I don't read a lot of sci-fi and I certainly don't read a lot of this kind of sci-fi. But I really enjoyed this book. I didn't know what to expect when I began, but I ended up reading it all in about a day. Well-written and intriguing!

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

The Calibrationist has the potential to be the next sci-fi procedural cross over we all want. I've really enjoyed getting to understand the world it's set in and the characters and classes of people. I certainly think there is an alegorical aspect or cultural commentary about prejudices and discrimination. I liked the writing style and while I occasionally found the Sonya story arc slow the book overall was well paced and a good read. This was the fresh sci-fi I wanted and I would love to read more!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review of this book. The Calibrationist is an engaging story built on top of a super interesting setting that unfortunately suffered from a lack of copy editing and structural consistency. But with more revisions, I can see this being a really great book.

In an implied alternate reality sometime in the 2030s, the world's population is divided between psychics and non-psychics. With the sheer power of psychics and their unpredictable abilities, they are an oppressed class of people with each country dealing with their populations differently. Sonya lives in Japan, where psychics are extremely oppressed, being forced to live under curfew, severe restrictions to employment, and even forced sterilization. But with each psychic's abilities manifesting in different ways, Sonya has a place in a laboratory revitalizing plants which have been decimated in this cyberpunk future. Sonya's family is divided, her mother having fled Japan for the United States many years before, taking Sonya's older sister with her. As life becomes increasingly difficult for psychics in Japan, Sonya falls into a group of psychic activists that plan to stage a protest against the discrimination they face. But when an unexpected event threatens Sonya's life, she makes the decision to flee to Chicago to stay with her sister to avoid the fallout of this protest. Wayne lives is Chicago and works as a Calibrationist, a psychic that works with local law enforcement to bring psychics who "spill" under control. All psychics have to live with devices that repress their psychic abilities, but occasionally a psychic will "spill" which is an outpouring of psychic energy, inflicting their psychic power on a wide area as they fall into a coma like state. A Calibrationist is a psychic whose job it is to reign in the spilling individuals so they don't do more harm, after which the psychic is carted away, imprisoned for life in a secure facility. Despite his traitorous profession, Wayne has no choice in the work that he does, but he stumbles into what seems like a conspiracy against psychics when more and more people begin spilling for seemingly no reason. He teams up with his partner, a non-psychic named Veronica, to uncover what's going on. As their paths cross with Sonya, all of them are thrust into a mystery that has the potential to destroy, or save, all psychics around the world.

What a premise, huh? It is actually probably my favorite part of this book. The setting was very rich and kept me engaged pretty much the whole time. The way this almost dystopian cyberpunk aesthetic is crafted was a great backdrop to a great story. I thought the narrative flow of the story was pretty strong for the first half, bringing the characters together and establishing motivations and tense alliances in an almost noir-like fashion. The character writing was pretty good with each having well rounded arcs and distinct personalities, however I feel that the dual POV between Wayne and Sonya really favored Wayne for the majority of the story, making the two of them feel unbalanced. While much of the beginning of the book spent time with Sonya to get her to where Wayne was, I feel like the story didn't really know what to do with her until the final quarter of the book.

While the pacing of the story was strong, some structural elements were quite underdeveloped. I want to reiterate again here though that this is an ARC and will likely be revised further prior to publishing, but while there were some copy writing elements that could have been improved (typos, meandering sentences, incorrect word usage), there were some larger structural elements that need heavier attention. There were times when a character found themselves in a particular scenario for no reason, with no part of the story justifying why they were there, or even simply saying that they walked there or chose to go there. They were just suddenly there. Dialogue often felt unnatural with characters seemingly having two different conversations at one another than responding to each other. Character motivations often conflicted with actions, until the story called for their motivations to once again come into play. I think this manuscript is almost there, but still needs some work to tighten up the story, particularly at the very end where it frankly became quite difficult to follow what exactly was going on. More care could have been given in the first three quarters of the book to lay some foreshadowing groundwork to explain some of the confusing elements of the end.

But with that being said, I just really had a lot of fun with this. Despite the shaky execution, I liked this story a lot and I think a lot of really cool stuff was done with the setting. It's also thematically strong with commentary on discrimination, racism, and classism. With a few more rounds of revisions, I think this could be a really impressive book. If you're a fan of Neuromancer or anything Cyberpunk, I think you'll enjoy this book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley.

The Calibrationist dives into a dystopian world where psychics roam the streets in an oppressed society. Branded as a potential danger, because of the fear of their outpourings (when they lose control of themselves and have a power charge that can destroy cities), they're confined at night and branded by suppression collars.

