Ian Hocking (1)

Saskia Brandt works in a toxic office environment.

Called back from vacation, she soon finds a dead woman in the fridge with herself as the prime suspect. Ultimately, she discovers she did kill the woman, her memories of that vacation are fake, and her boss regards her as his personal property and exerts a creepy control over her very will. “Your arm is my arm”, he tells her and lays out some rules to avoid execution: she’s not to leave the European Union, try to discover her true past, show more reveal her nature to anyone, or refuse anything he wants to put in her head.

After a similarly situated agent covertly reveals some of her nature – including an enigmatic reference to her arrest as the “Angel of Death”, Saskia is sent to track down the story’s other viewpoint character, scientist David Proctor. He’s returned to the ruins of a lab he’s suspected of sabotaging when he worked there 20 years ago.
And thus begins a lean, efficient, suspenseful story that is a chase thriller, a time travel paradox story braiding the worlds of 2003 and 2023 together, and a rumination on free will and the nature of identity. Saskia, we shortly find out, has an artificial personality overlaid onto her original brain. She may be an agent for the Federal Office of Investigation but she intuitively accesses all sort of esoteric knowledge and combat skills that may belong to a past life.

But Saskia is no typical, implausible warrior babe. Understandably puzzled and aghast at “her” life at times, and, of course, deeply troubled by the puzzle of her past and identity, she has moments of clarity and suicidal despair, fights to make moral choices after the very notion of her self has been violated.

My only complaint with this novel is that, at times, the dialogue was a bit too arch and lean. Otherwise, I thought it a clever mix of scientific and philosophical speculation with nonstop action. Sure, I thought of other authors who have worked classic time travel stories but none with a character like Saskia. show less

I am a long-time reader of Science Fiction novels. I particularly enjoy what I call future history. Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke are wonderful, but Robert Heinlein was the master at it. In Dèjá Vu, Ian Hocking has done an exceptional job of looking at our not-too-distant future and snatching a grab bag of wondrous goodies. Dèjá Vu is a magical trip through time travel “what-if”. This Sci-Fi mystery starts out with Saskia Brandt (love that name ) as a tragic figure who is being show more blackmailed, tormented, controlled, and manipulated. In the end it turns out that she controls the world! In between … whirlwind of a story!
Someone once wrote that a good mystery merrily sends you down the wrong road. Without giving away the plot, you have to pay very close attention to the details as you read, otherwise you end up rereading parts of it (like I did … sheepish grin). In short, I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the book, even though it confused and perplexed me at times. I am very much looking forward to learning more about Saskia in the next book! show less

While searching for new books to read in another of my sporadic sci-fi phases, I downloaded two random titles on Kindle - the first, recently reviewed, was promising but failed to inspire, and the second was Ian Hocking's Deja Vu. Talk about hit and miss - what a difference! I sailed through Hocking's intelligent, smoothly written mindboggler of a futuristic mystery in a day, but not because the story was short or simplistic - I simply couldn't stop myself. The first chapter tied my brain in show more a knot, and I was hooked from there. Also, the heroine, Saskia Brandt, is far more complex than most of the tortured, ass-kicking loners that I usually encounter in cyberpunk/dystopian future novels - granted, she ticks all those boxes, but with another persona lurking beneath the surface.

I think the best summary of the plot is this: if you are one of those people who cannot comprehend the time travel paradox in Terminator ('Who is John Connor's real father?'), then Ian Hocking's novel will give you a headache. I found the cyclical circumstances and overlapping timelines absolutely fascinating, but most of all, I connected straight away with the characters: Saskia, the German Nikita-esque agent, David Proctor, the English scientist she is sent to locate, droll northern detective 'Scotty' Jago - even David's artificially intelligent computer, Ego (great name). Hocking's writing is a clever fusion of ordinary observations and futuristic detail, beautifully described and instantly believable, and the story expertly paced. Between Saskia's unsettling introduction in the first chapter and the final race against time, the tension builds steadily, without skimping on narrative detail. Truly an entertaining and satisfying read.

I am slowly becoming a devotee of British sci-fi - I just wish new authors were easier to 'discover'! Author Ian Hocking bemoans his frustrating writing career in an excerpt from his blog, resenting the fact that his novels - Deja Vu and the sequel Flashback plus two others - were left in limbo with his agent while other, 'lesser' stories hit the shelves, until he discovered self-publishing with Amazon on Kindle. I can understand his frustration - this well-written, thoughtful, homegrown book definitely deserves to be wider known. show less

Deja Vu Only -Book 1 I will add to this as the other books are read.

Whether you are male or female you will enjoy this techno-thriller. Kommissarin Saskia Brandt will spin you into her worlds from page 1. I had to put the book down a few times to catch my breath.

If you don't know what a techo-thriller is, in this case it is really cool futuristic advanced technology including memory implants, action, suspense, reality shifts, and time travel.

The pace is fast, the characters are well defined, show more the dialogue is refreshing and the whole conundrum of time travel is well done, not over-done.

Hocking does a nice job with both female characters. They are likable, believable and sexy without being exploited. I appreciate a male who understands that a woman will always take her earrings off and tuck them away before putting on a helmet!

The male characters are strong too - they are interesting and distinctive. I especially loved David's healthy Ego.

There is a lot of fun sassy dialogue - especially between Saskia and British Detective Inspector Jago. At one point she incorrectly refers to this high ranking official as her deputy. Jago later tells her,
"Don't apologize. I've never been a sidekick. It'll be a new experience. You better call me Scotty then."

In a tense moment, when Saskia insists Colonel McWhirter allow her into the partially destroyed, unsafe lab, a very angry McWhirter quips,
"Splendid. Why not? we'll call it "the Magical Mystery Tour" and invite coach parties."

There are some minor editing issues, but nothing to stop you from wanting to read. In Chapter 14 Saskia takes both her coat and jacket off and hands them to Jago before entering the lab, yet somehow, in the lab, she tucks a folder into her jacket.

** I read a critical review about Deja Vu being confusing. I have to say - about mid-way through the book, I stopped and skimmed through from the beginning back to the middle. This was enjoyable and well worth it. I picked up several "ah-has!" and was better able to follow along.

I'm left with a few questions - maybe they will be answered in book 2, Flashback, which I will start reading immediately. show less