Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Imminent Dawn
SERIES: EMPATHY #1
AUTHOR: R.R. Campbell
PUBLISHER: NineStar Press
LENGTH: 456 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 28, 2019
BLURB:
Four people. One study. The internet-access brain implant to bind or destroy them all.
Art-school dropout Chandra would do anything to apologize for her role in her wife’s coma—including enroll in the first round of human trials for an internet-access brain implant.
At first, the secretive research compound is paradise, the perfect place to distract Chandra from her grief. But as she soon learns, the facility is more prison than resort, with its doctors, support staff, and her fellow patients all bent on hatching plots of their own, no matter how invested they might seem in helping her communicate with her wife.
Making matters worse, a dark wave of uncertainty crashes down on the compound, forcing Chandra to become an unlikely but pivotal player in conspiracies stretching from the highest levels of the North American Union government to the lowest dredges of its shadowy hacking collectives.
To save herself and her wife, Chandra and her newfound friends from the study will have to overcome the scheming of a ruthless tech magnate, the naïveté of an advancement-hungry administrative assistant, and the relentless pursuits of an investigative journalist, all of whom are determined to outpace the others in their own quests to resurrect lost love, cover their tracks, and uncover the truth.
A twistedly delightful clockwork of intrigue and suspense, EMPATHY: Imminent Dawn is an electrifying sci-fi debut from author r. r. campbell.
REVIEW:
Some books demand your full attention right from the start, and Imminent Dawn is one of them. It’s a complex, meaty sci-fi thriller that switches points of view at a lightning pace, showing us half a dozen key players within EMPATHY—a test study of an implant that allows its users to access the internet and connect with each other inside their minds. Everyone has their own motives and own agendas, their own loyalties and secrets, and as the project becomes more and more challenging, the relationships quickly erode.
Taking place in a slick, uber-organized future, this story begins right as the implant finally works for one of their test subjects, Chandra. Chandra only wants EMPATHY so she can connect with her wife, who is in a coma after an accident. But the creator of the implant, Wyatt Halman, and his three adult children all want Chandra to be the face if the project, despite Chandra’s continuing questions about the implant’s effectiveness. We also see the story through Meredith, a cynical reporter who wants to reveal what’s really going on behind the secretive study, and Ariel, an underappreciated Halman aid who gets in over her head with a bit of destructive code.
There are a lot of characters in this book, and some are better than others. I was the most invested in the Halman family and the dysfunctional relationship with each other and their empire. The patriarch, Wyatt, wants to leave behind a legacy, but his kids don’t inspire much hope, despite their devotion. And his continuing grief for his late wife mars all of his decision-making when it comes to EMPATHY. Meredith is the most relatable, realistic character, and Chandra’s love for her wife is the heart of the book. We really get to know and understand everyone as the drama unfolds.
However, it’s impossible to ignore all of the terrible decisions these characters make. We’re led to believe these are bright, brilliant people—scientists, doctors, artists, writers. But they make rash judgments and silly errors at every turn. Meredith is supposedly a brilliant journalist, yet she never seems to ask the right questions or really even write anything of substance. And Ariel and Chandra blunder their way through grade-school espionage, failing to understand basic computer and security protocols even though they live in and work for some of the most tech-savvy people in the world. Even smaller characters like hackers and security guards make silly mistakes that feel more like cop-outs than real conflicts. I know these are supposed to be real people, not slick secret agents, but common sense was so lacking that they seemed more like teenagers than rational adults.
There are some absolutely thrilling bits of sci-fi, though, that kept me completely on edge. I held my breath when Chandra’s implant was hacked and she was basically body-snatched by an AI virus who controlled her like a puppet. And I was completely stunned by a scene in which Wyatt uses a specific brain in a test study without thinking of the consequences beforehand. There are a lot of weird missteps in characterization in this book, but in contrast, there are some excellent, action-packed scenes that kept me invested.
Though I wouldn’t recommend this book to a lot of readers, I’m intrigued by the idea of a sequel. This first installment is basically page after page of characters making terrible decisions, and the second book seems to be about them having to deal with the fallout. I think Campbell will take it up a notch and really raise the stakes for Chandra, Meredith, and what remains of the Halman clan. This is a book for a patient reader, one who doesn’t mind a long book that takes time to pick up steam. I think the payoff will be excellent, but I hope that the next book works through some of the pacing issues to make it the true thriller it wants to be.
RATING: 
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