Customer Reviews

Powerless: The Synthesis

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Recently, I've had the pleasure of reading Jason Letts' Synthesis, Book One in the Powerless Series.

For me, a truly great Young Adult novel holds an appeal to all ages, not just the young adult audience that it caters too. Maybe this is unrealistic, but I believe that a successful novel in this genre transports a reader to their own childhood, so that they can experience the novel through the eyes of their younger self along with the characters.

Synthesis, Book One of the Powerless series does this beautifully.

Sheltered and isolated with only her mother and father, fifteen year old Mira suddenly discovers that there is a world outside of her mist protected cottage filled with people and places that she could never have imagined existed. She is given the opportunity to join this world, to explore and discover all that she had never known. Of course, there is a catch. While she is gifted with intelligence and an uncanny knack with machinery and all manner of inventions she lacks the one thing that every other person on her world receives from the universe at birth: a power. She is, in fact powerless, thrust into a world filled with amazing and often dangerous gifts. Even more challenging, she must now make her way through a school where the students are encouraged to use their powers to shape the hierarchy of the class which will eventually be sent out to battle in the ongoing war between the Light and the Dark.

There are so many things that impressed me about this story. The imagery is lush and expands along with Mira's perception of her world. The characters are flawed, endearing, infuriating at times and very human. They too become more vivid as Mira learns to understand the complex behaviors of her peers. There is tremendous emotional growth as the group of young people move through their last year of schooling. I was impressed at Letts' ability to move you through the story in a way that was very reminiscent to me of Lloyd Alexander, one of my all time favorite YA authors.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this story is it's gender neutral premise. Gender truly does not factor into the success or failure of these young people. They rely on their powers, their wit and their understanding of each other to battle and maneuver their way to the top of the class. Even so, Letts still manages to highlight the awkward, and often touching moments that each gender experiences during the process of becoming an adult.
I would highly recommend this book to any person who enjoys a tale well told. The wit, the foibles, the very real danger and the charming awkwardness of the young are all mixed together quite elegantly to create a story that will easily appeal to readers of all ages, from the very young to the young at heart. Powerless will carry you along through each poignant discovery, as the shocking twists and turns keep you turning the pages. If you are anything like me, you'll be waiting impatiently for the second installment in the Powerless series.

Take your typical fantasy novel -- where the hero discovers she has mystical powers and must save the world -- and turn it on its head.

With "Powerless" the author has created compelling characters and a fascinating setting with a twist: the main character is the only person without a special power! In a world where every person has an extra ability of some sort, Mira is exceptional in that she has none.

I could not stop reading this book. The story pulled me in and kept me riveted right through to the end. Jason Letts does a fantastic job of introducing new mysteries and challenges while keeping the characters and their interactions believable. I particularly enjoyed how the story began with Mira's entire world limited to her parents' house and the surrounding yard. Then throughout the story the camera pulls back to reveal more and more of the world and its intricacies.

I'm waiting impatiently for book two! If you're looking for something different, or if you're just looking for a great story with interesting characters I highly recommend this book.

First off, let me say that I dislike the term, "Young Adult Fiction". This particular tag labels a work as childish, only for children or "young adults" (duh!). I recently read an article that said if Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" were to be published for the first time today, it would most likely be labeled as such. This is sad, because I have a feeling there are many YA books out there that are fantastic reads, and yet adults may pass them by, thinking the material to be beneath them.

Jason Letts' "Powerless Book I: The Synthesis" is one of those books.

The story is simple and yet brilliant. On an earth much like our own, the whole of the populace has been granted super powers (for lack of a better word) since birth. All, that is, except our heroine, a precocious sixteen-year-old named Mira.

Mira has been kept isolated by her loving parents for all her life, surrounding their house by a wall of impenetrable mist to keep their vulnerable baby safe. Life goes on as usual for this family until, one night, a face appears to Mira through the clouds. This sparks her curiosity about the outside world, and leaves her parents with little choice than to unveil the reality of existence to their daughter.

From there, the storyline follows a fairly predictable trail. Mira goes to school, meets her classmates, makes friends (and possibly enemies), and generally experiences the growing pains that would accompany a person who's lived their entire life locked away from the rest of humanity. However, when I say "predictable", I don't mean "bad".

The wonder of this novel isn't the storyline, but the feel of the characters. These are teenagers we're talking about here, and though they are as selfish, vain, and insufferable, as teenagers usually are, there is also a layer of righteousness in each of them. We can see it, just beneath their surface, even if those acting out the deeds on the page cannot. It was truly inspiring to see, and I felt myself being thrown back into my own late teen years, wishing that in my own trials and tribulations I could've made the same bright and insightful choices that the characters here do.

