Grays of Novart - Book Review

Grays of Novart, by J.A. Collie, is a highly technical, suspense-filled science fiction that reflects the author's technology career. The author has created an advanced planet, Novart, where a young Warrior Cadet is challenged with saving her world. Trinity Knight has been reared and trained to be a spectacular warrior since birth, but she is only now learning of some of her most powerful and strange mutations.

Trinity has superpowers that enable her to telepathically connect to other Warriors that she is chosen to lead in an attempt to stop an overthrow of the planet's government. She has a supercomputer-assisted brain, but the system often becomes dysfunctional and goes offline, leaving her in dire situations. Trinity is captured by her enemy, then escapes on a quest to discover who or what wants her and her programmed mission to fail. She and the team she leads fight off androids, robots, and drones using their technically superior powers and training. Battles are fierce. Using super technological advances, they struggle to reach the Esra 10 mission, which will send them into hyperspace and save their planet.

Rogue scientists and double-crossing political commanders who are assisted by spies thwart her struggles to complete her mission within a determined time sequence. Who can she trust, and who or what is behind the chaos around her? Can Trinity survive the massive dangers she faces to live in peace? Will she learn of specific mutations that can enable her success? Her personal struggles with consciousness and wanting to know about her past are contrasted with her motivation to complete her mission as she was programmed to do.

The author's use of dialogue between and among the warriors and the scientists keeps the story from being excessively scientific. The characters' emotions and internal thoughts are on a human level, while the internal dialogue between Trinity and her supercomputer contrasts through the use of a different font. The remarkably different characters, warriors and scientists, are distinct with personalities, character flaws, and mannerisms that allow the reader to accept them as human despite having highly imaginative physical skills.

J.A Collie's novel, seemingly rooted in fantasy and imagination, is actually a glimpse into what could be the future of technology; Elon Musk's Neuralink has developed an advanced neural interface called N1 Link that would allow for two-way interaction between machines and the human brain. Such possibilities include treating neurological conditions or controlling robotic limbs by amputees. Google is also currently looking to expand on these ideas with chips designed to make people "an extension" of its vast knowledge base. Collie's vision becomes the innovative cornerstones of our future much like Jules Verne's stories that foretold of fantastical future inventions. If you can imagine it, you can build it.

Readers who contemplate advanced AI and related robotic and android futuristic development will enjoy this tale. Nanobots and supercomputers interfaced with human brains challenge the imagination. The planet Novart will be left behind in the next book in the series as the warriors face challenges on their Esra 10n mission.