Her name is Katya, or so Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome tells her when she falls out of the body tube that’s been keeping her cryogenically preserved for thirty years. Stowed away in a medical bay on Mars’ long abandoned Deimos drilling platform, Katya doesn’t remember anything about her past, but James Kinsare, the sexy stranger who rescued her, is most definitely part of her present. Only the name Paxton remains imprinted in her brain. She doesn’t know who he is and Kinsare, if he recognizes the moniker, isn’t telling.

Katya looks young, but she feels old. Her hands are smooth, but she thinks they should be calloused. She knows how to operate machines and speak languages that are over six hundred years old. Floating around in her brain are fragments of at least a half dozen different people’s memories, mostly women, but some men, too. None are hers. Or are they?

James Kinsare has been searching for Katya for a very long time. This maddening woman with the seemingly selective amnesia has survived five attempts against her life by his Royal Highness, the Almighty and Very Reverend Tirion emperor. An environmental geneticist, she’s also responsible for turning the planet Almack-5 into a paradise. Locked within her mind is the knowledge that she was made, not born, and for a single purpose, to hunt the Emperor down and kill him. That the ageless emperor is responsible for the death of Katya’s first love and the annihilation of her makers only helps her pre-programmed cause.

I present to you your hero, Kinsare, your heroine, Katya, and your villain, Paxton and/or the Tirion emperor. To say any more or delve deeper into the plot will only destroy the anticipation and sense of urgency Ms. Knox has cleverly built into her story.

I’ve read a number of Kim Knox’s tales and none of them are disappointing. Complex, with broken characters and a nigh impossible-to-guess plot, this is a story you’ll find yourself reading and re-reading and perhaps, re-reading again. Descriptions are unique and memorable, such as Katya’s first glimpse of herself through the reflection on the polished cutlery. The futuristic setting is not overdone and everything is cleverly wrapped around a central theme, love lost. The characters are flawed, from hero to heroine to villain, and all have committed atrocities in the name of their causes. This is part of what makes the story a meaty read. Add Anne Caine’s cover art and you can’t go wrong. A must read, Lost Gods will be on my virtual keeper shelf for a long time.