Darkness & Light — Dean Murray

With a cast of characters ranging from a pre-teen shapeshifter out on his first solo excursion, to a high-tech resistance fighter who's desperately trying to win the trust of her comrades, Darkness and Light delivers a pleasing variety of adventures.

Ride along with a cyberpunk operative out to capture one of the paranormally active 'potentials' destined to degenerate into a mindless animal, or shadow a teenager exposing new levels of vulnerability to the boy most able to hurt her.

Darkness and Light offers up glimpses of Dean Murray's most popular worlds, introducing new characters and reacquainting us with old friends:

Scent of Tears:
Living in the city is hard for a shape shifter, especially one as young as Shawn. He's been anticipating the coming trip out to the country for months. The fact that he's going to be allowed to run around unescorted only makes things better.

The vacation turns serious when he decides to leave the estate. A pack of hunting dogs is more than capable of bringing even a shape shifter to bay, and he's starting to understand that more than just his own survival hinges on what he does next.

I'rone:
I'rone's guardians have never particularly like Betreec, but that hasn't damped her determination to catch his eye. When every able bodied person in the Capital is turned out to search the abandoned sections of caverns for a lost child, it seems like the perfect opportunity to get him out where she can start acting on her interest.

When the stakes grow to include more than just a few stolen moments, Betreec will realize just how little she really knew I'rone before they set out.

Absence:
Lacy has been fooling herself for years. She'd nearly convinced herself she's happy with just being Dan's friend, but as they've begun drifting apart she's realized she's losing more than just her best friend.

Beginnings:
Coffee has been on the run ever since she defected from The Company. Her nominal allies in the Resistance have finally begun to trust her and she's now got access to the secret weapon that's allowed them to stay half a step ahead of their bigger, more technologically-advanced opponent.

Croaker isn't much to look at. He's certifiably insane and has at least thirteen separate documented personalities, some of which would like nothing more than to see Coffee and the rest of the Resistance dead. On the plus side, some of those personalities can see into the future and one of the weaker ones seems to be trying to warn her that events are approaching a pivotal decision.

The Company rode the last pivot point into ascendancy, and the one before that produced a being of godlike power who's still shaping the world in ways the masses don't begin to suspect. Croaker's fragment of personality has finally produced a location and a day. It could be another of the hostile personalities' elaborate traps, but it's not the kind of lead she can ignore.

Backlash:
Jerome has spent his whole life working for the 'bad guys'. Born in the slums of Chicago, he'd always figured he'd come to an early end working for one criminal organization or another. Then the Company came along and implanted him with several million dollars worth of technology so bleeding edge most governments didn't even know it was technologically feasible yet.

Most of what he did was still illegal, and he wasn't likely to make age thirty-five, but the pay was better. Only things had become more complicated lately. The potentials were degenerating more quickly and he'd lost an alarming number of associates to the flesh beasts that most potentials turned into when they finally lost control.

His current mission should be a piece of cake, a simple snatch and grab that would give him a chance to get nominally out from under the psych types constantly watching for signs he needed put down like a rabid dog. Manpower was stretched too thin for them to send along backup but he'd always preferred to work alone. He didn't count