The Outside Intervention is a pulsating dystopian thriller written by Andrew Orange. Eighteen-year-old Out-Lord Kier still reels from the brutal murder of his bodyguard, Brutari, by his own father, Lord Ariel Vorsmith. After surviving assassination attempts by his older brothers, Kier distinguishes himself amongst his peers in the Imperial Security Services, rising through their ranks under Captain Dark. When he is sent to retrieve an ancient artifact called the Crystal Helmet from the Imperial University, Kier has a face-off with Lord Lemen, a separatist, in which he loses two of his close friends. For eliminating Lemen, the Emperor provides him with an island encompassing an ancient mansion alongside a slave girl named Katrina. Soon, Kier falls in love with Katrina and after listening to her harrowing story vows retribution against those who wronged her.

Author Andrew Orange delivers an engaging tale set in a futuristic dystopia. Filled with action, romance, and plenty of social commentaries, The Outside Intervention draws the reader in from the first page and refuses to let go until the end. The plot is well-paced, and the narrative follows Kier, an idealist with the powers of Outs, mutants with the ability to manipulate people's emotions. The characters have backstories that guide their future motives and actions, making them thoroughly compelling to read. The worldbuilding is vivid as the author crafts a vast world with meticulous detail that is authentic and utterly unique. If you're a fan of thrillers set in futuristic dystopias, The Outside Intervention is the book for you.

The Outside Intervention by Andrew Orange is the story of a young out-lord named Kier, who gets entangled in a dangerous political game that will link the past to the present. In an empire where ten billion of the population is regarded as disempowered simples, those who reach the age of eighteen are obliged to perform their sacred duty to the state or render a two-year Civil Service that turns the disempowered into slaves. Kier must leave the Northern Heartland to search for an ancient artifact that is the key to saving the largest city in the world from destruction. This ancient artifact, the Crystal Helmet of Kier the Great, gives its wearer the power to attack other outs without fear of adhesion and death. Kier has been researching the artifact diligently, and he is not aware that much more depends on the outcome of his quest.

Andrew Orange raises a lot of high points in writing a young adult dystopian fiction that aims to be different from other published YA books that run in the same vein. I got a little bit lost in the technical explanation of the out abilities, but I manage to collect my bearings upon connecting to how it all plays out in the challenge that Kier is about to face. I like the fact that Kier’s exploit depends on diligent research as it gives an intelligent element to the storyline without trying too hard. Kier is not the archetypal young hero character who is impulsive, as he has enough sense to understand that he needs to think to overcome the odds. The Outside Intervention is a beautifully written and well-crafted YA novel as it is intelligent and thrilling.

Humanity has advanced to a point where people's behavior could be controlled by others and killing could be done with only the power of the mind. However, this power is exclusive to the Outs, ordinary-looking people who possess minds that can control others. Kier, the protagonist, is a young out-lord who hopes to change the world for the better, but he must first find a legendary artifact created by the Founder of the Empire about a thousand years ago. Driven by the loss of his first love and his friend, Kier promises to fight evil in this world before he meets them again in the next. The Outside Intervention depicts a futuristic world where a man with a conscience and a painful past aims to put an end to the rule of the tyrants who take pleasure in pedophilia, slavery, and extremely brutal acts.

A dystopian tale with a strong theme of philosophy and some violent and sexual scenes that require a strong stomach to get through. The Outside Intervention brings up some engaging and intelligent arguments about religion, atheism, free will, politics, and more philosophical topics. Even though the discussions are about a futuristic world ruled by cruel tyrants, the story opened my mind to some interesting ideas about today's world and how humanity has lived throughout history. One of these ideas is that a society without a government might not be as bad as we are led to believe. The well-developed world and the strong characters with their deep emotions make this fictional story feel quite real. It is definitely worth a read!

The Outside Intervention by Andrew Orange reaches into a far distant dystopian empire, which has charted a course through a thousand years and now maintains absolute control over the vast majority of its simple inhabitants. The ultimate authority in this crucible of widely disproportionate groups is the emperor, who controls a ruling body that possesses unimaginable powers of the mind. Kier Vorsmith happens to be born to the right parents, and his name carries a much-storied history, along with a position in this world at a level second only to the rulers. What Kier couldn’t know, however, was that one simple trigger would ignite his entire future, and send him hurtling on a collision course with the ultimate destiny of ten billion souls. If you are interested in socio-economic, political, and religious discourse with a slant toward creationism, interspersed with some of the more graphic and ugly elements of human nature, wrapped in a first-rate futuristic adventure, The Outside Intervention may be the book for you.

I found Andrew Orange’s The Outside Intervention an incredibly confronting read on so many levels. In fact, it tackles virtually all of the world’s current issues in depth, even touching on conspiracy theories, and also delves into the putrid depths of human depravity; the ugliness and explicitness of these parts within the story were not easy to digest. Whilst I did not agree with some of the assertions made, especially around evolution, there were many catalysts throughout the story capable of compelling significant retrospective analysis. Perhaps the most impressive of all, though, is the underlying plot, which I really enjoyed and found quite engrossing. Given that this was backed by quite distinctive and powerful characters, particularly Captain Dark and Katrina, there was always a certain inevitability that I would become fully engrossed in The Outside Intervention.