MJ-12 INCEPTION

The set-up is simple but ingenious. Imagine the X-Men being formed by the U.S. Government during the Cold War as a special ops team, ala MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. That's the premise of MJ-12 INCEPTION (2017), the first novel in a new series by Michael J. Martinez.

I just finished reading this one this morning and it's a corker. It's the first book by Martinez that I've read but rest assured, it won't be the last. Martinez does a first rate job here creating an interesting team of "Variants", meta-humans who have gained their special powers, or "enhancements" due to two related but unexplained phenomena that appeared at the end of WWII. The "anomalies" as they're called, appeared in the ruins of Hiroshima and in the basement of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. They appear to be portals to another dimension as well as conduits for controlled blasts of energy that grant the target human a specific super power.

The U.S. agents include a man who can absorb the entire knowledge of a person moments before their death and consequently has multiple voices in his head at all times. Another man can transmute matter, while a third has the ability to steal life energy from living subjects (humans and animals). The fourth member of the team, a woman, is perhaps the most powerful of the Variants as she can manipulate people's emotions. They're gathered and trained by a fifth Variant, a young Naval officer who has the power to detect Variants. And, of course, the Russians have a team of their own, each with his or her own unique powers.

Most of MJ-12 INCEPTION is set up for the series that follows. And that's okay because Martinez has done his homework exceedingly well, mixing real life people (President Truman, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal among others), real places (Area 51) and a well grounded history of the early days of the Cold War. The Variants do eventually get to undertake a couple of missions designed to extract a Soviet scientist who has knowledge of the Russian Variants and what they're up to. Of course, things go wrong on the mission, leaving one U.S.Variant dead and bigger threats hinted at. INCEPTION ends on a cliff-hanger which makes the next book in the series, MJ-12 SHADOWS a must read.

A canny blend of super-heroes and super-spies, MJ-12 INCEPTION is a winner.

Highly recommended.