*I received a free copy of The Drafter from via Edelweiss. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *
The Drafter by Kim Harrison Series: The Peri Reed Chronicles #1
on 1 September 2015
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Mystery, Paranormal
Pages: 432
Format: eARC
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Detroit 2030. Double-crossed by the person she loved and betrayed by the covert government organization that trained her to use her body as a weapon, Peri Reed is a renegade on the run.
Don’t forgive and never forget has always been Peri’s creed. But her day job makes it difficult: she is a drafter, possessed of a rare, invaluable skill for altering time, yet destined to forget both the history she changed and the history she rewrote.
When Peri discovers her name on a list of corrupt operatives, she realizes that her own life has been manipulated by the agency. She joins forces with a mysterious rogue soldier in a deadly race to piece together the truth about her final task, unable to trust even herself.
The Drafter is a fast-paced story, in a world I would never want to live in! Peri is a very strong character, but so many people are trying to take advantage of her, leaving her with less memories of who she is, and what she’s been doing.
My The Drafter review:
The Drafter shows how hard life is for Peri, and how much she has to trust her anchor to bring back the right pieces of her memory after a draft. The way she is able to shift time to change some details, and leave everyone apart from Jack none the wiser. When an assignment goes slightly wrong, she has lost memories of the pas six months, and she is increasingly aware that there is something important she really should remember. Living with Jack, and sharing her whole life with him, he is the one person she trusts to tell her what she’s missing when she loses more than a few minutes from a draft. And because they’re a team both at work and at home, she knows he’ll always have her back.
I love how the drafting works in The Drafter, because the way Peri can manipulate time to slow things down or make a different timeline could definitely be very handy! She works for a government agency that’s really hush, hush, and she has helped both stop terrorists and win wars with her ability. Lately, things are not completely adding up for her, and she and Jack are both feeling less secure in their positions than they are used to. When Peri surprises their boss trying to strangle Jack while saying things she can’t understand, she plays it cool. Until their boss leaves, and they both start to hide clues and names and a microchip for insurance.
Bot the mystery and the suspense in The Drafter are well done, and I loved how well I got to know Peri even if there were many things about herself she didn’t know anymore. Some characters who were a part of Sideswiped showed up, but since I read The Drafter first, I didn’t know who they were, and I was just as weary of them as Peri was. Changing timelines to the advantage of a few people might not be for the good of all as Peri thought, and on her quest for truth and survival, she has to learn to trust people she is completely unfamiliar with.
A huge fan of The Hollows series, I’m very happy to start a new series written by Harrison, and because it’s so different both from her other series and from other books I’ve read, I am really looking forward to getting more from this bleak universe that is still full of possibilities. Peri is a strong character, but she has gotten used to leaning on others a little too often, and trying to get things done her own way may just be the way to go.
Written in third person point of view and past tense, with an external narrator, The Drafter unfolds like a complex gift wrapped in different kinds of papers. Some things are a little sticky, especially as Peri tries to find out what to do and whom to trust, while other layers fall off easily and quickly, and unveil important details that I hope will also show up in future books.
Some of my favorite The Drafter quotes:
Smiling, she idly spun through the club’s at-table menu system, ordering a basket of wings and two red wines as usual. Tradition dictated that dessert would be determined by the winner – which would be her if she had her way.
Memory knots were nasty little snags of unremembered thought triggered by scent and touch. On its own, a memory knot was frightening enough, but if it was attached to a rewrite and left unattended, it could lead to a MEP, memory-eclipsed paranoia, as the twin timelines lurking in her subconscious fought to be remembered.
She didn’t remember, and of the first time, it bothered her. “Accidents do happen.”
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
This was a really great review — I’m planning on reading this as soon as it comes out, time permitting (god, I wish I could manipulate time! I’ve be able to fit in everything going on in my crazy life right now!) I’m glad you enjoyed it so much! I LOVE Kim Harrison, but I’m a little nervous about the moderate genre-switch. :/
Oh, I really hope you’ll enjoy The Drafter as much as I did, Liza! And I love that you’re re-reading The Hollows 😀 I have that whole series in audio, so that I have a good excuse to re-read it.
I thought Harrison did a great job with the genre switch, her characters are really well done, as is the world-building. And I agree, I wish I could manipulate time, too, but without the side-effects 😉
The Drafter sound great, and I’m glad to hear the main character, Peri, is such a strong character. I love books that feature strong characters. I want the ability to manipulate time too so I have more time to read books.
Peri is an amazing character, Majanka 🙂 I hope you’ll find the time to read this story, even without being able to manipulate time 😉
Ooh, I’m so excited for The Drafter, Lexxie. It seems like Harrison has created a world equally as complex as The Hollows and characters that will get under the skin. And it’s so different. I’m very curious about the ‘how’ of drafting and the consequences. I’m so happy you enjoyed this first book in the series. I can’t wait to get my hands on mine. 🙂 Of course, I then have to find time to read it. 😉 Happy Friday, my friend! **BIG HUGS**
You, my dear, is going to love The Drafter! It is definitely different, and I love the drafting, the characters as well as the feel of the world 🙂
I hope you had a great weekend 🙂 *BIG HUGS*
Twitter: kimbacaffeinate
I really liked that there was a price for drafting and its so exciting seeing Harrison bring us a science fiction suspense. Now we have to wait a year for book two *facepalm*
I agree, Kim, it definitely made sense that drafting wasn’t something that they could do all the time and without anyone else ever being the wiser 🙂 I know! Why, oh why is it a whole year until the next one? 🙁
I am still debating if I want to wait for the audio or read the arc. *sigh*
Oh my, Felicia! I don’t even know how you’re able to NOT start reading!!
What a wonderful review. I will definitely give this one a try when my mood swings back around. I am into literary fiction at the moment, but that usually doesn’t last long for me.
Literary fiction is good! I need to check out what you’ve been reading lately, I’m sure I’ll find some to add to my own TBR, Suzi 🙂
This book was awesome! So glad you enjoyed it!
I’m really happy I enjoyed it, too, Stephanie. Kim Harrison rocks!
Oh man this sounds insane and so cool 😀 I really have to read this
You should, Lauren. It was really well done!
Twitter: Mlsimmons
I’m really excited to try this series. I love Kim Harrison.
I hope you’ll get your hands on either the audio or the written book very soon, Melanie 🙂
I love The Hollows too, and was pretty nervous about this book. She did such a great job though. Glad you loved it. I bet that really was a different experience not reading Sideswiped first. Since I did, it seemed to feel a little more emotional at times because I knew the connection. We need the 2nd book!
Yeah, I wonder how I’d have felt if I had read Sidewsiped first. I don’t think I missed anything, and I even had this review written out before I got Sidewsiped, just needed to change a couple of things to say something about it as well here.
We definitely need the second book, Christy 🙂