Review for "Zero Sight" by B. Justin Shier

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This is a review of the Kindle Edition from Amazon.com:  Zero Sight-Zero Sight Series Book 1-by B. J. Shier
 B. Justin Shier is an indie author, who moonlights as a writer when he's not interning at medical school. "Zero Sight" is his first book. (Fair warning: this book contains mature language)

"I could see the yearbook inscription now, 'Dieter Resnick, least likely to be stabbed dead in a bar fight."-Zero Sight, book 1 by B. J. Shier

And that's just the least of his problems. Meet Dieter Resnick, heir apparent to Jim Butcher's "Harry Dresden", with his snappy one-liners and comic timing.
This 17-yr-old guy has a big list of things that can, and do, go wrong in his everyday life. His deadbeat abusive father, school bullies, and AP classes in school beat the crap out of him every chance they get.

The book starts out with a school yard fight, between Dieter and the "Splotches" a clique of kids that dyed their uniforms with bleach to defy teachers, and we learn Dieter has a unique ability. Imagine being able to anticipate and physically see motion and force, before it happens, making you able to dodge strikes and punches without being hurt. This is Dieter's "Sight" an intent-based ability that has the annoying quirk of being available only when his adrenaline is running.

"It was all happening ridiculously fast. Where was the long melodramatic speech? where was my chance for a pithy retort?"

But the fight turns ugly quickly, and Dieter is left broken and bleeding, facing his worst enemy, who want's to kill Dieter for humiliating him in front of the entire school. Just when Dieter is ready to lose consciousness, something weird happens, the gang student is killed and the science classroom they're next to explodes leaving Dieter alone with the consequences.

When Dieter wakes up in the hospital, he's suspicious about his gift, and isn't sure how to handle it. That's when the chance to leave Las Vegas is dangled in front of him: a recommendation to a private school, in far-away Connecticut, he leaps at the opportunity for a new life.

"I was feeling a tad intimidated about starting school, especially at a college that was advertised as the academic equivalent of ancient Sparta."
 We're quickly led cross-country in a bus from Nevada to New York, meeting a strange companion along the way, and on to Elliot College, a Hogwarts-like school where kids apprentice in controlling their powers and fight against others bent on controlling human normals.

All in all I really enjoyed this book, and bought the second in the series, "Zero Sum" quickly after. I rate this book at a 4 out of 5, mostly because it's the first in the series, we're getting introduced into a new variant of urban fiction, where people in charge are the people with magic, and we're not quite sure what's in store for the people desperate to get to Dieter before Elliot College can.

I highly recommend reading Mr. Shier's blog at http://www.bjustinshier.com/

This is my first book blog review, I hope to make a review at least once a week.
I'm also found on DeviantART at: BurnTheMidnightOil on deviantART

I'd like to know what you think of the book. Leave a comment below.

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