And it’s like this we meet Wayne Grayson! In Chicago, a reluctant "Calibrationist" - a psychic who helps psychics who are out of control, by entering their Dreamscapes to save them. This job it makes him considered a traitor amongst the other psychics, since he’s taking out one of their own. But he never wanted this job since he’s only doing it to keep his comatose fiancée alive.

When outpouring victims in Chicago suddenly skyrocket, Wayne is forced to join forces with psychic-skeptic Veronica Jones - a police sergeant. Together they try to understand the mystery and search for the source of the chaos.
Meanwhile, in Japan, where the law forbids psychics from having children, Sonya Izono, grapples with a life-altering choice as she carries her unborn child.

As the story progresses, Wayne and Sonya’s paths collide.

I really liked Wayne as a character, and I am intrigued by his interactions with Veronica, but I would like to see more of a character development from him. I was hoping to see more of Sonya throughout the story, with a more prominent role, but I felt that sometimes she was overshadowed by Wayne's action-driven narrative.

A very cool, unique sci fi book. Really liked this and enjoyed the writing. I was very much enraptured and I'm keen to read more by this author.

I really liked the concept of this book but it had some pacing issues. The actions scenes were great but in between the story dragged and the last half of the book was very difficult to get through.

I would have enjoyed seeing more character development from Wayne. He was very flat and one dimensional. I enjoyed Sonya more but even her story wasn’t very well developed despite how long this book was.

What a great read! It is a dystopian tale where psychics are oppressed: isolated and marked with suppression collars, forbidden to go outside at night, some neutered to prevent new generations from being born; all due to the fear of their outpourings - a power charge that has potential to destroy cities and take lives. The main characters, Wayne and Sonya, are trying to figure out what (or who) is triggering such outpourings since their frequency increased and it threatens the peaceful coexistence of the society, and how to stop them.
Wayne is Chicago’s Calibrationist, a titular figure who brings in the psychics when their powers start wrecking the havoc upon their outpouring. He’s rather reluctant about the job, since it wasn’t his choice and it makes him considered a traitor amongst the other psychics. But his fiancée’s healthcare is on the line and that’s a motivation enough. Sonya is a pregnant psychic from Tokyo, where supposedly all of her kind should be sterilised. Keeping her pregnancy secret requires her to leave the country. When their paths cross, they start collaborating to save the world from an impending danger, the plot unfolds and we keep immersing into the dark and captivating story.
The book doesn’t just keep you on your toes with unique storylines and mind-boggling plot twists, but also provides an interesting insight into the state of the world. The characters are amazingly written, the setting is original and the story is creative, suspenseful and engaging.
Half a star has been cut because I believe the story would benefit a lot with editing and simplifying some aspects. Overall it’s an excellent book.

This is a fantastic story, creative, unusual, dystopian. The psychic oppression was well expressed. Thank you for a good book.

If you love psychic powers then you will love this book. this is not your ordinary thriller and it definitely keeps you engaged and wanting to keep reading.

there are so many plot twists and it tells you what a world we live in. It was gripping and it was a wild ride.

Great writing and i hope to have more from this author.

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

The premise of this story was one I greatly enjoyed and is what drew me to this book in the first place. It was unique and a type of fantasy I'd not read. The concept of an evolution of humans into psychics and then the subsequent "caste-ing" of those pyschics as dangerous rang plausible and intriguing.

I am a sucker for stories where the narrative is told from various perspectives and this story did just that, starting with the perspectives of both Sonya and Wayne. It had me holding on to see how and when their paths would cross with them being in Japan and the US respectively. This difference in location led to the ability to draw parallels between treatment of the psychics in Japan where Sonya came from and the US where she contacted Wayne. I will say that the telling of the story from various perspectives was not always clean. Throughout a chapter as told by Wayne there would be a switch from first to third person and back and sometimes even throwing in a second person. This caused challenges in following the story and dialogue at times, but you could get the gist.

Largely I am rating this with 4 star based on the storyline and overall plot. I thought it was really unique and that the challenges and struggles faced were intriguing and kept the story moving. However, this story could stand to undergo some additional editing for clarity and content. Throughout the book there are a number of grammatical and spelling errors, as well as lack of description or time dedicated to fully explaining concepts. At one point in the story we jump directly from Sonya being attacked to describing her actions in a "renegade-esque" group akin to the one she was part of in Japan. There seemed to have been full paragraphs, if not pages missing here. Additionally, the description of Wayne's confrontation with Jupiter in the Dreamscape was not sufficiently described to have an understanding of what was going on. I was lost in trying to determine how many "dreams within a dream" the group were down. I'm still not certain if I'm honest.

