Bait

by Helen Mathey-Horn

What do you do when you come from a family of telepathic warriors but you lack the telepathic part? Lawren finds a place in a group of off world agents who attempt to 'correct' history, but it turns out although she isn't telepathic, she has charisma in abundance that makes it impossible for her to blend into other cultures. So instead of field work, she is currently in what she considers a dead end job of teaching new recruits hand-to-hand combat, until someone has a suggestion: go into a violent culture that her bosses haven't had any success at infiltrating as bait to lure out one or possibly two killers.

Genres: Science Fiction

341 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 10, 2018

Reviews

[Stjepan Cobets · Rating 5 out of 5]

My rating 4.8

The book "Bait" by Helen Mathey-Horn is an excellent science fiction novel that leads us into the world of the future dominated by the telepathic powerful warriors. Girl Lawren who was born to a family of a telepathic warrior, unfortunately, there is not one of the powers that possess her parents. But because of her parents, at least Lawren's thoughts have been admitted to a special warrior organization CONTROL. Though she is a cold weapon fighter, and in physical disciplines she is excellent, she is considered dull because she has no telepathic power. To her surprise soon gets her first job in which she must be a bait to destroy the criminal organization on the planet Welstar. But although he is not aware, this task will change her whole life. She will find in the world intertwined intrigues, lies and deceptions. The task will quite complicate to her when her feelings interlinked with the duty to be done. I would recommend the book to all lovers of science fiction because the writer brings us into the world in which the reader can easily experience in his imagination. I believe this book is the beginning of a series I would love to read.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bait by Helen Mathey-Horn was a gripping and enjoyable read. A sci-fi time slip set on another planet and with plenty of action, larger-than-characters, a few twists and turns and romantic elements.

Lawran is born into a strong telepathic family but she doesn't have the gift. She doesn't fit in at home, so joins CONTROL a temporal secret agency that goes back in time to eliminate threats to the future. Her first proper field mission (a few thousand years in the past) is to act as bait or a lure to one or two strongly criminal elements on the desert planet of Welstar, a planet funded by the illegal drug trade, where drug-lords kill with impunity and woman are objectified to the point of being 'bagged' and literally stuffed. Will Lawran even survive a day in this dangerous place, and who is Benji and how far can she trust him?

The story is fast-paced, with strong world-building and engaging characters. Lawran, as a weapons trainer and Tel, is dangerous yet vulnerable. Benji is by turns infuriating and charming, protective and manipulative, and decidedly cold-blooded. Other characters such as Sari, Lee, Jawel and Cumid and numerous secondary characters are lesser stars to these two bright luminaries. And it is the chemistry between Lawran and Benji that energises the plot - a cat and mouse game between Lawran and Benji, between the two major drug-lords, and between Lee (who is absent for most of the story) and his targets.

I enjoyed the interaction and the suspense, as Lawren finds herself in one tight spot after another, and the sizzling repartee between Lawren and Benji. The story builds to an epic showdown with lots of explosions and a high body count. If I had any quibbles, it would be that Welstar is so totally male-dominated (we really only meet one named female character from the planet (who isn’t stuffed)) and despite tragic backstories bad boys rarely reform for love, though Mathey-Horn does make it believable and the bad boy repentant to some extent . The story raises issues of diversity and ethnic cleansing but brushes over the ethics of going back in time for mass killings to save the future (in some unspecified way). Nevertheless, I found it an enjoyable, hard-to put down read.

[Stacie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bait, by Helen Mathey-Thorn is a quick-paced science-fiction novel. With plenty of action and suspense, its protagonist is a secret agent who acts, as its title suggests, as bait in a thrilling scheme.

Set on another planet, this is a tale that seems hell-bent on sending readers on a hard and fast sci-fi journey. The protagonist, Lawren, is a woman - but this is an otherwise male-dominated tale. While there is a bit of romance and an interesting archeological expedition, these are downplayed against many action scenes and a mix of the paranormal along with futuristic elements. The interplay between Lawren and villain Benji may interest some, while other readers might be turned off by how many times Lawren falls for his lies. Nevertheless, these characters will keep readers on their toes, wondering if the bait will be taken.

