"What the hell is going on in your head, boy?"

This is one time that I regret not having read the earlier books in the Nomad series, although it does look as if the events depicted are actually charting the earlier decades before books one to three. As a youth, Gryffin was the sole survivor of The Foundation's experimental project to transform human children into hybrid cyborgs - half human, half machine. The program failed and he was left to die in space. Five years younger, Brayden Sawyer, resents that his life seemed to change so much after the disappearance and presumed death, of his brother, Daegon, then, later, that of his parents: he felt abandoned and resentful. This book follows the two brothers from childhood into adult life with key incidents, seperately recorded and always noting their increasing ages as it progresses, for some twenty plus years.
It is an unusual book, constructed as it is with brief glimpses over a long (two decade) period, and yet written entirely in the present tense, reading much more like a script than a novel and not a device that this reader would normally endorse. And yet it works well here, giving a stark immediacy to each part of the story. The reader gets to know both characters well, emotional response demanded, and yet they both remain somewhat remote and - at least in my case - unlikable but compelling.

Narration of this fourth in the series book was by Dan Calley, not the same person as that of the earlier three. His performance for Chaos was spot on, with separate character voices and, especially, a reading which was simultaneously devoid of emotion but still carried an hint of compassion, warmth, involvement. Quite remarkable, really.

My thanks to the rights holder of Chaos, who, at my request freely gifted me with a complimentary copy of the book via Audiobook Boom. Not yet completely sure how I feel about this book, I have offered a tentative four star rating as it was enjoyable but it felt more like a background fill in than a novel in it's own right. I definitely recommend any potential reader first tries one of the three prequels, as I now intend to do..

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