Minds of Men

The Psyche of War, Volume 1

By: Kacey Ezell

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya

Length: 12 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

Evelyn Adamsen grew up knowing she had to hide her psychic abilities, lest she be labeled a witch. However, when the US Army Air Corps came calling in 1943, looking for psychic women to help their beleaguered bomber force, Evelyn answered, hoping to use her powers to integrate the bomber crews and save American lives. 

She was extremely successful at it...until her aircraft got shot down. 

Now, Evelyn is on the run in occupied Europe, with a special unit of German Fallschirmjager and an enemy psychic on her heels. Worse, Evelyn learns that using her psychic powers functions as a strobe that highlights her to the enemy. 

As the enemy psychic closes in, Evelyn is faced with a dilemma in her struggle to escape - how can she make it back to England when the only talent she has will expose her if she uses it?

©2017 Kacey Ezell (P)2018 Kacey Ezell

This was a wonderful story.

Do you like alternate histories? Do you enjoy realistic, emotional and believable characters. Are you ready to feel your way into the main characters life?

If you said yes to any of these, buy this audiobook.

12 O'Clock High Meets Carrie

Bottom Line Up Front: If you are a fan of alternate history / historical fiction, this book is well worth your time. Very efficient, precise writing, one of the better productions I've heard, and characters that the listener finds it easy to root for.

Longer Review: As students of World War II know, the Allied Bombing Campaign against Nazi Germany was a bloodbath through October 1943. This work starts at the nadir of the 8th Air Force campaign and posits a "What if?" in the form of a small band of female psychics. In this timeline, psychics have always been among us, so naturally the United States finds a unique way to employ them to make a select bomber group more efficient.

Without giving too much away, Kacey Ezell does a very good job in capturing the feel of the 1940s as she outlines how the women do manage to change one small corner of the war. In the meatgrinder that is World War II, the women are not able to affect a tremendous amount of change. However, Ms. Ezell does a very good job of guiding the listener through how Evelyn and her compatriots do change the lot of their bomber group. Throughout, Ms. Ezell also deftly avoids most of the potential anachronistic miscues that such a story could fall prey to. As the story moves into its second act, Ms. Ezell also keeps her characters human and mortal. By the conclusion, the listener is left wanting to know more about what this particular psychic will be doing as well as how psychics are involved in the larger war effort.

This is not to say, however, that the story is perfect. Avid professional and amateur historians will pick up on miscues regarding German equipment, raid descriptions, and American tactics. However, if one leaves their rivet counting at home and just focuses on the story, these miscues are more minor blips than anything which will take a reader out of the story. In addition, the story's final act left some ancillary threads unfinished, but none that affect the main story line. It is clear that there is "more to follow" once Ms. Ezell clears her very busy (she is a noted author in two other universes) writing schedule out of the way. However, this should not deter a listener from purchasing this title, as the main story is neatly wrapped up in this single volume.

Finally, as most reviews neglect to discuss the production, Ms. Araya deserves a great deal of credit for the strength of this Audible volume. Whereas one could not state that Minds of Men is perfect, Ms. Araya's reading, diction, and pronunciation is about as close as I've heard in listening to over three dozen audiobooks. Indeed, I hope that Ms. Ezell has gotten some sort of agreement with Ms. Araya, as I don't think she'll be an "unknown" voice actress / novel producer for long.



Reviewer's Note: I am doing this review in exchange for receiving a free Audible Code. This has not affected my review's views or statements in any way.

A fantastic listen

I had already read the book Minds of Men before getting this audiobook, and what I knew from reading it is that I was wholly engaged in the story and the characters. The audio version has helped me figure out why that's the case. Ezell uses language very well. Her word choice is fantastic and helps to succinctly describe what is happening while avoiding being overly verbose. It's fantastic.

The narrator, Jennifer Jill Araya is pleasant to listen to and seamlessly integrates foreign languages (mostly German) into the listening experience.

Audiobooks are not my first choice - I prefer a paper book in my hands - but this was a great experience and allowed me to enjoy a novel that I had previously enjoyed in a completely different fashion, and one that highlighted things that hadn't consciously registered when I read it.

If you like audiobooks and good stories... this is for you.

Truthful Fiction

Minds of Men is a well written fiction about strong women, strong men, and the stronger bonds that are forged in the fires of love and war. It contains genuine truths that nearly anyone can relate to.

A tightly paced action packed story...

