One man rises out of billions to free them. Jesus Christ Superstar, reborn. Sort of. In Man Over Mind by Dean Warren, the Christlike figure is Tol, a man deriving from an ancient bloodline to take on the power of the Minds who are ruling over humanity and free them. Tol knowing the risks but, not knowing a real plan, takes them on.
Fumbling toward victory, Tol singlemindly confronts the Minds with some help and a girlfriend. Tol’s fight against the Minds is the reason for the book and is the book. The battles are what drive the plot forward as Tol receives his bit of cheese at the end of each one and advances forward in the rat race toward the next battle.
The one drawback in the novel is that Dean Warren doesn’t flesh out his characters enough. The most basic outline is done, and few reasons are given as to why a character is doing what he or she does. The dialogue is pretty bad as well, with stock phrases issuing out at the appropriate moments.
The real question is, has Warren done enough work on the Mind battles to overcome the deficiency of having weak, overused characters? In my humble opinion, the answer is: barely. Each person is different and, if you like characters, run - don’t walk - away from this book. If you like sci-fi and action, you may enjoy it.
I’d buy it for the hard core sci-fi fans in my life, and I’d recommend libraries to stock a couple (but not more than that) so that others can read and decide for themselves. I hope Warren does continue writing, however. The Mind battles show excellent skill and promise, and he should concentrate more on character development next if he would deliver more of a complete package to his fans.