Again, I think this story was a wonderful concept and if not reading for cleanliness of the writing (e.g. the matters identified above) very VERY enjoyable. I really loved learning more as I went through the story. I only wish a bit more care had been put into ensuring a consumer-ready book to get the full effect of the plot.

I did not realize this was archiving so quickly! Darn, I really did want to get to this one. I will probably try and find this title for a reasonable price somewhere!

A riveting sci-fi thriller set in an alternate near-future Chicago, where psychics navigate a world overshadowed by oppression and advanced technology. Wayne Grayson reluctantly assumes the role of the Calibrationist, tasked with bringing in psychics when their powers go haywire. The story takes an unexpected turn when Wayne teams up with the psychic-skeptical police sergeant, Veronica Jones, to investigate a surge in psychic incidents threatening the city. The story brilliantly weaves together two parallel storylines, introducing Sonya Izono in post-catastrophe Japan, facing the challenges of mandatory sterilization. As the paths of Wayne and Sonya intersect, a gripping plot unfolds, revealing a devious scheme aimed at pitting the world against itself. What captivated me most about The Calibrationist is its mind-bending speculative elements. The book's ability to balance thrilling intrigue with grounded reflections on the modern world makes it a great read for fans of speculative fiction.

Hold onto your psychic powers, book lovers! The Calibrationist is not your run-of-the-mill thriller; it's a mind-bender that'll leave you questioning reality and craving justice. Wayne Grayson, the unwilling hero, dives into a world where psychics are oppressed, and the Calibrationist is the one to keep them in check. But when he teams up with the badass psychic-skeptic, Veronica Jones, you know things are about to get wild. Picture this: post-catastrophe Japan, mandatory sterilization, and a psychic named Sonya Izono facing a tough choice. It's like a sci-fi rollercoaster that'll make you gasp, cheer, and maybe shed a tear or two. Why read it? Because The Calibrationist is not just about psychics and plot twists; it's a reflection on the messed-up state of the world, wrapped in a gripping thriller. So, grab your popcorn, prepare for a wild ride, and let the mind-bending begin!

The Calibrationist 4/5

Psychics are forced to wear collars to surpress their abilities, while the Calibrationists are sent in by law enforcement to bring out of control psychics "outpouring psychics" out of their Dreamscapes and back into reality.

Set in a world where a psychic can "outpour" and take out an entire city block with their powers, the consequences of those spills lead to a repressed class of people being forced to tamp down their abilities and undergo sterilization, as they are forced into a lower standing of power and identity.

Wayne was my favorite character, as a psychic himself forced into the role of a Calibrationists, he was a kind of tragic hero. The Dreamscape scenarios he entered to pull psychics out of their spill states were like vivid fever dreams, I truly enjoyed reading those moments.

I'm not sure if there will be a sequel but I would like to see more from this universe and more from the author in the future.

I received an eARC from BookBuzz.net via NetGalley in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.

In a near future Chicago psychics are spilling - having their powers go massively out of control. Wayne the titular Calibrationist works for the Chicago Police Department entering the minds of spilled psychics before they are sent off to pasture. He must uncover why so many psychics are spilling with the help of a gruff police Sergeant. On the other side of the world psychic Sonya must deal with becoming pregnant in a child abolished Japan. How these two stories become intertwined drives a fascinating mystery forwards with some very enthralling writing.

Wayne struggles to find the answers as he responds to psychic incidents across Chicago, entering Dreamscapes and saving the psychics. Meanwhile Sonya struggles to flee Japan before her illegal pregnancy is discovered. I greatly enjoyed both of these characters, but Wayne was a standout favourite. Each spill was different and fun and we never retread the same ground twice.

This isn't a long book but every scene felt well thought out and necessary. I was constantly gripped by unfolding events and the rush to the revelation at the end was so fast and fun. This works perfectly as a standalone and as far as I know there are no further books planned in this near future world, but there should be.

The Calibrationist isn't a five star read because although I rather enjoyed it I wasn't blown away. The plot had a lot of cool set pieces, but I was able to guess a lot of the outcomes. If there had been another sneaky twist I might have been able to bump this thriller up a little bit more. But don't let those three and a half stars fool you, this might just be your next 5 star read.

As this is an ARC I'm not sure how much editing is still required, but there were a lot of missing or incorrect words. As well as tense changes and accidental switches from third person to first person. And the dreaded comma might have reared its head a little too often. I won't lower my rating because of any of this, I just wanted to point it out incase it can help Amanda and the team.

All in all I had a lot of fun reading the Calibrationist in one day and I will certainly keep an eye out for any potential sequels.

Rating: 3.5/5