The novel's setting is magical, though in a subdued sort of way. There are many times where the reader will shift from a realm of high fantasy, what with the village square and the sealed fortress, where everyone walks (or flies, or teleports, or whatever else) to where they have to be through lush forests, to modern-day realism, where there is a knowledge of batteries and mechanics. This is not a stretch. Think about living in a world where everyone can do such wonderful things with their bodies. There would most likely not have been an industrial revolution, as there are folks who could perform certain tasks (a la shaping metal with the slightest touch or lift heavy objects from a distance with nothing but flick of the wrist) with relative ease. This doesn't mean that science is dead; no, on the contrary, science exists, and it is very much the same, but it is pushed to the background because, with all these wondrous gifts, it is relatively unnecessary.

This is an innocent book and, as I said, simple. And it is also the first of a series. Like some of the other great works dealing with children (from Harry Potter to Buffy the Vampire Slayer), we should understand that as the volumes build and the characters grow older, the product will become darker and more adult. This is why the early books - or episodes - of these particular series should be cherished. Though they grew and reached exciting and satisfactory endings, there is still, when one looks back, a sort of melancholy that emerges. We understand that we've known these characters since they were naïve and impressionable, and it hurts just a little to see their innocence diminish through their troubles and the sorrow of reaching adulthood. We should always remember that innocence, that clarity of youth, because without it, we become nothing but hollow shells.

"Powerless Book I: The Synthesis" captures all of this, and more, and promises that there will be even grander adventures right around the corner.

In short, I adored this little novel. It is well worth the read, and I am truly excited for the upcoming volumes to be released. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars - the docked half-point existing only because I thought the ending a bit hokey. Not bad, just hokey.

But it's fantastic, anyway. I invite all to check it out.

Powerless: The Synthesis is the first of a new YA fantasy-adventure series, and is apparently also the author's first book. Mira Ipswich is 15 years old and tired of being kept at home by her overly protective parents. She wants to go out into the mist and find out what life is like on the outside. But Mira lacks one thing everyone else has and that lack makes her different than everyone else, and vulnerable as well.

Powerless has a nice balance of dialogue and description, well-developed characters of the kind you love and the kind you love to hate, and an interesting plot. I liked the story and can't wait for the next book to see what happens with Mira and her friends and family... but I hope to see some improvement in the writing too.

Some parts of the story aren't as well thought out as might be the case. For instance, an incident in chapter nine seems to happen without enough foreshadowing and hits the reader like one of the rocks thrown by a supporting character in a later chapter... I won't say which incident as I like to keep my reviews as spoiler-free as possible in case someone is reading the review prior to having read the book. Additionally, Mira's class ranking changed dramatically from the beginning of the school year to the end... which stretched my suspension of disbelief, perhaps just a little too much given that she started 9 years behind the other students and so was not as prepared as her fourteen class mates...

Also as mentioned by at least one other reviewer, the young teens of Mira's class sometimes act younger than they are. I won't say that makes the story less appealing to the targeted age group, but having the teens act a bit more mature certainly wouldn't hurt anything. The other thing I noticed which distracted me from the story some is that there are occasional errors of a typographical nature scattered throughout the book... Errors such as these really should be corrected prior to publication. So, two stars deducted for the flaws mentioned.

I'll make a note here for those bound to disagree with my rating of this book. My ratings are based solely on the quality of the writing: plot, characterization, (and if reviewing a finished copy) grammar, spelling, factual or other types of errors noted in a book will all count for or against the rating of a particular book. The author's ethical conduct and/or political views have no place in a review, as far as I am concerned, so I don't even take them into consideration. I am capable of evaluating the writing without agreeing or disagreeing with the authors ethics and politics.

I received the PDF of this book free from the author via LibraryThing Member Giveaways in exchange for this review. This review was simultaneously published on Dragon Views, LibraryThing, YABooks Central, and Amazon.com

As I read Powerless by Jason Letts I had to remind myself that this was a story aimed at younger readers. However, just because a book is deemed young adult does not mean it shouldn't be enjoyable for adults as well. I did enjoy the story but there were a few things that bothered me about Powerless.

The writing was at times a bit simplistic and I found some of the descriptions of what characters were feeling to be unnecessary. If a character says something that sounds angry in the context where he or she would be angry, the reader does not need to be told so in the next sentence.

