Mindjack Box Set (Books One -Three)

Mindjack World

by Susan Kaye Quinn

From Book 1: When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.
Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can't read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can't be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf's mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she's dragged deep into a hidden underworld of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

MINDJACK: KIRA
Open Minds (Book One)
Closed Hearts (Book Two)
Free Souls (Book Three)
Mind Games (Book Four) - novella
The Handler (Book Five) - novella
The Scribe (Book Six) - novella
Keeper (Book Seven) - novella

MINDJACK: ZEPH
Locked Tight (Book One)
Cracked Open (Book Two)
Broken Wide (Book Three)
The Locksmith (Book Four) - novella

FORMATS AND TRANSLATIONS
Mindjack available in ebook, print, audiobook, French and German

LIVE ACTION TRAILER
Voted Best Trailer at the 2014 Illinois International Film Festival and one of 50 Most Cinematic Trailers Ever Made – check it out at Susan’s website.

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction

732 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 4, 2014

About the author

CLICK HERE for a FREE STORY

Susan Kaye Quinn has designed aircraft engines and researched global warming, but now she uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from hopeful climate fiction to gritty cyberpunk. Sue believes being gentle and healing is radical and disruptive. Her short fiction can be found in Grist, Solarpunk Magazine, Reckoning, and all her novels and short stories can be found on her website. She is the host of the Bright Green Futures podcast.

SOLARPUNK
collections
Bright Green Futures: 2024 (edited by SKQ)
Halfway to Better

novels
Nothing is Promised series
When You Had Power
You Knew The Price
Of Kindness and Kilowatts
Yet You Cry When It Hurts

short stories
A Moon Goddess to Watch Over Me (Luna Station Quarterly) (hopepunk)
It's in the Blood (Reckoning 8)
Once and Future Kilowatts (Solarpunk Magazine)
Rewilding Indiana (Little Blue Marble)
Seven Sisters (Grist)
The Joy Fund (DreamForge Magazine)

SCI-FI
Singularity Novel Series
The Legacy Human
The Duality Bridge
The Illusory Prophet
The Last Mystic

Stories of Singularity
Restore
Containment
Augment
Awakening
Harvest
Defiance
Resistance

YA SF
Mindjack Series
Open Minds
Closed Hearts
Free Souls
Locked Tight
Cracked Open
Broken Wide
Mindjack Short Story Collection

WATCH the award-winning live-action Mindjack Book Trailer!

STEAMPUNK ROMANCE
Royals of Dharia
Third Daughter
Second Daughter
First Daughter

CYBERPUNK
Debt Collector
LIRIUM (Season One)
WRAITH (Season Two)

WATCH the Debt Collector Book Trailer

ANTHOLOGIES
Synchronic
Telepath Chronicles
AI Chronicles
Dark Beyond The Stars
Future Chronicles
Cyborg Chronicles
CLONES: The Anthology

MIDDLE GRADE FANTASY
Faery Swap

WATCH the Faery Swap Book Trailer

CONTACT SUSAN
Susan's Website | Sue on Bluesky | Sue on Mastodon
Susan's Email: sue@twistedspacepub.com

Reviews

[Lisa Hapney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally I told everyone that I would be reviewing Open Minds, Book 1 of the Mindjack Trilogy. So what really happened was that I read the first book and was completely disgruntled about not knowing what happened next. Therefore, I'll be reviewing the digital box set of the trilogy today. I guess that's probably a good indication of how this review will go. My having to read these three books is completely Peter Cawdron's fault for sending me a copy of the Telepath Chronicles, a collection of short stories by some talented authors that included The Locksmith by Susan Kaye Quinn. So I would have to say that the anthology did its job as well in helping me discover new writers to add to my list. On with the review.

There are three books in this series, Open Minds, Closed Hearts and Free Souls. I guess these would officially be young adult books as the main character is 16 when the story starts, but they were really well written and I enjoyed every moment of the collection. No one ever really considered Deanna Troi scary with her telepathic abilities on Star Trek, but Ms. Quinn has asked us to consider another side of telepathy. If most of the people in the world were telepaths and a minority of those were able to control the others in various ways, what would that lead to? How frightening would it be to have someone else control your mind? These are some of the questions that Ms. Quinn took on and she did a fantastic job. These are well-crafted, living, breathing characters with flaws, heartaches, fears and stupid mistakes in a world that seems all too real. The storytelling captured me right away. The quality is excellent. In all three books I only noticed two places where the words had been transposed and at no point was I drawn out of the story by its mechanics. The writing was tight and intriguing.

