Man over Mind

Man over Mind is a science fiction novel by Dean Warren.

After about a thousand years of expansion, humanity has pretty much conquered the Milky Way with their FTL ships. The Plastowich – descendants of the guy who invented the hyperdrive – are doing a good job of running the show. Not really rulers, they are just binding the empire together. Now somebody invents a direct computer-mind interface creating a new kind of creature called a Mind. With their superior abilities the Minds soon take over control of the galaxy. Unfortunately the melting of mind and computer makes the original mind loose all ties to humanity and all compassion for ordinary humans. As the minds distances them self from humanity they begin to loose sight of their original task of serving humanity. Soon mankind is little more than slaves for the Minds.

Mankind is in sour need of a young hero. Somebody who is ready to take on a seemingly impossible task. Luckily Tol has been bred and educated for just such a purpose. Maybe it’s because I’m in my middle thirties, but I beginning to have a problem with the young hero type character. I often find them rather silly and their problem rather hard to relate to. Tol is okay though – maybe because, even though he is eighteen, he doesn’t act that way. Man over Mind is Dean Warrens first novel. It is a bit rough at places, but nothing that will annoy you too much. All in all it’s a rather good first novel. It does suffer from a few of the usual "first self published novel" quirks; there is a lot of really strange usage of quotes (“), they are often opened, but seldom closed. Anyway, the story is entertaining and even tough the characters sometimes seem a bit silly their actions are always justified. They may be stupid, but they have the intelligence to recognise their own short comings. I’m looking forward to Warrens second novel - The Last Underclass.