known as a terrorist fighting for Variant rights and Blaze’s ex-boyfriend. Now another disturbed variant who can create earthquakes joins in the search for the missing children. The mission is filled with conflicts between the three men but despite that they never take their eye off the ball.
What happens with the missing children and the three men is not something I will reveal in this review. So many things that the three rescuers face are scary because what happens is not beyond the realm of possibility.
Let me just say, reading an Angel Martinez book is soooo good. A long time reader of her work I can say her world building is one of the best, this book the story line with Damien, Blaze and Shudder feels like a good sci-fi movie. It hosts truths of what ‘could happen’ and how these three go about dealing with it together… Get me the Popcorn as I wait for book #2.
LGBT/SCI-FI/FANTASY/PARANORMAL
