The Minders- John Marrs-Dystopian Science fiction
"Five strangers guard our secrets.
Only four can be trusted…"

John's books are set in the future- this one being later this century. There are driverless

cars and other advances in technology that we can easily see happening from today's

perspective. The government has a scheme to keep vital information secure as the last

one was attacked and although no information was ceased it showed a weak point. An

online test has been sent which is only solvable by people with synesthesia- whereby

information to stimulate one of the senses in fact stimulates more than one (eg people

hear something and see a colour associated with it). Successful test subjects are

offered to start their life again. They hold in their brains the sensitive information and

for five years they begin a new funded life with no internet access, no family contact,

no alcohol and other strict rules as these could jeopardize them and hence access

to the information. We follow each one of the five as they begin, however one

subject didn't actually do the test- his son did. He got through the rest by himself

and has another agenda. Someone knows about the minders and is on their trail.

I enjoyed this and it does give you that uncertain feeling about the future and

what could possibly be (read John’s other book- The Passengers about

driverless cars). I took to certain characters- I won’t spoil anything- and was

sorry to see them go (read that how you will).

A clever and very well thought out concept