Fans of action, thrillers and suspense will likely enjoy this novel, as well as some science-fiction and paranormal fans.

[Kameron Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this sci-fi tale to be thrilling and refreshing.

Many fantasy and sci-fi adventures chronicle a main character who is different—but in a good way. There is some special power or bloodline or secret that makes them unique. Bait is refreshing in that while the protagonist certainly is different, it is not in a way that would seem helpful or give her an advantage. She, quite unlike her family, has no telepathic ability.

The pace was good and the world was vivid. I did find myself wanting more information about the world in some parts, and in other parts, I thought maybe too much information was presented.
However, this might be a matter of taste.

Overall, this was a great concept and an original science fiction premise.

[Noor Al-Shanti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bait by Helen Mathey-Horn is a fast paced story with a very interesting premise. The story takes place in a very interesting world where humans are spread over many different planets across the universe and many of these human cultures have interesting powers and abilities and technologies. Lawran comes from a family of "dreamers" who have interesting telepathic powers. Unfortunately, no powers have manifested in her, so she takes on a job at a company called CONTROL that trains special agents to go back into the past and alter key events in human history that were disastrous/terrible. She starts off training new recruits in a martial-artsy type of combat, but another agent shows up to give her a more interesting field assignment in the past.

There's a lot in there that is fascinating. The time travel, the dreamer powers, the strong female lead going on a deep cover mission. It had so much promise. Unfortunately, the story failed to deliver on any of these interesting speculative fiction elements and instead the main character quickly went from a "strong" fighter type of person to a helpless person who was easy prey for the unpleasant targets that she was supposed to be luring out.

Apparently, even though Lawran doesn't have any dreamer abilities she has "animal magnetism" (this phrase was literally used in the book). So she apparently would be the perfect bait to lure out these bad guys. This was fine, but she was dropped into a world where the main criminals/drug lords like to "bag" any attractive females and either turn them into sex slaves or literally stuff them and turn them into part of their "collection" of precious things. And she was dropped into this world without a partner being with her, without a way to communicate with anyone from the company, and without a way to teleport out (even though the tech exists for them) and without even a clue about who she was supposed to be luring out.

Her cover for the assignment was that she was an archaeology student at a university doing an exchange program on this planet so she could study its past. Again, this promised some interesting finds and explorations into the world and into the interactions between the cultures of the different planets, but again this was ignored and didn't really come to much.

Instead of exploring all these interesting avenues, instead of allowing the character some agency and letting her knowledge and training really shine we spend the majority of the book watching her continually fall for the obvious traps of a local drug lord and get drugged over and over. There's even a ridiculous section where she's about to get kicked off the planet unless she can find a "real" job that very-specifically isn't with the drug lord she's friends with so she just passively lets him "find her a job" with his arch-enemy - the one that likes to stuff women - as a model for very skimpy clothes. Basically, this character has the least agency or "strength" I've ever encountered. She literally just moves around in the world she's been dropped in, not even exploring the whole world, but just letting herself be controlled and drugged by this one person who keeps abusing her trust over and over and over but she keeps trusting him again. And of course you know that they're going to somehow fall in love at some point, while continuing the whole cycle of abuse and naivety.

Even though this aspect was so off-putting and such a big part of the story I still found myself turning the pages, interested to see how it would all end, so the author clearly has the writing skill down and managed to promise enough with the little hints of world-building that kept me hoping the main character would find some strength and the end would be more interesting. And near the end there were some interesting scenes that seemed to be trying to give the main character more to do and a more interesting story.

Unfortunately, I don't think it was even really meant to be a speculative fiction story in the first place, because we never even got to find out if this attempt to change history actually worked. We never even got a single sentence exploring the effects of their tampering with time. It didn't matter... all that mattered in the end of the story was the conclusion to the messed up relationship between these two characters. A relationship which, while it was written in such a way as to garner sympathy and kind of seemed believable in the book, would be completely 100% creepy and abusive in real-live. You can't build a real, lasting relationship upon that much abuse and that big of a power imbalance.

