Power: The Girl in the Box #10 by Robert J. Crane

It has been a long tumultuous road, filled with death, torture, pain and hardship, and that was just the fun side of things.

The girl we met in book 1 Alone has grown into a young woman.

A leader of people, a killer of all that dares stand in her way, and above all she has finally caught the end of the tigers tail she has been chasing.

An understanding of why, when, who and the what the hell for, and the knowledge to destroy the one person who created all the questions in the first place.

After all Sienna has been through, after all she has lost, and those hits just keep on coming like a shark hunting bait, will she be able to peer through the screen of destruction and see the light? Will she succumb to the ultimate power and the life being offered to her on a silver platter?

Jigsaw pieces come together to make the picture complete. Unanswered nagging questions from the very first few pages of the series are answered ten-fold and more.

Sovereign decides to try a different tack to convince Sienna. His actions create suspicion, disbelief and then a dangerous level of acceptance and complacency seeps in to the minds around him. The enemy becomes friend, the foe become a divided Korea and Sienna's merry bunch of hybrids become a tad confused.

Sienna wouldn't be such a popular character if she didn't throw us for a loop and make a leap in the complete opposite direction. In the end she is complete. The past has taught her well and she is able to envisage not only the future, but also finally understands the connection between herself and Andromeda.

Of course the same goes for Crane, he also wouldn't be such a popular author if he didn't know exactly how to keep his readers on their toes and guessing backwards like an episode of Jeopardy does Metas.

The end of the book holds a surprise revelation in regards to Sienna's fate. Unexpected to say the least. I have enjoyed and devoured each and every word of this series. Kudos to Crane for that.
I received a copy of this book courtesy of the author.

Untouched: The Girl in the Box #2 by Robert J. Crane

This is the second book in the Girl in a Box series. It is an urban supernatural with a flair of dystopian fantasy. Crane doesn't disappoint with yet another fine example of his creative imagination.

The main character Sienna has finally figured out what her main meta power is, she is one of very few succubi.

Crane hasn't used the word succubus in the same sense as the usual contemporary paranormal/supernatural books. Sienna 'takes in' the people she overpowers and then by definition they become part of her.

This of course leaves the door open to a very interesting psychological dilemma and sub-plot. If the people she absorbs become part of her personality then that begs the question, who is making the decisions?

Are her actions based on her own choices or influenced by the ones within. Fascinating concept, which is delivered in an amusing and realistic way.

The internal dialogue becomes part of her expectations, despite who the person within her is, we find Sienna actually looking for the connection when it goes silent.

The plot follows a meta, who has gone beyond the point of redemption.

The main character feels sympathetic towards the plight of the troubled meta and of course this is the opposite of what is expected of her in the group she has accidentally aligned herself with. Again she is at war with her internal conflicts and supposed external obligations.

I am going to have to stop myself there, because as you can obviously tell, I liked the book so much I want to discuss it..a lot. So no more borderline spoilers.

I highly recommend giving the series a go, starting with Alone: The Girl in the Box #1.
I received a free copy of this book courtesy of the author.

Alone: The Girl in the Box #1 by Robert J. Crane

In 2012 this was a venture into a completely new genre for Crane and I have to say that his path from Epic Fantasy into the supernatural  Urban Fantasy world is very good.

Not one iota reminds the reader of where the author has once trodden upon the paths of trolls and magicians.

Often it is hard to leap from a genre one is comfortable in. Instead it is as if he was never anywhere other than in the mind of this meta human girl.

A young hybrid with extraordinary skills and unknown dimensions of abilities yet to be discovered. She has been kept hidden away in a house, by her mother, for her entire existence.

One day her mother doesn't return home and she is introduced to a world of unimaginable monsters and people who want to treat her like a guinea pig.

The story is fast paced and gritty with a balanced proportion of Sci-Fi and supernatural, without the usual suspects one tends to finds in books of this genre.

I found it engrossing, perhaps because the main character wasn't your typical little girl please feel sorry for me type. Instead she was tough with a smart-alec attitude, but still managed to act with the carelessness of an inexperienced youth.

I thought the end was brilliant, so much so that it made a shiver run down the back of my neck. I look forward to reading where the author will take that cliffhanger.
I received a complimentary copy of this book courtesy of the author.

Legacy: The Girl in the Box #8 by Robert J. Crane

I will be the first to admit that Crane drives me absolutely bonkers because he is such a master weaver of plots.

I get all smug and feel like Sherlock Holmes on a high when I think I have figured out exactly where he is taking the story. Then it’s Wham Bam Thank you for playing Sherlock, as he throws a spanner into my well laid explanation.

So let’s see where we are at the beginning of the eighth book in Alone (The Girl in the Box #1) Sienna has been delegated to top dog at Omega, which sort of happens when the leadership team falls prey to a series of unplanned fatal accidents. This also means she is in charge of what is left, ergo the straggling limping remains of the Unit.

After all the excitement in Enemies she decides to hop on a plane all footloose and carefree, except she doesn't realise that her feet aren't exactly loose any more. The powers that be have other plans for her. They also have some surprises to spring on Sienna, some of which are less than enjoyable.

Without revealing any of the major events in the story I want to at least try and discuss some of them in a way that will omit any revelation. Did you get any of that? No neither did I. It sounded way better in my head than it does on screen.

Mama Bear Sierra turns up out of the blue and I can honestly say for the first time in eight books mother and daughter manage to connect on a level which is less than vitriolic. Somewhere along the line I think one of them needs to accept that they are more or less re-enacting family secrets, problems and schemes devised by third parties over and over again through the generations.

Sierra is Sienna and Sienna is Sierra, add on grandmother and great-grandmother and you have a whole lot of orchestrated events tumbling over each other and the direction of their personal history. They think, especially Sierra, that they have changed the course of fate, when in fact other people have been pulling the strings in the background when it became necessary or convenient. Some of that becomes evident during this book.

I really want to get my teeth into Sovereign.

By the middle of this story I had come to the conclusion that there must be a time travelling element involved. The flashbacks to specific Meta, who had interacted with Sovereign, made me wonder whether he knew exactly who or what she would imbibe, which would explain his killing some and letting others live.

Did I mention the author and his propensity for spanners?

Book eight is the calm before the storm, the eye of the hurricane and so eerily tranquil that I know the last two books are going to just implode.

Sienna is walking the last stretch of the mile towards fulfilling her destiny, even if she is completely unaware of what that might be exactly but I am guessing from the ending in this book that she isn't in the dark any more.
Sienna has broken free of the constraints of that box and she is finally getting a glimpse of what she is and what is expected of her.

However it is Sienna, so if I know one thing for sure it is the fact that what everyone expects is never what she ends up doing.

As always this was a fantastic read.
I received a copy of this book courtesy of the author.