Brothers Of Mind
They told him the Lette were monsters. But the truth lies buried on a dead world—and it’s far more terrifying.
Commander Zane Renner awakens alone aboard a vast, silent colony ship orbiting the planet Artemis. The crew is gone. The only others aboard are a woman driven to madness—and a Lette, one of the alien race humanity has been at war with for decades.
Zane has always believed the Lette started the war. But when he descends to the surface and uncovers the haunting truth behind the colonists’ deaths, everything he thought he knew begins to unravel. A failed alien experiment. A world-spanning mind. A virus that could doom the entire galaxy. And a war that may never have needed to happen.
Guided by the being he once called an enemy, Zane must confront a devastating reality: the danger isn’t the Lette. It’s what lies below—and within humanity itself.
To stop the threat from spreading, Zane must forge an alliance with the last being he ever thought he could trust. In doing so, he’ll uncover a truth buried beneath generations of lies: the Lette never wanted war.
Brothers of Mind is a gripping sci-fi thriller about alien contact, dangerous truths, and the courage to rewrite history.
Sometimes the greatest enemy is the lie we’ve lived by. And sometimes the only way forward… is together.
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Reviewed by Saifunnissa Hassam for Readers' Favorite
Mike Waller's Brothers of Mind is an exciting and action-packed space opera and a chilling thriller. Commander Zane Renner is a Federal Fleet officer and a flight engineer with considerable experience in small spacecraft. He is shocked when he wakes up from a cryogenic sleep on a colossal colony Ark ship, Guiding Star, in orbit around a deep space planet, Artemis. He cannot recall or understand why he is on board an Ark ship. The ship is deserted with only one member of the crew, Officer Alena Partrow, on board. She is silent and withdrawn. In the engine module, Zane comes face-to-face with an alien, a Lette. Humans and the Lette have been at war for several decades. After a terrifying first encounter, a dialogue begins. With great trepidation, he lands on the planet with the Lette as his guide. Artemis is a deadly planet with an invisible mind-controlling entity.
I thoroughly enjoyed Brothers of Mind for its complex characters and imaginative storyline. I liked the narrative style with Commander Zane Renner as the narrator. I was immediately drawn into the story. Zane vividly expresses through a great sense of humor and behavior his bewilderment at somehow being on a colony Ark orbiting Artemis. Through his descriptions, thoughts, and emotions, I could picture the vastness of the Ark, searching for the basic supplies of daily life. I liked how the story ratcheted up in tension and fear when he first encounters the Lette. I loved the contrasting subsequent dialogue and actions that follow when Zane and the Lette begin to work together. This created a profoundly moving story which focuses on Zane and the Lette as intelligent beings, trusting each other, brothers in mind. The dark and perilous situations that develop are challenging for Zane and the alien. The character development of Zane and the Lette became interwoven. I greatly enjoyed the interaction and conversations between Zane and the shipmind of the Ark, which turned into a fascinating character in its own way. Mike Waller's Brothers of Mind is a fantastic read, with remarkable characters, deadly mysteries, and a thought-provoking story of human encounters with ancient, highly advanced technological alien civilizations.