Sentient

by Victor Acquista

A telepathic warrior race, intent on being the supreme sentient race in the galaxy, confronts another highly advanced telepathic civilization, one that lives in a peaceful shared collective consciousness. Following the near-complete genocide of the peaceful civilization, their survival strategy to establish a hidden colony has unintended consequences.

Humanity’s fate rests in the hands of misfits and outcasts in this epic tale of defeat and resurgence spanning 168,000 years of struggle…

409 pages, Paperback

Published October 10, 2021

Reviews

[J. Kahele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This definitely was not a normal read for me

But it didn't make it less interesting. This was probably the most thought out and complexly written sci-fi story I have ever read, yet the writing was smooth and easy to follow. I know my words seem confusing, but if you read it you would understand

[S. Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is a really cool book that Ancient Alien theorists will enjoy. Humanity’s parent race altered their Earth bound children to hide from a civilization that has formed a telepathic collective whose only mission is to conquer and subjugate. The last survivor of Aaden, humanity’s first home, arrives in the present day, one hundred thousand years after his fellow colonists lived and died. A beacon from the enemy also made the journey.

There were a handful of really interesting plot-threads woven into the central story, even critical to it, that I felt were every bit as satisfying as the main story. Watching our unlikely group of heroes tackle some day to day issues and others get in over their heads really illustrated magnified the David Versus Goliath theme. I’ve often felt that every trait has its positives and negatives. It was cool to see something that socially and physically impairs people turn into… No spoiling here! Although after you go out and buy yourself a copy of Sentient, I bet you’ll guess it!

I won this book in some Facebook contest! Winner winner chicken dinner. For less than the cost of a chicken dinner, you too, can behold the splendor of this novel.

I listened to this book with eReader Prestigio and I’m really proud of the GPS lady for pronouncing Worcester the right way. For anyone who isn’t from the Northeast, I’ll help you blend. It’s “Wooster.” Don’t “Woostah” unless you are actually local. They’ll know you are faking it. Especially if you’re as bad at accents as I am.

It had just the right amount of fun science. I recognized three or four theories I’ve geeked out on a bit, but there was still a healthy dollop of make believe. I already feel like I live in the future, so purist hard scifi is like non genre fiction to me. Did you laugh there? I’m hit or miss. Mostly miss.
The bit about the point in human history where we all trace back to a single female was mentioned. I don’t dare Google it, but the invention the Professor makes seems like it’s propped up by a few sturdy sticks of science as well.

I wish I had mental superpowers.

[Zachry Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not every day that you find an author that can glide between rhythmic prose, effective humor, and subject matter knowledge. In the sci-fi world especially, you usually get one at the expense of the others. Not so here. Victor Acquista is packaged talent, a wordsmith that can tease your brain and make you laugh in the same paragraph.

Sentient is a unique and compelling read. It's not the rat-a-tat romp that a lot of modern sci-fi has devolved into. It requires you to think about the narrative without the aid of spooned exposition (thank you, by the way). In a very real sense, thinking drives the entire plot and requires you to participate. The book tethers you to intense conflicts, often without uttering a single word.

I also have to praise Acquista for his thoughtful treatment of mental illness. Without giving anything away, Sentient asks a fascinating yet uncomfortable question: what if those you dismiss are the real heroes of the world?

[Patricia Grigg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning of the book threw me a tad. The sudden shifting from what appeared to be one story on to a different one seemed too abrupt. However, as I became familiar with the characters, the idea of what the author was doing became clear. So, I'm warning readers to stay with the book until you get the feel of things.

Overall, the story was original in thinking, and that appealed to me a great deal. I recommend you, the readers, give Sentient a read. My thanks to the author.

[Ann Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, especially the thought that we might all have the potential to be telepathic. The difference when people communicate telepathically is clearly shown, and the difference it makes in a society. The motivations and schemes of the different groups makes a fascinating read. Highly Recommended.

[Felix Montalvo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Mind Once Opened…Stays Open

I really enjoyed this book. Well written and a easy read. Especially its premise about the ability of a shared consciousness. A story about a positive future (and since I cannot share consciously I’m sharing verbally and texting). If they ever create Methylated GH7-PZ13 (street name..Awaken)…sign me up.

