by Bruce Boston
First published 2007
Richard Thorne lives as a Citizen in a future City State where technology rules everything. His world changes when he meets two people from the slums: a gambler who cannot stop and a prostitute unlike any other. These relationships pull him toward aberrance, the State's term for dangerous deviation. His transformation leads him to murder a high government official, crossing the ultimate line. Sol Thatcher works as a Guardener, part of the psych police who hunt down aberrants and recondition them into productive citizens. He takes on Thorne's case with confidence in his training and tools. Thatcher studies every detail, runs the cyberscan mind probe, and applies his most advanced techniques. Nothing works. The case defies all logic and methodology. Thorne represents something Thatcher has never encountered: an incurable aberrant who cannot be fixed or understood. Now Thatcher must decide how to handle this impossible situation.
Genres: science-fiction, dystopia, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: aberrant-protagonist, cat-and-mouse, redemption
Setting: City State
Period: Future
273 pages · Perfect Paperback · Sam's Dot Publishing
Content warnings: murder, violence