In the end, I really wish the time travel, archaeology, or the really interesting hints of world building with the dreamer powers and their consequences for different societies had been explored a bit more. That stuff was interesting, but ignored and vastly overshadowed by the drugging and abuse. If it had been more focused on I would have given the book a higher rating. If the book had been a little less of a page turner I would have given it a much lower rating. In the end I settled on a 3. I'd so love to read a book or a whole series set in this world, but without any drugging, sexual situations, or "love" to distract from the speculative elements.

[James Maxstadt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bait is well-written sci-fi thriller about Lawren, a beautiful agent for CONTROL. She is sent back in time to a desert planet to act as bait to lure out a figure who will cause chaos if not eliminated. Over the course of the book she is drugged, manipulated and ignored, and has her resolve tested in ways she never expected.
There is a lot of good action in the book, with the flow moving along well. The characters are, for the most part, believable.
My biggest problem was that Lawren seems to make an awful lot of stupid decisions for a well-trained secret agent. She gets drugged, and then keeps putting herself in situations with the same man who drugged her the first time to do it again and again. I get the romance angle of it, but that drove me nuts.
Overall though, it was a good book and worth the read.

[Lindabelliveau · Rating 5 out of 5]

A page Turner! Unique story, excellent character development.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bait by Helen Mathey-Horn is a sci-fi romp about a secret agent who's given her first mission because it requires a specific skill--animal magnetism.

Lawran is plopped onto a desert-like planet where drugs and sex-trade are pretty much the only careers, and is told nothing more than to lure someone. But who is she to lure? Who's the mission? Why is she the only one on her planet that isn't a telepath!? The story unfolds with twists and turns, gadgets and new drugs, as well as hidden agendas and archaeology.

Benji (helpful drug pusher that Lawran meets on her first day on the planet) was one of my favorite characters. From the beginning to almost the end, I kept questioning his motives, whether he was the good guy or bad guy, and because of the constant switch, it kept me wanting to read more, and figure out his overall plan. The ending pleased the romantic in me, and I liked that just like Lawran, things unfolded without her knowledge. Which kept both us and the character discovering new tidbits of the mission. I don't like to be hand fed information.

The story-line wavered a bit for me, some parts were very slow, while others seemed like forced action scenes, and I would've wanted the mission to sway more towards saving the hordes of women in the sex trade, or having Lawran dive into the seedy underbelly of this horrible world. But instead, she was in lavish and posh restaurants with the occasional drug inducement. (Stop drinking and eating everything given to you, Lawran!)

Overall, the underlying romance of the two protagonists, and the author's world-building kept me intrigued and reading more. If sci-fi and circuit boards are your thing, then pick up this secret agent read!

[Scott Spotson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bait describes the overarching theme of the book well, unfortunately I didn’t find it an appealing premise for a read as practically from page one to the end, a young woman finds herself in a man’s world, controlled wherever she goes and in whatever she does. She is coerced, forced, and dictated to into performing arduous tasks and missions of danger where she doesn’t know whom she can trust. On her adopted world, women are always in danger of being kidnapped and used as slaves. Not an enticing world to read about. In a way I felt like I was reading about a Bond girl in a James Bond storyline where she’s hauled from man to man and protests against her involvement, but uses feminine cunning to act out her limited role; if there was ever a futuristic James Bond novel written from the woman’s point of view and if she was central to the novel’s every scene. The book also has several slow scenes and builds up slowly at the beginning, where the archaeology expedition doesn’t really begin until about one-third into the book. As well, the dialogue sometimes re-explains several plot threads over and over, to the point where I got lost in which version was correct.

I was looking forward to reading about the expedition of archaeology on a science fiction world of the future, however, there was precious little of it. Indeed, there was little that the main character, Lawren, planned that ever transpired. She trusts the villain, Benji, so many times, yet keeps falling for his wiles.