This is an incredible alternate-history, thriller... The book takes place during WWII and it captures this historical moment in a perfect time bubble, except with one important addition... the women who've joined the Psyche Corp branch of the military. Upon arriving on base, these WACs are each assigned to join up with the crews of the B-17 (flying fortress') that make bombing runs on military industrial targets across Germany... The WACs find themselves not only trying to keep the crew on track, but also by connecting with their sister ships it makes their raids that much more successful, by keeping the bombing formation tighter, and better coordinated!
This is the first time I've dived into a book by Kacey Ezell, and while reading, I realized almost immediately that it was gonna be one of my top favorite reads of the year (yeah, it's still early in the year, but I've knocked down over 32 books sofar). I'll  certainly be looking forward to more books by her!
Kacey has written a tightly paced, action packed story where women kick-butt, and fight for every one of their teammates in order to survive this brutal war!
Jennifer Jill Araya's narration puts us right in the thick of the fight! She's now in the lead as one of my top favorite female voice actors. Yes, I have 2 lists... so sue me... LOL.  
If you liked the book Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal, I believe you'll really like this one too! If you love WWII (especially books such as A Higher Call, about Captains Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler) or if you just love alt history, this will be a book that needs to be in your library!

Page Turner

I'm not really a fan of alternate history. Really, I'm not. However, I am a fan of Ms. Ezell and I finally got around to listening to this on Audible. This is a review both of the author Kacey Ezell and the narrator Jennifer Jill Araya. I was very pleasantly surprised to find an engaging tale, good action, and well-developed characters. I found myself looking forward to the drive to work each morning and the drive home just so I could listen to the book! lol. With each passing day, I wanted to know where these characters were going and what was happening to them - and I felt as if I knew them halfway into the book! The action sequences are good, nothing seemed fake or too easily contrived. The world development was logical and well thought out - this is VERY important to me as a reader - you can make your own rules just like Bugs Bunny does but then you HAVE to play by the rules you set out. Kacey Ezell does just that. I had no problem with any of her world-building. Even if you are not an alternate history fan I think you'll get into this story in a hurry and enjoy every bit of it. I did :)

Jennifer Jill Araya did a very credible job with the narration - Her French accent is very good and the German accent - though fake was the kind of accent every one thinks is German ;) I don't know any Germans that talk that way (and I do know Germans) but for the story it was appropriate. Jennifer has excellent pronunciation, moderates her voice very well and can easily change the timbre and do a good impression of men in anger or humor or several other situations. The job of a narrator is not to become the star of the show and she doesn't - I enjoyed her storytelling very much. Nothing she said was out of character or put me off the story in the slightest.

This story and the storytellers are good enough that I will be listening to this again in the future and probably several times after that :)

Very entertaining listen!

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who's interested in alternate fiction or war/early 20th century history, because it's a highly engaging book that's entertaining from beginning to end. Although the story is fictional, it provides a window into what it may have been like to be an airman or airwoman during World War II, with the added excitement of special psychic abilities. This book recreates fictional scenarios of WWII in a realistic way without trivializing them, which I think is a difficult thing. The narration was extremely well done; I had a distinct sense of each character without the delivery of each being cartoonish or over-the-top.

Although I was asked to listen to this book in exchange for an Audible code, I would honestly recommend this book to anyone. It was entertaining, well written, well delivered, and it read as a realistic perspective of what it would have been like to be an airman during WWII.

World War II from a different perspective

Very interesting premise - if minds could connect, what impact would that have on warfare? Kacey Ezell weaves an entertaining and detailed story. The characters are well developed, the description of war torn Europe is stimulating and vivid. My only minor disappointment was that the main protagonists and antagonist showdown wasn’t as intensely climactic as I’d expected.

The narrator, Jennifer Jill Araya, gave an incredible performance. Her nuances of vocal characteristics clearly identified each main character. She also voiced many accents - British, German, French, and Spanish, along with several American accents - and I never once was confused by any of them. Remarkable range in dialect delivery.

This is my first Audible book experience, and I enjoyed it very much. I was given this free audiobook at my request and voluntarily provided this review.

Entertaining story of psychics in WWII

I liked the overall storyline (psychics being used to coordinate bombing runs in WWII). It felt like it took a little longer for me to get engaged in the story line in the audio form than it did in the print form. That also might have been because I was listening to it in bits and pieces during various commutes.

The narrator has a pleasant voice and did a pretty good job varying the voices of each of the characters so that each had a unique tone. I would happily listen to other books narrated by the same voice talent.

If you like WWII, aviation, and stories with a good bit of action, you will want to give this book a listen.

[I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review]

A very different take on war

I have previously read the book. Enjoyed the story, both read and listened to. The narrator did an excellent job and her voice is well suited to this story. Her performance pulled me in and let me immerse myself.
The author pulled no punches on the pains. fear, perales, and triumphs of war, from both sides.