Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh

Prologue :

Silence

In an effort to reduce the overhelming incidence of insanity and serial killing in the Psy population, the Psy Council decided, in the year 1969, to instigate a rigorous program called Silence. The aim of the conditioning was to teach them not to feel rage.

However, the Council soon discover that it was impossible to isolate the one emotion. In 1979, after a ten-year debate over millions of minds in the PsyNet, it was decided to change the aim of Silence.

Its new mission was to condition young Psy to feel nothing. Not rage, not jealousy, not envy, not happines, and certainly not love.

Silence was a resounding success.

By the year 2079, when the fifth or sixth generation of Psy are being conditioned, everyone has forgotten that they had ever been any other way. The Psy are known ro be icily controlled, inhumanly practical, and impossible to push to violence.

They are the leaders of goverment and business, eclipsing both human and changelings, races that allow their animal natures to rule them. With mental capabilities running from telepathy to foresight, telekinesis to psychometry, the Psy consider themselves a step up the evoluntionary ladder.

In keeping with their nature, they base all their decisions on logic and efficiency. Acording to the PsyNet, their mistake rate is close to nil.

The Psy are perfect in their Silence.

Summary :

In a world that denies emotion, where the ruling Psy punish any sign of desire, Sascha Duncan must conceal the feelings that brand her as flawed. To reveal them would be to sentence herself to the horror of ‘rehabilitation’ – the complete psychic erasure of everything she ever was.

Both human and animal, Lucas Hunteris a changeling hungry for the very sensations the Psy disdain.

After centuries of uneasy coexistence, these two races are now on the verge of war over the brutal murders of several changeling woman. Licas is determined to find the Psy killer who butchered his packmate, and Sascha is his ticket into their closely guarded society. But he soon discovers that this ice-cold Psy is very capable of passion – and that the animal in him is fascinated by her. Caught between their conflicting worlds, Lucas and Sascha must remain bound to their identities – or sacrifice everything for a taste of darkest temptation..

Slave to Sensation merupakan novel pertama dari empat belas seri Psy Changeling karangan Nalini Singh. 

Sascha, yang merupakan seorang Psy kardinal – memiliki kekuatan yang lebih daripada Psy biasa – adalah anak dari counselor Nikita Duncan. Meskipun begitu, dia tidak memiliki kelebihan di bidang tertentu. Semua pelatihnya selalu mengatakan bahwa dia memiliki potensi seorang kardinal – karena matanya yang hitam bertabur bintang seperti PsyNet – walaupun tidak mengetahui bidang kekuatannya.

Lucas sendiri merupakan seorang alfa dari macan tutul DarkRiver yang telah memerintah sejak usianya dua puluh tiga tahun. Sepuluh tahun kemudian, DarkRiver telah menjadi predator yang dominan di San Francisco dan daerah sekitarnya, dengan HQ di Chinatown.

Sascha selalu merasa dirinya sebagai Psy yang gagal sampai dia bertemu dengan Lucas dan menyadari bahwa ada cara lain untuk hidup di luar Silence. Bersama mereka berdua mengungkap pembunuh berantai yang telah membunuh banyak wanita changeling. Pengungkapan itu hampir saja membunuh Sascha karena dia harus bertahan dari serangan pikiran di PsyNet. Meskipun Sascha merupakan pakar dalam membuat pelindung, kekuatan dari counselor yang telah menjabat sangat lama bukanlah tandingannya. Untuk menyelamatkan nyawanya, Sascha pun memutuskan hubungannya dengan PsyNet. Hanya tuntutan dan kekeraskepalaan Lucas lha yang menyelamatkannya dari kematian.

Alur cerita, kesetiaan terhadap packmate, dan bagaimana pergulatan Sascha ketika menyadari apa yang selama ini dia nyakini adalah salah merupakan titik point dari novel ini menurutku. Aku menyukai bagaimana Sascha dan Lucas mulai membuka diri satu sama lain, selapis demi selapis, dan bersatu menghadapi segala tantangan yang ada.