About halfway through the book I began to lose track of the details of Lawren’s emerging powers and the duplicitous power plays that played her like a finely tuned violin; I got confused over why she was considered so precious, and what happened to her parents, and who the villains really were and what were their agendas.

Nonetheless, I liked the premise of an archaeology dig on a sci-fi world and was looking forward to that! And the wremp sounded really cool...

[Onidas J Beaudin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong Characterization!

Not only do I Love a book with a strong protagonist, but make it a strong female protagonist and I'm sold! The author's character of Lawran is no exception to this. I was enamoured by the characterization of this book! Lawran's psychological turmoil was so clearly portrayed along with her street smarts and uncanny ability to get out of certain sexual situations. As the book progressed it became apparent to me how much I was engulfed in the world the author created and how believable it all was. I particularly thought the authors creation of the drug "Melon" was quite clever. While this book is quite long the flow and ease of how it was written makes it worth the read. Highly entertaining Novel!

[Jennifer Arntson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bait is an interesting mashup of science fiction and paranormal fantasy, with a dash of romance and a heavy helping of tech gadgets and illegal activity. The world is great, and while the author does a fair job describing it, I found the amount of information given in the first couple chapters to be a lot of information to digest in one sitting. As the story progressed, the principals were reintroduced a bit at a time in a more natural way, but it took time.

I always enjoy strong female characters, and Lawren seemed to fit the bill nicely. She worked for her physical strength (not an overnight ninja) and with cleaver comebacks and a ‘don’t mess with me’ attitude, she drew me in. Somewhere in the story, however, my inner feminist started to stir as Lawren seemed to shift from covert-spy to woman-played-a-fool too much for my liking. But, she was the ‘bait’ dropped into a mission with no help whatsoever, so perhaps I should have seen that coming. Still, my enjoyment and attention started to wane between action scenes.

The thing I enjoyed the most and what kept me reading, was the push and pull between the two main characters in the romantic sense. Though I didn’t know if Benji should be trusted or not, I was curious if they’d ever end up together, even if I considered their interactions toxic for any non-fictional person. Thug life, eh?

Overall, not my cup of tea, but I honestly, I bet anyone who is a fan of high Syfy and suspense wouldn’t be able to put this story down.

[D. Peach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tired of her training position at CONTROL, Lawren takes the opportunity to work undercover as “bait” for a villain on the male-dominated planet Welstar. It’s a perilous place where drugs are rampant and used to kidnap beautiful women and turn them into sex-slaves. It’s not long before she’s targeted and thrust into danger. Benji is that male lead, and Mathey-Horn does a good job of keeping the reader guessing as to whether he’s a good guy or bad guy.

For the most part, the characters seemed authentic to me. Lawren is a strong-willed protagonist despite having to rely frequently on men for protection and rescue. I couldn’t’ quite believe that CONTROL would send her to Welstar without knowing who her target was. The plot choice added to the suspense, but it didn’t make much sense overall. My only other challenge was the plausibility of a romantic relationship with someone who used and abused countless women. The story supports this outcome, but I had a hard time buying it.

The plot moves quickly and has plenty of action as Lawren encounters one dangerous situation after another, some the result of her own gullible choices. Some of the elements that come together in the end could have used more forecasting/development to avoid confusion: the nature of Lawren’s power, the use of time travel, and CONTROL’s agenda. Vivid worldbuilding, excellent dialog, and quality writing overall.

[Rhian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lawran is a member of CONTROL, a time-spanning secret society dedicated to setting history right. Sometimes that involves assassination. Although Lawren is an accomplished fighter, her passive telepathic abilities make her unsuited to covert work. Her brand of innate charisma draws attention wherever she goes. But that level of attention makes her ideal for a role as bait.

The writing style is reasonable, though some of the combat scenes fall flat. The display at the start is particularly unengaging, though some of the later scenes are more kinetic. The big strength of Bait is the worldbuilding: the desert planet of Welstar is like Dune mixed with the worst areas of a deprived US city. It’s a hot and inhospitable place and everyone’s scrabbling to get up or out, however they can. There are glimpses of a wider universe as well as telepathic genetics, both of which tie into the story. Some of the descriptions, like an opulent room featuring fish swimming around beneath transparent floor tiles, work well. I’d just like to see the same sort of attention applied to textures, sounds, smells and scenes elsewhere.

