This 2nd book in the 'Brilliance' trilogy picks up right after the events in the first novel. To recap briefly: Starting in the 1980s, a small percentage of humans with unusual abilities began to be born - somewhat like the characters in the TV series 'Heroes.'
These extraordinary people - called brilliants, abnorms, or twists - cause fear in average people, who are concerned that the brilliants will take over the world and force everyone else to serve their needs. As a result, powerful 'regular' people want to contain, subvert, and mark ('chip') the abnorms…..and some abnorm groups fight back with terrorist tactics.
Nick Cooper is a twist who's trying to keep the peace by working against extremists on both sides, but it's a hard job that leads to a lot of violence. At the end of book one, someone's death changes the stakes for everyone.
*****
As 'A Better World' opens, an abnorm organization called 'The Children of Darwin' (DAR) is organizing a siege of Cleveland, Ohio; Fresno, California; and Tulsa, Oklahoma by stopping food supplies and cutting off electricity. As a result the government blocks the roads out of these cities, supposedly to capture the terrorists lurking inside. What this tactic really does, however, is trap the cities' residents inside, and they soon become hungry, cold, and desperate.
In one thread of the story we follow scientist Ethan Park, who lives in Cleveland. When baby food disappears from grocery store shelves Ethan takes his wife and infant on the run - determined to find a way out of the city.
Unfortunately, it's not just the roadblocks the scientist has to worry about. Ethan works at the Advanced Genomics Institute, and he and his boss - Dr. Abraham Couzen - have discovered the genetic basis of brilliance. The fact of the breakthrough, which is top secret, has leaked and both normal and abnorm organizations want 'the formula.' Thus Dr. Couzen has been kidnapped and various people are after Ethan.
Meanwhile twist Nick Cooper - whose talent is reading body language - has been asked to work for the new President of the United States, Lionel Clay. President Clay, a former history professor, isn't savvy about politics and isn't comfortable with the aims of his advisors - who want to completely control the abnorms…..or maybe even wipe them out.
President Clay, however, would like to establish good relations between regular people and brilliants. For this reason the President dispatches twist Cooper to negotiate with two abnorm leaders: John Smith - a militant terrorist; and Erik Epstein - a billionaire who established the New Canaan Holdfast in Wyoming.....a community where abnorms live together in relative safety.
Cooper has a partner, twist Shannon Azzi - who can seemingly 'appear and disappear' - and who's a dead shot with a gun.
This is important, because Cooper is in the sights of the twist assassin Soren Johansen - who sees the world in slow motion.
There's plenty of action in the story as the norms and abnorms try to outwit and outmaneuver each other - and it looks like the United States may be heading for all out civil war. Cooper is doing all he can to ward this off, and decides he needs to speak to Dr. Ethan Park - which pulls the story's plotlines together.
All this leads to a dramatic climax that sets the stage for book three.
I enjoyed the book, which is fast-moving and exciting. Nevertheless, I have a small criticism. Sakey sets his story entirely in the United States, and never even mentions the 'brilliant' situation in other countries. I think the author should have addressed this (at least briefly) since - in a real world scenario - abnorms would be a global phenomenon.
I'd recommend the book to science fiction fans.
Note: 'A Better World' can be read as a standalone since background information is included. However, I'd strongly recommend starting with 'Brilliance' to learn about the characters.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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