Kira Moore starts out as a teenager struggling with the lack of telepathy in a world of telepaths. Her greatest desire is to be a doctor, but no one would trust a zero to care for them. The story starts out with Kira in school with her true and dear friend Raf, who stands by her side even though she's a zero and doesn't understand why he continues to be her friend. He is her staunchest ally as she goes from being a zero to a changeling mindreader, but before long she realizes her new abilities are not like those of the others around her. I've kind of got that emotional, I want to tell you all about the story thing going since I only recently finished reading it, but I'm going to cut the summary here to keep from giving any spoilers that will ruin the excitement. This is not your usual young adult story. This is a complexly plotted and well thought out set of books that takes you on an adventure that will not only make you question how you look at those who are different from yourself, but may make you take a look at how you judge people. Kira goes through all kinds of adventures not of her own making before making her way back to her home and family and some of those experiences are truly horrible. This set of books is full of adventure and twists. I definitely wouldn't want my child to be in the situations that Kira faces.

Ms. Quinn did a great job of telling this story and I hope that some of you might enjoy it as well. I'm afraid if I keep gushing about it that I'll end up telling you something important about the bad guys so I'm going to wrap it up here and hope you get to enjoy the books for yourself. I'd suggest just buying the trilogy so you don't end up getting it twice. I can't imagine reading the first book and not wanting to know how it turns out. Here's hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Note that this review was originally published on my blog and is worded as such, https://tjhapney.wordpress.com/

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

love, love, love this series. And you can get the trilogy as a set on Kindle for less than $10! A must read for any age.

[TJ Szklar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 1: Interesting premise, people in the future can speak to each other through their minds. This causes some to go crazy, and others to not not make the switch so they are 'Zeros'. The protagonist is in high school, not an easy time to begin with, and she can not mind read. The popular guy in her class, Raf has stuck by her despite being a zero, they were friends growing up and he's loyal. The rest of the school basically abandons K. Well huh, turns out that K really has mind-jacking powers and can control other people. Woa. A jerk in school, Simon teaches her the way, and to con everyone into thinking she can mind speak.
Simon tries to get her to join a cult (of criminals eep-the initiation was to kill Raf! Hell no!) K flips out, knocks out the entire room of jackers and tries to escape. Unfortunately the FBI catches her, tries to get her to sign up for the FBI, but without much explanation so she freaks out and tries to escape. Well the government then sends her to a concentration camp. She's confronted with danger on all sides, but then realizes that she can control her body to expel this knock out gas out of her body, and she can jack multiple people from distances. The end of the book has her exposing the mind-jackers (spoiler her dad is one & works for the Navy).

[D. Prokop · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series had an interesting premise, but one I couldn't quite accept. A world where everyone can read everyone else's mind? That sounds like a terrible, cantankerous place I wouldn't want to live in. But in this novel, the MC is the only one who doesn't have this ability and she feels alone and depressed. I say, lucky her! Of course, she has an even greater ability, which was the coolest, most intriguing aspect to the premise. Unfortunately, I just didn't sympathize enough with her to cheer her on.
Mindjack has an action-packed, moving plot and some touching moments with family and friends. I wish I could suspend my disbelief just a little further to truly enjoy it.

[Pat Raab · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unimaginable, a world where those who speak aloud are shunned as inferior beings. An engrossing story of a force for good acting in the face of retaliation and torture, but when things go bad, they go really bad! And, because we are human, when people are different, they are feared rather than someone trying to understand them. And what a turnaround at the end ...

[Marta Scheiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads like Divergent

These books were so good I kept thinking that it should be made into a movie. I was totally into the story and did not want to be interrupted from it. I noticed there was a trailer for it, but the trailer paled in comparison to the books. Loved the books.

[michael saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome Read

I really enjoyed these books all the way through, just didn't want to put it down. Everyone who reads will enjoy these books , Susan Quinn is an awesome arthur. I gave this 5 stars, which it so richly deserves. Elouise Saunders

[Gea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kira’s story is action filled. She’s very protective of her family and friends and that’s her greatest motivator.
But are the jackers about to be wiped out by her greatest enemy?

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great fun read!

[moxieBK · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just wrote a lengthy review of this trilogy, only to have it all lost. :(

In a nutshell: book two and book three of this trilogy pales in comparison to book one. Here are quick recaps:

"Open Minds," was a well written, tight plot that kept this reader entralled in the story. It had a nice family element and a nice boyfriend element. Though it was futuristic, it had a all-too-familiar HS setting that actually worked pretty decent. I wrote a review when I first read book one (back in April 2015, after sitting in my "To-Read" pile for several years.) Look that review up for full details. I believe I gave it a four star then; having read the whole trilogy now, I give it a five star. Very well written book.

"Closed Hearts," second in the trilogy, started off strong but quickly fell into a "What the Heck?" mode for me. I mean...the author literally abandons the family setting and many of the characters that were intricate in the first book. WHY? It made no sense to me. Both Seamus and Raf are mentioned briefly then pretty much abandoned. OK, Raf wasn't, but Seamus was. Why create such rich characters just to leave them in the second? I almost stopped reading it at that point. I was thoroughly disappointed with book two. Two stars.