Overall, there is a fair bit to commend here, but grammar and spelling issues, a main character who is forced into passivity and occasionally flat writing pull the standard down.

[Prashanti Talluri · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unexpected fantasy book, quite a page-turner

The protagonist is a woman named Lawren, born to a family of 'dreamers' with special telepathic powers. Unfortunately, she lacks that gift. Instead, she seems to have 'magnetic' powers to attract the toughest of individuals. Owing to her lack of telepathy, she takes up a job with CONTROL, an organization that undertakes dangerous missions. She starts off by training new recruits in martial arts until she lands a mission that involves travelling back in time to a planet called Welstar.
This planet is ruled by dangerous drug lords and her job as 'BAIT' is to lure one of its dangerous occupants out so that she can prevent a future calamity caused by that individual.
The story starts out strong with us rooting for the protagonist. What was unexpected was the turn of events between her and Benji, one of the leaders on Welstar. Clearly they are headed towards a romantic relationship, however Lawren changes into a helpless being in his hands. Despite that fact, you will want to read the entire book absorbing these twists to see how the story turns out. Will she be successful as the bait? All fans of fantasy will enjoy this one.

[Chrissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time Travelling Telepaths

I would probably give this book 3.5 ⭐️ if I could.

I will be honest, I probably wouldn’t have downloaded this book if it wasn’t free. However, I did enjoy it, I just didn’t feel very connected to it. It felt a bit too cerebral to me, with not enough emotions felt by the characters until quite late in the book.

Lawran is a descendant of telepathic warriors, kings and queens. She is one of the only people in her line without any kind of ‘dreaming’ skill (their term for telepathic gifts). Her grandfather’s friend works for a group called CONTROL who travel along the timeline fixing things (it wasn’t explained what exactly they fixed, it was all a bit vague). He suggested that Lawran goes to train there and become an agent. She doesn’t do great at the undercover work so he decides to send her into a situation as bait without any real knowledge so she can act as innocent as possible whilst he does all the hard work.

I didn’t realise until quite a way in to this book that a lot of things about the backstory of this book were probably included in previous books. It doesn’t make clear in the blurb or intro that there are other books about this Universe and the people in it. Maybe all the missing explanations were included in those books, but it still felt that the author could have explained just a little bit more for those readers who come new to the books.

I think a lot of the missing information meant that I didn’t get a lot of the book. It made it harder to understand the characters and their motives. It certainly made it hard to understand Lawran and her behaviour which felt a bit weak at times for a warrior.

However, for all the missing information and connection with the characters, the world building was excellent and the plot was interesting. I probably wouldn’t read another book in this series because I prefer to have more emotional content in my sci-fi but other people may prefer a more cerebral approach to the genre and therefore would find this more entertaining.

[Lucretia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great story. I really enjoyed the concept and the reasons why Lawren was chosen for her 'mission.' She faced a lot and for the most part handled herself as would be expected, making human mistakes with real consequences, which I appreciate. Benji is my kind of character, I throughly enjoy those who toe lines and make you question them and their motives all the way. He makes you think about human nature in ways that are challenging and that's a good thing when it comes to themes and messages. The relationship was complex and a the heart of the story.

The narrative is a bit distanced with more telling than immersion, but the story and pace make that a small issue. Probably only one I noticed as I tend prefer a more up close relationships with the leads. Fans of science fiction and romantic suspense should enjoy this.

[Chris DeVito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bait is a well-written science fiction novel. It takes place on another planet and the word building is vivid and interesting. There’s elements of time travel, humans with unique powers and a touch of archeology.

The characters are interesting and engaging throughout. The dialogue is smooth and flows well. The main character is a female spy on a mission as... bait. At times she’s fully capable but at others is naïve and easily manipulated.

Overall, a pleasant science fiction book. The world building, action and characters add to a nice concept and a book well worth reading.