Inkshares is running another contest with the Nerdist, so I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce the work of a fellow author. Without further warbling, here’s Patrick Jamison’s Infinity Mind.
About the book:
Mason is a non-violent protester against the dictatorial government of Raquel Velasquez, the reigning leader of El Dorado, the oldest and most secluded colony on Mars. For his actions, he is thrown in jail, beaten to within an inch of his life, then recorded as dead.
Waking up in a lab, Mason soon discovers the government’s ulterior motives for his arrest when he realizes he has been surgically altered to have telepathic abilities. He is the first success in an ongoing experiment to create unstoppable assassins — a telepathic police force that will quell all resistance to the Velasquez regime. Despite his resistance, he succumbs to the brainwashing techniques of his new master, Oduya, the right hand man to Velasquez.
Oduya, the project’s mastermind, is a terrifying man on his own. With a past both dark and dangerous, he has his own motives for creating telepathic agents, motives that could have deadly consequences. Mason is sent on missions to eliminate all individuals who threaten Velasquez’s government — many of whom were former colleagues — but when his next mission is to eliminate his wife, Sabina, remnants of his old self create a war that jeopardizes his programming.
Will Mason break free and rise up against the dangerous man whose control extends far deeper than the grasp he has on Mason’s mind? His actions, for good or ill, will define a new political era and a power that extends to the infinite depths of the mind.
About Patrick Jamison:
Patrick Jamison is a life-long lover of space opera, starting with Star Trek and moving far beyond from there. He is fascinated by alien cultures, galaxy-spanning plots, and the deeply flawed humans that inhabit these stories.
Outside of his passion for sci-fi and space opera, Patrick works in a community resource center, has two cats, and has a deep love of coffee and chocolate. Quite often, he can be found on a Saturday morning in a coffee shop, furiously typing a story, while listening to electronica. He’s also currently learning how to play the violin – so far, it’s ear-piercingly screechy.
Q: What inspired you to tell this story?
A: Considering my love of Star Trek, it might be surprising that the inspiration for this story is because of a disinterest in sci-fi with aliens in it. It seems every sci-fi blockbuster from Hollywood deals with aliens that are on their way to obliterate humanity.
Then I stumbled on three things – the movies Moon and Children of Men, and the short-lived TV show Charlie Jade. All three tell compelling and engrossing sci-fi stories that feature no aliens. Moreover, they also feature average people in the lead roles, someone who is not ready to be the hero of the story, yet somehow manages to save the day. Usually, this is from accepting the importance of their unique skills play and the realization that if no one else is able to solve the crisis, then it has to be them. (Well, the guy in Moon doesn’t exactly save the day, but he leads the viewers in a compelling exploration of self and what it means to be who he is – it’s absolutely fascinating.)
I wanted to write a story like that, but make it a bit more space opera-y than Moon, Children of Men, or Charlie Jade. That’s how Infinity Mind came about. It takes place in a colony on Mars and involves space opera elements like telepathy, but it takes it in the direction that these inspirations led me in – Mason starts out as an average person, not ready for the monumental task ahead of him, but then he realizes that no one else will do it for him. He sets out to free the colony from oppression. But in the true tradition of space opera, there are other strategies at play from competing powers – everybody has their own agenda and rarely do those plans ever overlap.
Infinity Mind is, I believe, a compelling story with fascinating characters. I wanted this story to be told by these characters only – so I took the time to really enrich them. I didn’t want a plot where, basically, any character could be swapped out with someone else. No, these characters were meant for this story, and this story was meant for this book. Infinity Mind is a real ride, I promise you, but I hope you’ll also come to care as deeply about the characters as I do and really root for them throughout the story.
