CarlAlves

When I saw the jacket cover to Born to Darkness and saw that it was a futuristic novel featuring "greater thans" that can use a greater portion of their mind, which in essence gives them super powers, I thought well that's a cool idea. Unfortunately, that was the only redeemable aspect of this novel. In a time of economic depression where corporations have taken over much of government's role, at the Obermeyer Institute, their greater thans are combatting people "Jokering", as in acting like the Joker from Batman after taking a highly addictive drug called Destiny, which gives its users immortality and their own super powers, unless of course they Joker. Behind the Destiny, is the generic evil organization called "The Organization." How original. The bad guys are generally nameless and faceless in this book.
This novel was so awful, it's hard to know where to start. For one thing, the characters aren't remotely interesting. Every character had to have a relationship and the bulk of the book is spent on these relationships, even relationships that I had no interest in hearing about. Second, the writing is often times amateurish. As a writer, I find it hard to believe that this level of poor writing can make it into a major publishing company. The novel is way oversexed. The author even managed to find a way to link it to their powers in a desperate attempt to get as much sex into the novel as possible, which really waters it down. Other than an interesting concept, there is nothing to like about this novel. I strongly advise to skip it.
Carl Alves - author of Blood Street