"Free Souls," third in the trilogy. I had pretty much given up on the series by the start of this book. Nothing really remained that felt familiar and charming that I liked in the first book. It almost seemed like book two and three were re-writes of book one. The author had introduced so many current social issues plaguing our society right now, snd she had dealt with them in a very open-minded and accepting way; then slammed the door in my face with the analogy that two different sorts of people could never love each other. So, welp...might as well put two LIKE MINDED people together. But a funny thing happened two-thirds of the way through the book: the author learned how to write again. She brought the family element back (should never have left;) she tightened the story up enough that my interest was piqued again. She finished the trilogy fairly strongly albeit, Ava and Sasha, major characters in book two and three disappeared until the very end, which took the shine off the best part of book three. So, book three ended up being, surprise to me, a three star book. I only wish the author would have written all of book two and two-thirds of book three with the same kind of urgency. Then it would have been a favorite series of mine. As it stands, the overall trilogy is a three star.

To recap:
"Open Minds," book one: five stars
"Closed Hearts," book two: two stars
"Free Souls," book three: three stars
Overall trilogy: three stars.

[Peter DeHaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most fitting read for those who finished the Mind Jack trilogy and want more: related short stories, novellas, and deleted scenes. So good!

[Chris Meads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading the first book, Open Minds, and wanted to know what happened when I finished the book. So when the box set came on sale, I bought the set and deleted the first book (on the kindle).

This story follows Kira, who thinks she is a zero, because she can't read minds or talk telepathically. Most people become "readers" when they hit puberty. All this has happened because of what was dumped into the drinking water. What Kira doesn't realize, she's a mindjacker--someone that can control what others co--she can actually make them do what she wants. It's scary and she doesn't know what to do. All she wants is to be like everyone else and belong.

The three books, Open Minds, Closed Hearts, and Free Souls, takes you down Kira's path of survival and her struggle to become who she really is. I couldn't put the book down and the ending surprised me. It will you too if you read all three books which I know you should do. I would recommend this to all.

[Lauren]

Open Minds - 2.5 stars
Kira Moore is a zero, she cannot communicate telepathically and link minds with all of the people around her. She is looked down on by the rest of society and is a social pariah. The day she meets Simon everything changes. Kira realizes that she is actually a mind jacker and can get other people to do what she wants, not only that but she is more powerful than most other jackers making her that much more dangerous to everyone.

Interesting concept for the future of evolutionary change where people no longer have to talk to one another. Kinda makes you think about what your brain can do.

I was interested in the story at first but it quickly became boring for me. There was too much going on in such a short period of time that I started to lose interest in what was actually happening.

Not finishing series

[Cheryl Duval · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the concept of these books. This is a unique, well thought out story. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down.The story is well written,very riveting and very fast paced.I loved the characters. Kira's world is turned upside down when she discovers that she is different then everyone else in society. Her life becomes dangerous and scary for her. She has to make decisions the could affect everyone like her. She discovers shocking secrets. She suffers hate, love, loss and indecision every step of the way. The ending of the series was well thought out and amazing. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

[Jon Spriggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a bit tricky. I stopped reading it for a while because it was so damn long, but I picked it up yesterday after catching up with which books I'd left outstanding. I wasn't using goodreads properly when I started reading this book, so I can't say much about the first two books, other than they kept me reading. I found the suspension of disbelief a bit hard with the last book... why would a *spoiler* have this much interest in any one member of the community in question? What exactly were they going to achieve has the good guys not got there first? Hmmm, it feels like a nearly good book, but left a slightly underdone feeling at the end.

[Lasciel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spectacular concept and amazingly heartfelt storyline. Quinn has done a fantastic job of making the story seem real, the way she writes is gritty and involved making the reader think about choices that are made rather than just being a silent observer. My only gripe is that emotions and sometimes characters are underplayed. Quinn's writing makes you think, but doesn't make you feel. That being said the story is impeccable, deep and complex. The world is also well imagined. This is definitely worth a read.

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it, there were some tactical things and some technical stuff I didn't like. Mostly because I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Other than that I loved all three books. There were some errors, just in case we have some English grammar buffs out there but its wasn't many. Enjoy!

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent

Wonderful story that is creative, complex, and imaginative. I could not put the series down! I highly recommend this set of books.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

I believe this is a great trilogy... for a YA group of readers or for someone who enjoys reading these books. Susan Kaye Quinn is a great writer....

[Gen Giggles · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was interesting to expand the characters but the stories weren't that great.

[Jeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best Trilogies I've ever read! I love the story line, idea, and the characters.