On Impulse is a self published sci fi thriller by author Heather Texle and the first in her "Reliance Sinclair" series of novels (of which the second book comes out this July). The novel is a semifinalist in this year's Self Published Science Fiction Competition (#SPSFC4) of which I am a Judge. It's a sort of classic type of novel - our heroine is a former (space) cop who is searching for answers as to the tragedy that got her essentially forced off the force - her partner turning on her - and who finds herself on the run from other cops when she stumbles onto the murder of her only friend. So in some ways it's the Fugitive, but in a Sci-Fi setting, albeit with some other influences as well.
Unfortunately, On Impulse really doesn't contain much to recommend it. It's not a bad novel, as it remains very readable (and quickly readable) as its protagonist gets into worse and worse situations due to impulsive decision making (see the Title) and eventually discovers the truth. But its characters are largely shallow and forgettable - especially its protagonist who kinda gets less development than some of the very shallow side characters - and it really doesn't say anything interesting. Nor is the setting or plot particularly intriguing, with the plot relying upon a bunch of pretty dumbfounding character choices to make it work.
More after the jump.
Plot Summary:
Reliance Sinclair was a bit confused as to why her friend Jarrett - former fellow cop and data specialist/hacker - wanted to meet her in the middle of a market on Andaress-4. She was even more confused when he didn't show up on time and so she headed out to his own place to investigate. There she stumbles upon a horror: Jarrett's murdered body, killed clearly by at least two assailants. And of course who should find her at that moment but officers from the Department of Enforcement of Criminal Affairs (DECA), with her standing over Jarrett's dead body.
Rather than try to explain, Reliance takes off in flight, holding in her hand the data dot she found in Jarrett's apartment. She just knows the data dot contains the reason why Jarrett was killed...and perhaps answers to why her former DECA partner tried to kill her, the incident that led to her leaving the force. But finding the answers to these questions - and Jarrett's murderer - will be especially difficult because an elite DECA agent is on her trail, and it'll be doubly difficult to track down answers without leading him right to her, one planet or another.....
On Impulse features a sci-fi universe that isn't very sketched out - we know that humans have space travel and that there's an interplanetary police force in DECA and we do learn about one moment of history that led to a ban on bionic weaponry - but really we just learn a few things about each planet traveled to and that's it. Instead the book focuses upon following Reliance's internal voice, as she runs from the cops and tries at the same time to get answers and vengeance for her friend.
Reliance unfortunately is kind of generic as a character. We learn about how she left DECA due to the incident in which her partner tried to kill her and she killed him in self defense, but we learn nothing about her childhood, her likes and wants outside of DECA, or really what she's doing as some kind of insurance investigator for the past two years since her leaving the force. All we really get to know is that she's lonely and desperate for answers and that the only person she really has as company is her ship's AI, who for no reason whatsoever takes the form on the ship of a robot cat. And she's insanely impulsive - as the title suggests - taking very little time to plan her next move as she investigates the conspiracy she's uncovering, which keeps getting her into trouble and leading the cops right to her (which again, fits the title but is a little infuriating).
The side characters - mostly the DECA cops since the villains largely turn out to be pretty generic evil mad scientist types and their security forces - are a bit better, with the crew of cops Reliance eventually winds up working with having some pretty nice chemistry that makes them enjoyable to read (honestly, I feel like I knew more about their personalities than Reliance's in barely as much time). And the plot itself moves rather quickly such that it never drags and is easy to read, so this is still a fun book despite how shallow it is. At the same time, without an interesting character or setting, it's also kind of forgettable, and some of the plot turns requiring some really brain dumb decisions by the good guys and the villains (one twist midway through when Reliance gets captured by the bad guys is just....so dumb), it's hard to really recommend On Impulse, even if I don't think you'll have a bad time reading it.
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