#Blog Tour #Book Review #The Night Has Seen Your Mind by Simon Kearns @rararesources

Thank you to Rachel from rachel’s Random Resourses for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for The Night Has Seen Your Mind, a new science-fiction thriller by Simon Kearns.

The Night Has Seen Your Mind

Tech billionaire, Mattias Goff, has invited five creative professionals – programmer, pianist, writer, actor, and photographer – for a monthlong residency at Crystal Falls, his Arctic retreat.

Researching brain waves, and especially the enigmatic gamma wave, Goff asks his guests to wear a kind of EEG cap in order to record the electrical activity in their brains while they engage with their respective disciplines. Although they will be paid $5million each for the experience, they all start their sojourn a little wary – some more than others.

Cut off from the outside world in the stunningly beautiful, if stark, Alaskan winter landscape they immerse themselves in their work. Soon, though, reality seems to be shifting. What is Goff really researching? Are his guests only being observed, or manipulated?

Purchase Links
Elsewhen Press / Amazon

My thoughts:

The Night Has Seen Your Mind is a fascinating science fiction thriller with a touch of mystery, survival and even horror. At times I thought I knew where the author was taking me, at other times I was surprised by the development of the events and the changes the characters were going through.

What is this all about? 5 representatives of 5 different creative professions are approached by the assistant of a reclusive billionaire and offered five million dollars in return for spending a month in a remote house in Alaska, doing their regular professional activities: coding, playing the piano, writing a novel, memorising lines and preparing to act a small part in an upcoming movie, and taking photos of this research project. Our characters see this as an opportunity and are quite happy to participate. all they will have to do is wear a cap registering their brain activity to provide the billionaire scientist research data. It soon becomes apparent that there’s a lot more to this experiment, things they hadn’t bargained for.

I don’t want to spoil the story by giving away the plot which I found really good. What I liked the most was the characters- the author took great pains to make them all as different fromeach other as possible, they all have unique voices and personalities and develop in their own unpredictable ways. You will like some of them, empathise and perhaps get annoyed with their actions, and will want to find out what will happen to them in the end. The story is told in short, snappy chapters and we get alternating perspectives that give us a better insight into the minds, thoughts and feelings of the characters.

Another fabulous thing about this book is its atmospheric setting. There is something special about the loneliness, harsh and unforgiving beauty of the Arctic circle that almost immediately makes you think of survival and what makes us human.

I definitely enjoyed the book and would recommend it to sci-fi fans. The science part isn’t too technical and is quite easy to follow. As it often happens with the best books in this genre, it is more about exploring ‘What if…’ and ‘Are we ready for this?, about seeing ourselves through somebody else’s eyes and asking deeper questions about our nature.I’ll be definitely looking forward to reading more from this talented author.

Thank you to Rachel, the publisher and the author for the free review copy. All opinionsaremy own and were not influenced in any way.

Author Bio 

Simon Kearns was born in London in 1972 and grew up in Northern Ireland. In his teens he returned to London to study philosophy. At the end of 2004 he moved to the south of France where he lives with his partner and two children. His debut, Virtual Assassin, (Revenge Ink, 2010), explores personal responsibility in a corrupt society. It was followed by Dark Waves, (Blood Bound Books, 2014), about a powerful haunting and the scientist determined to debunk it. His stories have appeared in publications such as The Future Fire, Litro, The Honest Ulsterman, and on numerous websites. He revels in etymology, guitar, gaming, and the science of superstition.

Social Media Links –
https://www.facebook.com/simonkearns13
https://twitter.com/spiralisation
http://simonkearns.com

Thank you for reading the post! Have a wonderful Wednesday! If you would like to know what other bloggers thought of the book, here is the full blogtour schedule: