Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh, UK edition cover.

Title: Blaze of Memory (A Psy-Changeling Novel)
Author: Nalini Singh
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Publication Date: 12th May 2011

Blurb:

Nalini Singh returns to the Psy-Changeling world and its breathtaking blend of passion, adventure and the paranormal, as a woman without a past becomes the pawn of a man who controls her future . . .

Dev Santos discovered Katya unconscious and battered, with no memory of who she is. All Katya can tell him is that she’s dangerous. Charged with protecting his people’s most vulnerable secrets, Dev is duty-bound to eliminate any and all threats against them. It’s a task he’s never hesitated to complete . . . until now, when he finds himself drawn to a woman who could prove to be the enemy’s most insidious weapon yet.

Stripped of her memories by a shadowy oppressor and programmed to carry out cold-blooded murder Katya Haas is fighting desperately for her very sanity. Dev is her only hope. But how can she expect to gain the trust of a man who could very well be her next target? For, in this game, someone is going to die . . .

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

This is the seventh book in Nalini Singh’s A Psy-Changeling Novel and you would be forgiven for thinking that it follows the precedent set by the previous five books; it doesn’t. In Blaze of Memory Singh moves away from the Changeling world that has dominated the previous five books, and instead gives us a peek into the world of the Forgotten – the descendents of the Psy who fled Silence, unwilling to give up their emotions, their humanity.

This book was an unexpected surprise for me. It took me a while to work out just who Dev Santos was – I knew he had appeared in a previous book in the series, I just couldn’t remember which one (Mine to Possess, if you’re interested). It was interesting to see more of him and to learn more about the lives and legacy of the Forgotten. The Forgotten are a subject touched on by other books in the series, but in Blaze of Memory you get a real sense of the community and structure of the group. The Forgotten allow us to see what the Psy could have been had they not chosen silence, that’s not to say that there isn’t trouble brewing within the Forgotten – this is an excellent sub-plot in the book, and it emphasizes the real struggle that split the Psy when then Silence protocol was introduced; and the very real struggle the Forgotten are going through all the time when their powers mean that they could kill.

Katya’s story is an interesting one, as she too has appeared in a previous book although not under that name. In Katya we see the horrific lengths certain members of the Psy Council would go to, to achieve their goal. Yet despite these events, and the consequences of them, Katya is a character of real strength. Despite the pain it causes her, she fights to remember who she was and to be who she is now.

Blaze of Memory was a tense book, as the war that’s about to break in the Psy-Changeling world draws ever closer. This was a brilliant read and a great continuation of the series. I can’t wait to read the next one.