Blaze of Memory

Psy-Changeling Series, Book 7

By: Nalini Singh

Narrated by: Angela Dawe

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Dev Santos finds a woman with amnesia - and all she can remember is that she's dangerous. Stripped of her memories by a shadowy oppressor and programmed to kill, Katya's only hope is Dev. But he could very well be her next target.

Mind over matter: listen to more in the Psy-Changeling series.

©2009 Nalini Singh (P)2011 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"When it comes to delivering stories that grab you by the throat and don't let go, Singh is in a class by herself!" ( Romantic Times)

After Reading Reviews, I'm Surprised I Liked It

After reading some of the negative reviews about his book, I was apprehensive about this title, but I'm committed to the series, and so there was no way around reading it. I'm glad I did read it, because I really enjoyed it.

In the psy changling world, there are three main "races": the psy, the changlings, and humans. The author has pair them up in several combinations, and granted, some work better than others. However, I enjoyed the combination of a female who has spent her life inside the psy net, free of emotion, while the hero has spent his life as part of a group of outsiders who can feel emotions.

For those of you following the series closely, this book gives a first person account (in the form of a mother's journal written for her son) of how silence came to be among the psy, and how a group of those who opposed silence broke away and formed their own enclaves, later assimilating with the human and changeling populations, passing an altered version of their psy genetics down through the generations. In "real time" many of the recipients of these genes aren't even aware that they carry them.

The hero, Dev, is the leader of the Shine foundation, whose objective is to track down children with psy DNA and teach them how to handle their gifts. Consequently, we learn more about some of the special children in this book, and that's a big bonus.

I really felt the relationship between Dev and Katya. I felt his struggle between doing the "right thing" and doing what his heart was telling him to do. I felt the horror of Katya's experiences with Ming, I felt Dev's guilt over holding Katya prisoner, but I could also understand his reasons for doing so (Katya, incidentally, understood why he did it as well). If anything, the conflict that threatened to keep the two lovers apart was more believable in this book than it was in most of the previous books.

If I have one complaint, it is the same as other reviewers have mentioned: the author didn't expand on Dev's power with metal. I thought that was going somewhere, or perhaps would show up in a final showdown, but no such luck. I will reserve judgement on that though, because there are still more books in the series that I haven't read, and perhaps we will see more of it then.

The narrator did a great job with the material. I enjoyed her interpretation of the work very much. She has read the whole series thus far, and I like the continuity. Her voice is like that of an old friends by now, and at this point I don't think another reader could do it justice.

GREAT SERIES!!

Psy-Changeling is an amazing series! I love everyone of these books. I recommend these books to everyone I know!!

Perfect story, perfect narrator

This is the best of the first 7 books. So romantic and interesting. Ms Dawe does an amazing job as a narrator. Loved it!

Yikes, this reads like bad fan-fiction

I guess one positive thing about this book is that it made me realize how good all the other books in this series actually are. In the other books, the characters are real people with clear and believable motivations, relationships develop gradually over time for understandable reasons, and the author creates something that's a cut above the standard romance novel formula. But everything in this book was just a little bit... off. The setup really just boiled down to, "he's a hot guy who's pushy and inexplicably possessive; she's a hot chick with amnesia." And then they have some kind of out-of-nowhere adventures, he pushes her away several times due to being kind of an indecisive jerk, and then they fall into bed together. It's like Nalini Singh outsourced the writing to a fan-fiction author: it's set in the psy-changeling world, and the characters get from point A (stone-cold alpha male, damsel in distress) to point B (happily ever after), but the story was driven by poor logic and the unjustified emotions of the characters. So, I've realized how well the author handles narrative logic and character development in the other books which are, at least by the standards of this genre, rock-solid. I hope this was just a misstep and the next book is better.

Oh the pain! I'm so glad this book is over...

What would have made Blaze of Memory better?

More likeable main characters would have made this book perfect. Also, I couldn't understand the whole premise around the metal magic. It seemed to come out of the blue and was not fully integrated or explained in the storyline.

Has Blaze of Memory turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. I really love the Psy-Changeling world in this series. The 6 books prior to this one were amazing! So I'll continue to read the rest of the books in hopes that this was just a really terrible one off.

Which character ??? as performed by Angela Dawe ??? was your favorite?

Angela Dawe does a great job with the reading in all the books. I'd have to say that her perfomance of Mercy is my favorite even though she's not a lead in this book.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Blaze of Memory?

I would have cut out all the scenes with Dev & Katiya. Which is sad since they are the mains in this book. I wanted to skip to the next book in the series within the first hour. But I powered through it anyway because I didn't want to miss any of the background story that is central to the Psy-Changeling world.

Any additional comments?

