AYANA

In Crenshaw’s YA SF series starter, a teenager reeling from his mother’s murder learns that he has psychic powers.

In the 23rd century, Erik Ayana aspires to attend Ares Space Academy, an off-planet school dedicated to science and space exploration. But Erik’s life has been thrown into tumult by the untimely death of his mother, a high-profile creator of ultra-logical androids that seem superficially identical to people, used as domestics and companions; Erik’s “brother” Andi is one of them. But then Erik has a vivid vision that reveals that his mother was actually pushed off a roof to her death by a colleague—apparently because she gave Andi forbidden human qualities (including blood). But more central to the plotline is what gave Erik this shattering insight: the awakening of his dormant, inherited psychic powers. He’s descended from two families of powerful psychics, a minority group whose potential for mayhem makes them despised by much of the populace and forced to keep to themselves. While Erik adapts to life at Ares and the sensational looming murder inquest, he also grapples with implications of his mental powers—and the fact that he’s connected to the Ayar and Arena mind-reader dynasties, who regard Erik with fascination and revulsion due to the extraordinary reality-warping capability inherent in his DNA. Much of Crenshaw’s narrative takes place in the shape-shifting milieu of telepathic communication—an immaterial setting that the author cleverly visualizes in terms of the “Inscape,” a virtual construct of houses and neighborhoods representing human brains (and sometimes superbrains). Although the romance quotient in this story is very low, the strong characterizations and the atmosphere featuring hidden masters in the shadows favorably compares with Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, with its young protagonist inducted into an intrigue-ridden, sinister underworld. That said, a few subplots seem to get lost in the shuffle—particularly Andi’s plight as banned technology. However, this book is a promising start to a series, and its ending leaves the door open to plenty of sequel possibilities.

A well-developed tale of teen angst in the future, rooted in telepathy.