[Lauren Stafford · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sentient" by Dr. Victor Acquista is a marvelous work of science fiction at the highest level. "Sentient" was a delight from the very first sentence, gripping you all the way to the surprise ending. Dr. Acquista immediately draws you into his world, using alien words and beautiful descriptions, which paint us a dramatic picture of survival, triumph, and humanity. The world and culture of Adden is simply beyond anything we could possibly dream up. There is no war, no crime, and no government. All of the citizens freely help and exchange with each other due to their ‘collective mind’ and telepathy. However, nearly all of them are destroyed by the terror known as The Mind Warriors of T’rox, who are another race of telepathic aliens that are bent on becoming the most supreme race in all of the galaxy. Only a handful of Addenites are able to escape, including our hero Anyeuros. The story then flips between the perspectives of Anyeuros, the Addenite colonists, the T’rox, and present day Earth. Here on Earth, we find our other main hero, Professor Strickland. This is where I truly began to fall in love with this book. Professor Strickland, genius in his own right for his inventions, has a medical condition known as schizophrenia. Dr. Acquista has done plenty of research into this topic and it shows, because his well-detailed description of the mental illness, as well as the way the book discusses the social stigma of mental illnesses without any touch of malice or rancor, show how truly gifted this author is with his words. The plot continues to flow effortlessly, even the shifting perspectives do not distract from the elegance of the story, as we follow how Anyeuros and Professor Strickland work to solve the mystery of schizophrenia and thwart the invasion of the T’rox. Dr. Acquista, through his characters, also helps to challenge society standards and what we value most. "Sentient" tackles the tough issues, such as homelessness and society indoctrinating violence, but it handles it with such humor and kindness that it is easy to digest. There were several times I had to put the book down just so I could ponder the questions and feelings that it had brought up. The best and worst of humanity are highlighted, but yet it does not feel as though it went too far to the extremes. This debut novel is witty, intelligent, saddening, and beautiful. This book is amazing, and I truly would love to recommend it to everyone. I look forward to more by Dr. Acquista in the future.

[Joyce Hertzoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good premise with some good characters, but needed all kinds of editing.

[Richard Stevko · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you don’t like science fiction;
If you are uneasy in the first five minutes of spaghetti westerns;
If you can’t wait for something to happen in Kabuki;
Then you definitely should wait for Victor Acquista’s SENTIENT to be turned into a movie. “Turned into...” has not happened, yet; but the story line of this first novel certainly seems to be headed in that direction. And, a good movie it will be. BUT, if you don’t read this book, you’ll miss:
• the masterly plot construction in which at least two civilizations and one colony are
introduced in separate sub-stories that eventually meet.
• Whether on not the hominids (no cartoon aliens, here) are related, and how, is a
surreptitious sub-plot that this book plants into your consciousness. No spoilers, here, this is work the reader must do. This story is not all mind games; there’s plenty of action.
• Each civilization has unsolved problems (no surprise) of it’s own, that need to be resolved in different ways. The separate intergalactic problems are resolved differently for each group, but the resolution is in the problem...giving way to...
• Metaphors as big as world peace. The earthly metaphors are based on intelligent and advanced reading of modern mental health research. The T’rox metaphors are based on imaginative readings of endless corporate meetings. The overarching metaphor seems to be ‘Literature as a way to resolve social problems.’
• The characters in this story are well drawn and convincing. Even the most alien beings are presumably a little less well drawn to maintain their alien-icity. The earthlings are all people you know, even if you don’t mix with research scientists; it’s their humanity that is engaging.
• Making even the details of this narrative in the service of the bigger social picture.

[Amber Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

**I received a review copy of this book from the author**

I love sci-fi reads, but the one problem I always have with them is the weird and often complicated names for everything. It distracts me and I tend to focus more on the right way of pronouncing a word than on the rest of the book. Thankfully with Sentient, events though there were some weird names, it didn't become distracting. I really liked how the author was able to make his story flow seamlessly. It was a good read and I wouldn't mind reading more from Victor Acquista.

[J.J. Amaworo · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sentient" is a superb debut, a rollicking sci-fi saga that combines action and philosophy, visionary ideas, and prescient social critique. In creating an alien world with its own cosmology and rituals, the author sheds light on our own struggling little planet, and does so with humor and style. Excellent!

[R.J. Guy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique approach to science fiction adding a strong social commentary. I like most of the characters such as the contemporary Earth humans (especially Jeremy and his teen neighbor Nathan), Aniys who is definitely a well crafted character, and the T'tox people are also interesting because they're villains, of course! The various plotlines mesh very well leading to an exciting, if a bit too brief conclusion.
The writing is crisp and clear and only near the end is the message explicitly expressed more than needed. I would be interested in visiting this universe again.

