Title:
Memory Zero

Author:
Keri Arthur

Published By:
ImaJinn Books

ISBN #:
1-893896-35-8

Release Date:
Available Now

Format:
Electronic, Print

Samantha Ryan is a police officer whose partner’s been missing for several weeks. One evening shortly before getting off work she receives a call from her missing partner asking her to meet him after work. That’s when the fun begins because she ends up shooting her partner of five years who turns out to be a vampire. Then she narrowly escapes a monstrous vision that looks like a kite with the help of a shapechanger she didn’t even know was observing what was going down.

Gabriel Stern is more than human, he is a shapechanger and he works for the Special Investigations Unit. However, his real job places him within the ranks of the Federation where he fights to maintain a balance between human rights and non-human rights. Right now there’s someone by the name of Sethanon who is trying to start a war to remove the human elements from their position of power and Samantha Ryan’s partner is a key player in Sethanon’s army so he’s there the night she kills her partner and is able to help save her from the kite monster. However, her ability to escape her partner and the kite has opened a can of worms and the SIU and the Federation want answers as to how she’s able to do so.

And so begins the twists and turns and the ins and outs of learning who Sam really is. Although Sam is 29 years old, her internal maturity growth is that of a 15 year old. She has the eyes of a Shadow Walker, a people long thought dead or thought to be a myth. Her memory before her teen years is gone and there are no legitimate birth records to be found. She has powers that are developing and a chromosome that medical scientists are unable to explain. There’s been a government-tracking device implanted in her since she was nine years old – apparently. And now she finds out that the man she killed is not really her partner Jack, but a clone.

With that, Sam and Gabriel begin to piece together Jack Kazdan and Sethanon’s plan to kill key government officials and replace them with clones until they have a government that supports a non-human way of life. And intertwined throughout is the obsessive desire Kazdan has to capture Sam, converting her to his side or forcing her to do as he wishes at the expense of her life.

Keri Arthur’s Memory Zero is an awesome story. It is full of twists and turns, plots within plots, vampires, shapechangers, shapeshifters, and other types of yet to be classified non-humans. The explanations as to the differences between the shapechanger and the shapeshifter make sense and add to the overall impression of the story.

I found myself quickly engrossed in Memory Zero and completely wrapped up in the character of Samantha Ryan. Sam is a woman who doesn’t let herself get close to others, so when she does, its hard for her to give up on someone or admit that they might not have been her friend to begin with. She’s a woman to be admired in that she is intelligent, quick thinking, faithful, a true friend and someone you can count on to guard your back in times of danger.

The reader is easily able to identify with Gabriel’s fear for his brother’s life and that of his brother’s family. His desire to keep things peaceful between humans and non-humans alike is something to be lauded and would be lauded if this were a real live situation.

Readers will want to be sure not to miss out on reading Keri Arthur’s Memory Zero!

Reviewed by: Rogue Storm