The Faith Machine

Welcome to the dangerous, clandestine world of ESPionage. Welcome to The Strip, where operatives on the fringe command teams of ‘Cards’: Agents cursed with subtle, specialized, and sometimes sloppy psychic powers. Dr Ken Park, Korean-American psychologist and spy, dares to lead six of these Cards. Together, they tackle esoteric threats the Department of Homeland Security cannot.

Park takes his team to Africa to retrieve the Faith Machine. Built by the Soviets to turn prayers into suffering, the psychotronic device fell into the hands of a demented warlord. Tragically, the mission fails and the madman slaughters hundreds of innocents while the machine burns.

They return to the States in disgrace, and into an ambush by the mysterious and brutal Casemen. Cut off from command and each other, the scattered agents rush to their safe house in the west. While spy agencies from around the world want retribution for the catastrophe in Africa. Park’s team outplays enemies left and right, while uncovering the true threat. There’s another Faith Machine, one destined to bring hell on earth.

Rating:

Many thanks to the author for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

This was pitched to me as perfect for fans of The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford, and I’d say that’s a pretty good summation of this book. I’ve just given in to the fact that I’m trash for all these sarcastic antiheroes with powers they don’t want and didn’t ask for, just trying to do their best from day to day.

The Faith Machine plays with religion and the idea of powers, with a whole host of antiheroes, some fast-paced action, and plenty of sarcasm and humor.

I’ll admit that I was a little confused about the ending, and it was perhaps a little bit out there for me, but the build-up was fun, and the very last few pages were *chef’s kiss*.

From the moment this book starts, it’s nonstop action, told in short chapters that keep the plot moving along.

The short chapters really give the illusion of making quick progress and moving right along, which works well with all the explodey action and fight scenes and such. It also skips between all the main characters’ points of view, so there’s a bunch of storylines unfolding all at once, which keeps any of them from becoming stale or slow. I thought that was done really well.

The characters in this all are cards, meaning they have some sort of psychic power, but power sometimes comes with unexpected consequences.

These characters weren’t born with their powers. They earned their powers. They’ve all been through some things, and their powers are basically a side effect of their crappy situations in life. I loved the way this complicated their powers, because it wasn’t as simple as, oh, I can fly, and I can move things with my mind. Of course not.

I really enjoyed the uniqueness of their abilities, too, which made for some particularly fun situations.

Especially Isaac and Exposition Joe. They were easily two of my favorites, and the way their powers worked were surprising and interesting, always keeping me on my toes for what they would do next.

All these characters are a riot, and I quickly fell in love with them.

Antiheroes, the lot of them, which obviously makes them my type of people. These are people you root for despite their personality or situation, not necessarily because of it, and that felt so realistic to me. Reluctant heroes at their finest (and aren’t we all, really?).

I especially loved Isaac. Let’s be honest, he would drive me absolutely bonkers in real life, and I’d probably have to throttle him and hide his body in the woods somewhere … but as a character? I loved his sarcasm and nonchalant attitude about everything. It was almost endearing. I really liked Exposition Joe, too, and his story arc, which was wonderfully done.

There aren’t really grand character arcs here, but you definitely get to see the characters grow, not only on their own but also together.

It’s hard working on a team when you hate pretty much everyone else on the team. Or so I’ve been told. They’d never had a reason to really come together and be actual coworkers before, so I was really into this dynamic, where the tensions are high and they’re not always getting along even though they really need to.

Also, one of the characters was actually born/raised near where I live now, and it’s such a random place that I’ve never actually seen it mentioned in a book before, so I really got a kick out of that! Hubby did, too, when I showed it to him. I’d like to say that Milazzo’s portrayal was utterly stereotypical and inaccurate, but … that would be a bold-faced lie. I had to laugh, because I know people from the area exactly like this character, and it made me die a little inside.

The book touches on a lot of deep, dark issues, but still manages to offset it with enough humor to where it’s not a depressing read.

It’s a really careful balance, and I think Milazzo does it well. There are moments where it’s okay to tackle things with humor, like the fact that Park is constantly confused as being Chinese or called “Chinaman,” despite being Korean. There are other deeper moments during the mission, though, that are given the serious consideration they deserve. It really rounded out the characters, because even the book wasn’t about these things, the characters have been through some things, and their lives aren’t exactly all rainbows and sunshine. You’d think powers would make things easier, but no, they really complicate things here.

The story is told from a whole slew of different points of view, some which aren’t fully expanded or explained until near the end, which sometimes made it hard to follow.

While I did love the switching between the cards and thought that was done really well, there were also the collective and Casemen and a few other characters mixed in, and their presence wasn’t explained upfront. Eventually, yes, everything came together, more or less, but I was confused for quite a bit in the meantime trying to keep all the characters straight and remember how they all fit in.

The ending got a little bizarre around the climax, and I think it was a bit out there and hard to follow for me.

This is very much a me thing. I love science fiction, but I’m not a huge fan of absurdity. I’m not sure why. I’ve tried, and it always ends up losing me. I know there will be sci-fi fans that love this aspect of it, and I thought it was a really unique plot point and take on religion, but the climax kind of just lost me for a bit. I was back up to speed for the denouement and loved the way the book ended, though.