[Andrew Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

What drew me in to this novel at first was its wholly sympathetic treatment of mental illness, or, to put it more accurately, a specific and unusual psychological condition. Not since Elizabeth Moon’s ‘Speed of Dark’ has the subject been explored with such resonant, humorous insight. In this case it is schizophrenia, so often the preserve of cheap schlock horror of an unhelpfully inaccurate kind. Doctor Jeremy Strickland lives in suburban America next door to his young surfer dude neighbour, one of the few people in the community who is charmed rather than disturbed by the brilliant scientist’s erratic behaviour. The doctor is one of a number of test subjects for a new drug to counter symptoms of schizophrenia run at a nearby institute and when he is not on one of the scheme’s drug holidays he is busy developing a teleport system in his living room. The prototype system is the only one in the world; however, one day while the doctor is at the institute, someone materialises within it…
This individual is Anyeuros, last of the Addenites, fleeing the wonderfully named Mind Warriors of T’rox: a fascistic race of super-telepaths who make the Kirk-era Klingons look like hippies. Trapped aboard a starship during a T’rox assault, Anyeuros decides to try and reach the last colony of New Adden. Interstellar travel is usually undertaken instantaneously via nodes powered by black holes; however, Anyeuros’s ship does not have this capacity. Instead, he has to use the emergency teleport, which converts him to photons that cannot exceed the speed of light. Thus, in a brilliant bit of proper SF, Anyeuros arrives 168,000 years after his compatriots.
Over this huge timespan, the T’rox become supremely powerful, but face the inevitable decline of a warlike race in the absence of any challengers. Instead, they are governed by a complex series of rules and traditions, the manipulations of which ensure either supreme power or humiliating defeat. This society is depicted with intricate detail and requires close reading, particularly of the characters’ names, which given the number of T’rox warriors and leaders who are exterminated by their own people can make it unclear who exactly is doing what. Ultimately, this confusion doesn’t matter because the T’rox find an ancient probe that tells them the location of New Adden…
As well as contemporary Earth and the T’rox, the novel also explores early New Adden. The group consists of only six colonists, who are restricted from using their amazing telepathic powers in case T’rox gets wind of them. The new planet has a blue sky, a single sun, green vegetation and fauna that seems oddly familiar, while ‘Adden' also sounds a bit like ‘Eden’. I don’t think it’s giving too much away to let on that the Addenites are our ancestors; however, they decide use genetic engineering to suppress their telepathy to ensure that their offspring remain hidden. Perhaps, in the future, their children will figure out how to retake the extraordinary gift that is their birthright.
However, the author convincingly depicts the slow degradation of the original colonists in the face of an often hostile prehistoric alien landscape. Interestingly, the main problem is not so much the ‘howlers’ or the biting spiders, it is psychological attrition over a period of time, which leads to the loss of genetic material they have brought with them. The novel explores a possible rationale behind the Eve theory, which posits that all contemporary humans come from a single female ancestor. That idea alone is as chilling as it is exciting; however, the author expands on it in a moving and convincing way.
Back then to modern America, and we begin to understand that Jeremy’s schizophrenia may be rooted in a nascent telepathic ability as the Addenite talent begins to clumsily reassert itself. Anyeuros, who looks a bit like Thor and can read minds as well without it ever seeming creepy or manipulative, appears at first as something of a romantic figure. However, he is consumed by guilt when he realises that his presence is drawing the T’rox, hungry for war after a long period of stagnation. The race is then on to find a way to ‘upgrade’ the entire human race in time to see off the genuinely frightening, psychopathic invaders.
What sets this novel apart is the focus on the mind, from the consideration of alternative mental conditions to the use of telepathy as a lethal weapon. The worst thing that happens to the colonists is their acceptance that they cannot link minds, with the empathy, comfort and love that results. Adden, we come to realise, was not a paradise, but it was peaceful. Significantly, this factor is what led to its downfall. Will the same happen to Earth? A hint of what might transpire comes in the way the offspring of the New Adden colonists begin to evolve. The last patriarch of the original six falls prey to the assumption that one of his sons shares his values. This tragically proves not to be the case, and we see the first of the societal splits that come to define humanity.
The novel then goes up several gears from enthralling to downright gripping. I won’t give the conclusion away here but it is the best ‘uplift’ climax since ‘Childhood’s End’ although less frightfully bleak. It is moving though and you end up hoping that the author is really onto something here, and that a beautiful, hard-earned shared future awaits us all.

[Det Cornforth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mind blowing

Pretty good read. I recommend you read this book. My only problem I have is that the end felt somewhat rushed. As if you were fed up writing the story and wanted to finish it to perhaps start another project.
I did particularly like the ending where poverty and famine and homelessness was alleviated, and done away with. If only this could happen now. Greed has no place in this world.