Termed merciless by some, and a robotic sociopath by others, Payal Rao is the perfect Psy: cardinal telekinetic, CEO of a major conglomerate, beautiful—and emotionless.
For Canto Mercant, family and loyalty are everything. A cardinal telepath deemed “imperfect” by his race due to a spinal injury, Canto cares for the opinions of very few—and ruthlessly protects those he claims as his own. Head of intel of the influential Mercant family, he prefers to remain a shadow in the Net, unknown and unseen. But Canto is also an Anchor, part of a secretive designation whose task it is to stabilize the PsyNet. Now that critical psychic network is dying, threatening to collapse and kill the entire Psy race with it.
To save those he loves, Canto needs the help of a woman bound to him by a dark past neither has been able to forget. A woman who is the most powerful Anchor of them all: Payal Rao. Neither is ready for the violent inferno about to ignite in the PsyNet . . . or the passionate madness that threatens to destroy them both.
Thought the story was well-told even if it echoed many other storylines in the world. There were chapters from both their POVs in the present and as children, as well as viewpoints from several other returning characters, plus Pavel (courting Arwen!!!) I thought that approach worked reasonably well although took away some time from seeing the main couple’s perspective.
This is the first book that I feel like she really included all types of diversity — not just a disabled and neurodiverse main couple, which alone would be awesome, but also gay relationships and non-binary folks. I think that the multi-viewpoint perspective helped her incorporate more diversity, even if we’ll never get a novel with a gay or lesbian couple. It felt like she wrote thoughtfully about disabled life and there was no “cure” shenanigans for the hero (like with Dorian…).
I have to roll my eyes a bit at “wow another super important thing that everyone forgot about but now will save everyone”! I feel like there should be enough pieces in the works to pull together a story using existing elements rather than creating something new to have an Exciting New Thing! to move the bigger plot along. It was interesting enough but felt a little “crisis of the week.”
Also how did Psy society survive for so long if they were killing all their disabled, sick and neurodiverse kids, and hurting the two types of people in their midst who were keeping them all alive and sane?
2 replies on “Read Last Guard”
Read in 2021 – Tracy Durnell mentioned this read on tracydurnell.com.
This Article was mentioned on tracydurnell.com