I felt Dev was a total jerk and crossed that thin line between being possessive and an obsessive kidnapping creeper. Katiya was too submissive of a female lead for me. I found myself rolling my eyes throughout the entire book during their various scenes. Because of this it was impossible for me to draw any kind of emotional connection to them or the book. In my opinion, the only thing that saved this book is the ongoing background drama that carried over from the previous books in the series.

This one is dead on arrival.

I have been highly entertained by this series from the beginning, but this particular book just fell flat. The hook in the series is the emotional interactions between the changlings and the psy , but here we have two psy -- a "forgotten" and a damaged "silence" psy -- and the combination just wasn't that interesting. Yes, he's beautiful and she is gorgeous and damaged and needs his protection. The sex, of course, is incredible. Yawn.

The female character should have had to battle a lifetime of repressed emotions, so maybe I missed the part where she emerged from the conditioning (I did tend to drift from boredom) but it all seemed reversed somehow. He was raised with his emotions in tact, yet he was the one who was repressed. She, on the other hand, was overtly emotive which was, for me, totally out of character. It was very confusing and ultimately not that interesting.

There was a lot of foreshadowing throughout, but it never amounted to anything. I had expected more from his affinity to metal -- but very little actually happened. I also hoped the grandmother character would be given something interesting to do, but it also didn't happen. The plot was resolved in an unexpected manner, but what should have been an emotional payoff just didn't build. He knows several M-psy, but when she becomes ill, he doesn't call them. They finally show up to "say goodbye" to her, but are never used to help her. Very odd.

Ultimately, after all the repetitive earth shattering sex scenes, and constant crossed wires and super secret double crosses followed by more mind blowing sex, I felt I'd been on one roller coaster ride too many, and ultimately, I just didn't care.

I'm a huge Nalini Singh fan, but this book just wasn't up to her usual standards. If felt to me as if she was using a now familar, but unfortunately a very tired formula, and I just wanted it to be over. I'm going to have to think hard about buying the rest of the series.

Angela Dawe was great as usual, though it did become difficult to tell her characters apart toward the end of the book. I also thought I heard her stifle a yawn or two, which only confirmed my own opinion of the story.

Blaze of Memory

I found this book to be a lot slower to get me hooked than any of the other books. I enjoyed their story but it isn’t my favorite.

The discovery we make at the end of the book is worth it though. That made me smile.

Again I am a fan of the narration now that I am used to it.

Transition stories are always tough

What made the experience of listening to Blaze of Memory the most enjoyable?

I appreciated that this story wasn't focused on a changeling, but a psy and a forgotten (aka psy-human hybrid). It's a testament to her stronger writing points that Ms Singh was able to transition away from the changeling world into the other aspects of this alternate universe she has created.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I liked learning more about the forgotten, and getting different perspectives on the happenings of this psy-changeling world.

What aspect of Angela Dawe’s performance would you have changed?

Real talk I wish she had more variety. There are no varied accents, only rough, rapsy or age-specific variations. I have wondered before if this is as Ms Singh envisioned. If it is, that's a bummer. On paper having a unified accent (for lack of a better term) might make sense based on the development of her world, but from an auditory perspective it makes things a little flat.

Any additional comments?

I had a hard time getting into the love story between Dev and Katya. Why, you ask? Let me tell you! Ok, so I get that Silence clearly is a construct that psy hide behind (it becomes more obvious throughout the books that most psy are big fakers about having no emotions), but it felt like the dynamics between these characters fell into a recognizable pattern: "psy breaking silence meets dominant possessive male; sexual tension ensues." So I guess what I'm saying is that, for all intents and purposes, it didn't feel like it had any new aspects to the romance, when it should have. But at the same time, the bigger story got way more interesting in this one, so I didn't really care as much about the lovers anyways. Not sure if that's a good thing for a romance, but it didn't bother me. I want a good story - well played to Ms. Singh if she can slip in a fantasy adventure story when I thought I was going for something else.

Do not trust this review!

Where does Blaze of Memory rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This book had all the usual ingredients for greatness and lived up to it!

Who was your favorite character and why?

The main characters were perfect and evolving as a they should.

Which character – as performed by Angela Dawe – was your favorite?

No real favorites in this book. I still enjoy Sasha overall of the series.

Any additional comments?

Previous reviews lead me to believe that this book was unworthy. But it was a bad review. I am glad I did not believe it.

Dev is not the hero for me

What about Angela Dawe’s performance did you like?

She is an incredible narrator. She has so many distinct voices I never have to doubt who is talking. She brings the characters to life.

Any additional comments?

I never fell in love with Dev the same way as the other males of the series. He isn't much of a hero. I did not get the attraction between him and Katya, it felt forced. Their relationship was based off nothing. She's an expected enemy and yet he suddenly loves her. He acts as another captor and she falls madly in love with him. Something is wrong with this. There isn't even the mating bond to use as an excuse in this case as its a relationship between psy and human.

I did love learning more about the forgotten and the glimpses to what is going on in the pack life. Other than that I could've skipped this one.