In her paranormal debut, Slave to Sensation, Nalini Singh introduced romance readers to a crisp cyber punk universe where the emotionless, computer-like Psy race was juxtaposed to the beast-within-the-man race, the changelings. The result was entrancing and stunning. A fresh and unique take on the staid boy-meets-girl genre. In her latest, Visions of Heat, Singh revisits the Psy-changeling cosmos with Faith NightStar, an F-Psy designate, and Vaughn D’Angelo the lone jaguar changeling in the DarkRiver leopard pack. Together, they are pressed into action when another Psy serial killer – further proof that the Psy’s way of life, Silence, is crumbling – emerges. The world Singh builds is, again, stellar and continues to captivate, even when the romance and storyline buttressed by that world limp along.
As an F-Psy, Faith has the gift of foresight, an ability she uses for business purposes (and great financial gain for her family) until her visions morph from cold, emotionless trend-predictions to the frenzied, blood-filled ponderings of a serial killer. Fearing she is destined for the insanity that plagues F-Psy and uncertain how to deal with her emerging emotions, Faith decides to seek out the one Psy in the world she believes will tell her a truth that isn’t profit driven: Slave to Sensation heroine, Sascha Duncan.
Even before Faith chooses to act, Vaughn is, without knowing Faith, captivated by the compound she lives in. There is simply something that draws his curiosity as both man and jaguar and he determines to find out what that something is. His interest is further piqued after Faith ventures into DarkRiver territory in search of Sascha. Vaughn and Faith meet and start on a romance that is more forced than organic. Their relationship exists in the idea that there are two people coming together, but the obstacles and conflicts they face (Vaughn’s suspicions regarding what Faith’s true purpose might be, and Faith’s Silence trained protocol stamping out her emotions) are secondary to the serial killer and Faith learning the truth about her race storylines. In fact, much of Vaughn’s feelings for Faith stem from something he can’t explain or has a conscious choice in. He doesn’t fall in love so much as give into something he’s not in control of. Vaughn is interested in Faith from the beginning, but no matter the situation, the implied danger she presents to the pack, Vaughn unconsciously follows feeling that pop up without preamble. For her part, Faith spends more time learning to deal with her emotions, collecting information on the PsyNet (the Psy’s mind-based internet), and communicating with the killer, than she does working through her feelings for Vaughn.
As Faith and Vaughn’s relationship simply is, given to some predestination, their coming together is a foregone conclusion, one that doesn’t rise to climax and fall to conclusion so much as it simply plays out without the ascension to drama. The sense of the inevitable is also a stumbling block for Faith’s turmoil over breaking protocol and not towing the emotionless Psy line. Once Faith recognizes she has emotions and that the Psy program of Silence doesn’t work, there is only one avenue for Faith to transverse and she does that, again, with little drama.
Visions of Heat isn’t quite the breathtaking, original read that Slave to Sensation was in part because Singh is no longer presenting a fresh, new-to-the-reader world, but working off a template. The story further labors under the familiar weight that easily edges into Faith’s story; like Sascha before her, Faith perpetually fears the loss of her mental shields, roams the blackness of the PsyNet (which this time around feels a lot like staring into a black field), and struggles to escape Silence.
It’s difficult not to balance Visions of Heat with its processor, Slave to Sensation in part because the original principles and landscape continue to play significant roles. Unfortunately, in comparison, Visions of Heat feels a bit one-note, as if the parameters of this, abundantly creative and distinctive world, were already reached and this story exists only to fill out the already established footprint.
You can visit Nalini here and purchase this book here and here.
