State of Mind

Sven Michael Davison

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

In the not-too-distant future, freedom is just a word that you willingly trade for a dozen donuts, based on the dubious promise that you can eat what you want and never gain weight. You can also take drugs with no ill effects or call a friend while surfing the web without a phone or computer. All this and more will be yours following the simple installation of a P-Chip in your brain.

After botching the arrest of the governor’s son in Los Angeles, Commander Jake Travissi is banned from law enforcement. The workaholic homicide cop spirals into depression...until he is given a rare second chance. The price? Volunteer for chip implantation and join Homeland Security’s experimental Enhanced Unit.

The grisly assassination of a prominent Nobel Laureate brings the newly formed Unit on the scene to investigate. But as the body count rises, Jake begins to realize that his actions, and even his thoughts, are not his own. Fighting to regain control of his own State of Mind, Jake finds himself embroiled in a global conspiracy to enslave the human race!

State of Mind is a cyberpunk thriller inspired by tales crafted by Philip K. Dick and William Gibson. If you liked The Matrix, Inception, Avatar, and Minority Report, you’ll love State of Mind.

Review by Paul Lappen (280213) Rating (9/10)

Review by Paul Lappen
Rating 9/10
This book is set in 2030 Los Angeles. It is about government mind control, and one man's attempts to fight back.

Jake Travissi was thrown off the police force for upsetting the wrong people. He is let back on the force after he is implanted with a P-Chip. It lets a person do practically anything with their mind; access the Web, see things through the eyes of another P-Chip recipient, record video on to a computer hard drive and talk to other P-Chip recipients telepathically. A person can even regulate their metabolism so that they can eat and drink whatever they want and not gain weight. Jake is part of a three-man squad working for Homeland Security.

Their first case is to investigate the very public murder of Dr. Veloso, a co-creator of the P-Chip. The shooter's eyes, teeth and fingerprints have been removed, making identification nearly impossible. While Jake is there, he has split-second flashes of his hands destroying the evidence. On another raid, taking out an alleged terrorist cell, Jake has more flashes of he and his colleagues doing very illegal things. He also hears voices in his head, which are the God Heads.

Sandoval, the Director of Homeland Security, who commands the three-man squad (the Enhanced Unit), also runs a super-secret squad of P-Chip hackers. It is possible to take a person "offline," to shut down their higher brain functions, controlling them to do or say whatever you want, then plant false memories to make up for it. Jake begins to push back against the God Heads, killing one of them. In retaliation, Jake is kept offline for several weeks, and controlled to resign from the Enhanced Unit. He is constantly filled with feelings of depression and suicide by the God Heads. He is also turned into something of a donut addict, becoming a fat, lazy parody of a cop. Sandoval's intention in pushing the skyrocketing popularity of P-Chips is to become one of the elite who actually rule the world, while everyone else is kept happy in some artificial P-Chip world. With help from Dr. Morris, the P-Chip's other co-creator, Jake is able to do a lot more pushing back against Sandoval and the God Heads.

This one is very plausible, it's more than a little spooky and it's really good. How long will it be before a cell phone, or Web browser, can be miniaturized enough to fit inside a human brain?
Paul Lappen (28th February 2013)