Perfection Unleashed, by Jade Kerrion

Jade Kerrion wants to know:

“What would you do if you came face-to-face with perfection,

and it looked just like you?”

Personally, I’d be quite surprised. All kidding aside, I just finished reading Perfection Unleashed, by Jade Kerrion, book one in a series I’d describe as a brainy, emotional X-Men-like adventure. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect, but I was intrigued by the idea of a sci-fi take on perfection—one that wasn’t based on creating the perfect android. Before I go any further, here’s the description from Amazon:

“Two men, one face. One man seeks to embrace destiny, the other to escape it.

Danyael Sabre spent sixteen years clawing out of the ruins of his childhood and finally has everything he wanted–a career, a home, and a trusted friend. To hold on to them, he keeps his head down and plays by the rules. An alpha empath, he is powerful in a world transformed by the Genetic Revolution, yet his experience has taught him to avoid attention.

When the perfect human being, Galahad, escapes from Pioneer Laboratories, the illusory peace between humans and their derivatives–the in vitros, clones, and mutants–collapses into social upheaval. The abominations, deformed and distorted mirrors of humanity, created unintentionally in Pioneer Lab’s search for perfection, descend upon Washington D.C. The first era of the Genetic Revolution was peaceful. The second is headed for open war.

Although the genetic future of the human race pivots on Galahad, Danyael does not feel compelled to get involved and risk his cover of anonymity, until he finds out that the perfect human being looks just like him.”

What I liked about Perfection Unleashed, is that rather than populate her story with comic book characters, Jade created characters with abilities that, at least to me, I can easily believe will be part of the next round of human evolution. Whether they are humans we can imagine having evolved naturally, such as Danyael Sabre, an alpha empath; or humans created through genetic engineering, such as my favorite character, Xin; a computer genius and clone of a “Twelve hundred BC queen, military general, and high priestess from ancient China,” Jade ensured each character and their uniqueness felt plausible. The time she spent delving into the mind of Danyael, the alpha empath, left the reader feeling, ironically, not only empathetic, but also fully aware of the danger Danyael’s ability could pose to the rest of humanity.

Perfection Unleashed is only the beginning of what promises to be an exciting series. While the action is almost non-stop, from the break-in at Pioneer labs and escape of some genetic mutants gone wrong, to the final action-packed escape scenes, the primary purpose of book one, it seems, is to introduce us to the characters and set up the coming conflict between humans and their derivatives.

While a few things, such as whether mutants like Danyael were a result of genetic manipulation or simple evolution confused me, I truly enjoyed Perfection Unleashed and look forward to the next two books in the series, the newly released Perfect Betrayal, and Perfect Weapon. I’m also eager to find out more about Galahad, Danyael’s genetic twin (only physically, as Galahad is not an empath). While scientists created Galahad to be the perfect human, exactly what traits were engineered into him and why are only hinted at in book one. Looks like I’ll have to read Perfect Betrayal to find out more.

One last note—Daniel Craig. That’s right, Daniel Craig, as in James Bond. While reading Perfection Unleashed, I imagined Daniel Craig playing the role(s) of Danyael/Galahad. He not only possesses the perfect body but more importantly, the ability to display emotional pain while looking gorgeous. However, after I finished reading Perfection Unleashed, I stopped by Jade’s website only to discover she had another actor in mind for the role. (It just goes to show, authors are not always right). Anyway, if you’d like to hear Jade defend her selection, as well as answer a few other intriguing questions, be sure to stop back on Dec. 12 when I’ll be hosting an author interview and book giveaway with non-other than the award-winning author, Jade Kerrion!  (I’m hoping we don’t come to blows over the whole actor thing!)