Written in Fire

by Marcus Sakey

Overview

For thirty years humanity struggled to cope with the brilliants, the one percent of people born with remarkable gifts. For thirty years we tried to avoid a devastating civil war. We failed.

The White House is a smoking ruin. Madison Square Garden is an internment camp. In Wyoming, an armed militia of thousands marches toward a final, apocalyptic battle.

Nick Cooper has spent his life fighting for his children and his country. Now, as the world staggers on the edge of ruin, he must risk everything he loves to face his oldest enemy—a brilliant terrorist so driven by his ideals that he will sacrifice humanity’s future to achieve them.

From “one of our best storytellers” (Michael Connelly) comes the blistering conclusion to the acclaimed series that is a “forget-to-pick-up-milk, forget-to-water-the-plants, forget-to-eat total immersion experience” (Gillian Flynn).

The explosive conclusion to the bestselling Brilliance Trilogy.

“The kind of story you’ve never read before.” —Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher Series

“Ridiculously good. I love this story so much.” —Gillian Flynn, New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl

“Sakey brings his cinematic series to a ferocious close.” —Kirkus

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781477827642
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	01/12/2016
Series:	The Brilliance Trilogy , #3
Pages:	345
Sales rank:	485,538
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Marcus Sakey’s thrillers have been nominated for more than fifteen awards. They’ve been named New York Times Editors’ Choice picks and have been selected among Esquire’s top five books of the year. His novel Good People was made into a movie starring James Franco and Kate Hudson, and Brilliance is currently in development with Legendary Pictures.

Sakey lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.

For more information, visit www.MarcusSakey.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/02/2015
The searing conclusion to Sakey’s Brilliance trilogy (after Brilliance and A Better World) updates the plight of the supernaturally gifted people known as abnorms, who constitute 1% of the U.S. population and first appeared in 1986. Thirty years later, federal agent Nick Cooper, who’s an abnorm, realizes that the policy of fighting “monsters” (renegade abnorms) has turned government officials such as Secretary of Defense Owen Leahy into monsters themselves. With tragic results, Leahy has provoked conflict between the government and Tesla, the abnorms’ Wyoming enclave, while Cooper, battling desperately for his children’s future and torn between lingering affection for his ex-wife and his new abnorm partner, pursues evil abnorm genius John Smith, who’s bent on annihilating normal humans. Though the rapid-fire cinematic cuts may disorient readers unfamiliar with the earlier books, this installment raises important questions about such matters as patriotism, self-sacrifice, conflicting loyalties, and parental devotion. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

2015-10-08
The war over a generation with superpowers comes to a final showdown. Sakey (A Better World, 2014, etc.) brings his cinematic series to a ferocious close, capping off a three-book experiment in futuristic violence, societal catastrophe, and hyperkinetic storytelling. The world is at war. The White House has been destroyed, cities burned to the ground, and society is crumbling. In Wyoming, the small percentage of the population with extraordinary abilities retreats behind the walls of the Jerusalem-like city of Tesla. They hide behind the Vogler Ring, a wall of microwave weapons that threatens to fry invaders in gruesome fashion. But a new group of extremists called the New Sons of Liberty is determined to exterminate the Brilliants at Tesla. Meanwhile, a mad scientist named Abraham Couzen has discovered a method to turn normal people gifted. Since testing out his strange brew, Couzen has become a multifarious threat himself. Terrorist John Smith and his creepy time-aberrant henchman, Soren Johansen, are determined to weaponize Couzen's creation, forcing evolution upon the planet. "I realized when I was eight years old that [this] wasn't a world I could live in," Smith confesses. "I decided to tear it down and build a better one. To pen a new history, one written in fire." The two people standing between Smith and the end of the world are government agent Nick Cooper and his partner in heroics, Shannon Azzi, who must pit their own gifts against the world's villains one more time, even at terrible cost. That said, it's not all so grave. Locked in combat with one of Smith's deadly henchmen, Cooper has a nice Indiana Jones moment: "All you need to do is tie him up long enough for the others to—Wait a second. You're carrying an assault rifle." This entry isn't the best jumping-on point but serves as a thrilling reward for loyal readers and those willing to take the ride. A bombastic final entry that combines larger-than-life futurism with convincing ultraviolence to deliver a satisfying, open-ended finale.

Kirkus Reviews