The characters of the children were not convincing as 15 and 16 year olds. Their actions and behaviors fit more with those of 11 and 12 year olds and this is the age group I would share this book with. I think a change in the ages of the characters would lead to greater success with younger readers. People like to read books with characters they can relate to- similar ages help this.

Another problem I had was that certain aspects of Mira's character did not fit and would only serve to alienate young readers further. Wanting a birthday party with a theme of the periodic table of elements is unrealistic no matter how smart or into science a kid is. This being only one instance of many in the novel. It is great to use a novel as a way of educating readers and sparking their interest in science but it is possible to overdo it. Kids are smart and if they feel like they are being talked down to, they will quit reading.

I think this novel was entertaining and has great potential but the story and character development need more work and further editing and revision would be helpful to avoid redundancy. As it is, it is not a terrible book but with a bit more work it could be really good.

I enjoyed this book from beginning to end. The characters were both believable and unforgettable. When I got to the end, I couldn't wait to read the next installment in this series from a promising new author.

The storyline was good, the teenage characters were well realised and authentic. It did however seem as if there were a couple of gaps in the narrative, with some actions occurring for no discernible reason and I also felt that the adult characters were quite ordinary. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will definitely read book 2 when it's published.

I enjoyed this book very much. The main character is warm and giving, the supporting characters are human and three-dimensional, and the story and the world it is set in are well-thought-out, detailed, engaging, exciting and interesting. It's an excellent and thoughtful debut, and I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

This book was a complete page turner. I wanted to know what was going to happen next to the point where I lost sleep on multiple nights, because I'd stay up reading. The characters are realistic to the point where they reminded me of people I know.

This is a book idea which deserved better treatment than it received. The initial premise - a world in which everyone has super powers except one unfortunate girl - is compelling. Unfortunately, the author simply isn't up to the task.

The book is riddled with language problems. Every third sentence, it seems, is redundant (example: Jeanna is "startled by her daughter's unexpected and sudden appearance," when only one of those modifiers was necessary). Incorrect word forms abound ("she let out an agonizing sigh," which should use the adjectival form "agonized"). Imagery is often clumsy ("He considered it for a moment, rolling his head around his neck") or simply relies on malapropisms. The latter chapters are very slightly less error-prone than the first, indicating that this is a first draft, the author learning as he went along, and that he never really revised the text.

All of this might be forgivable if the story held together, but it doesn't. Mira's parents have carefully kept her hidden away , ignorant of all society, for fourteen years...then, for no particular reason, at the first sign of an *actual* threat to her safety, they turn her loose, unsupervised, into a world of killers. Although she has supposedly never seen another person, Mira is familiar with all the social niceties, such as how to greet perfect strangers, and displays no real social awkwardness other than that of any teen in a new school. The big war which supposedly threatens Mira's people is never explained. One teacher briefly mentions the enemy is 'jealous of the peace' of their society...a society which places all its children into warrior academies and live-fire attack drills at an early age. The book supposedly takes place in some pre-industrial society, reliant on farming...yet Mira plans on making "paper *airplanes*" for her birthday decorations, and later mentions "spaceships." The inconsistencies are vast, the character motivations absent.

Perhaps worst of all, the author never seems to have thought out the implications of his initial premise. The whole plot hinges on the idea that Mira is uniquely unpowered, at risk in a dangerous world...yet we find that another classmate has no observable power, and hasn't for years, and that other members of society have utterly useless powers. Theoretically, Mira is going to save herself by virtue of her uniquely logical and practical brain...yet the author grossly abuses the laws of physics. At one point he claims that because objects accelerate at 9.8 meters per second per second, they fall 9.8 meters in the first second, which is simply untrue. At another point, Mira suggests one grease-producing student can somehow glide, frictionlessly, over rough terrain, even though if he were able to do so, he wouldn't be able to move, and would use more oil than he has body mass within seconds. Later, Mira fashions a mechanical bird which she will mount on one arm to lift her off the ground...even though if she did so, it would take a ridiculously powerful fuel cell, the size of a car battery, it would need wings the size of a glider, and the thrust described would tear her arm off. If, as I suspect, the novel was partially intended to serve as an inspiration for teens who feel displaced or unpopular, the route is not through teaching them bad science, or inconsistent plotting.

I am aware of how difficult it is to write a complete novel. I respect the author's intentions. Perhaps Letts will do better at some later time, or if he worked with an editor. However, I can't recommend this book.