Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Start to a Fantasy Series!, February 28, 2006
This review is from: Resenting the Hero (Mass Market Paperback)
Dunleavy Mallorough has prepared for years to be a Shield, and it's finally the big day, when she will be Chosen (hopefully) by the Source she will be paired with for life. Together Source and Shield are a bonded Pair, who work together to keep their world safe from the natural disasters that beset it.
To Dunleavy's chagrin, she is Chosen by the Source she finds unbearable: the fabled Shintaro Karish, who is not only handsome and noble-born, but popular, self-assured and heroic. Lee wants to do her job and stay out of the way but she is stuck with someone who will always be in the spotlight. To make things worse, the Pair are assigned to High Scape, a city so bedeviled by natural disasters that seven Pairs are assigned there.
That's where things really get interesting, when a disaster kills off all the other Pairs, leaving Kintaro and his reluctant partner the only ones standing between the city and complete destruction....
This is a fun set-up for a fantasy series. I liked the concept of the bonded Pairs (this isn't a romantic situation, although it has potential--but Pairs aren't supposed to get involved with each other) and the way they work together to diffuse energy of storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters. The hidden politics of the system of service were also intriguing, though mostly just alluded to in this book, the first in a series. I definitely hope to see the shadowy background emerge in more detail as the books go on.
What was a little less enthralling, unfortunately, was the main character the reader is supposed to identify with, Dunleavy (Lee to her friends). There is no really good reason for her antipathy to Karish and he never seems to show any of the traits she supposedly despises in him. In fact, he does everything he can to be friendly and work well with her. He in fact seemed to be something of a blandly pleasant non-entity most of the time, and it was hard to see either what was so charming and heroic about him or what was so irritating to Dunleavy.
However, the plot that these characters were enmeshed in definitely held my attention: what (or who) is causing the increasingly powerful and seemingly targetted disasters in High Scape? Is it something about the cities, or the Pairs themselves that is drawing the events, events that almost seem like attacks? Although I found myself impatient with Lee and wondering what the big deal was about Karish, I was drawn in and found myself turning the pages quickly.
I look forward to more from this first-time author and hope to see more development of these two characters as well as the interesting supporting cast, and the rather fascinating world they live in, in future installments.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Resenting the Packaging, November 8, 2006
This review is from: Resenting the Hero (Mass Market Paperback)
I know others have mentioned this. And the viewer can see the cover themselves. With that title and that cover it sounds like a romance novel of opposites within a rather bland fantasy setting. Even the description on the back cover doesn't quite clear this up. And the title is of no help at all. This is not a romance, it is not quite a traditional fantasy tale, and it is not a comic fantasy of the Craig Shaw Gardiner variety. In this case, don't judge the book by its cover or title.
What this book is, is a fairly brisk paced story in a medieval-style setting. That it happens to be on a planet where long ago starships came and settled is the only real SF link to the story. The rest can fall comfortably into the fantasy realm, though there's none of the typical swords and sorcery here. There are some form of paranormal powers however that can affect natural events, and even stop catastrophic events like earthquakes from happening. This is the job of Pairs, two people bonded together with complementary gifts. Dunleavy Mallorough is a newly minted Sheild hoping for a worthy bond with a responsible Source. What she gets is Lord Shintaro Karish and some very interesting times indeed. This reluctant Pair soon find themselves the only ones who can stop the sinister plotting that could mean the death of thousands of people, and they'll have to work together to do it.
For a debut novel from this author, it's not bad. The writing is steady and compelling, the world building is decent and the author's created an intriguing premise with her Pairs of Sheilds and Sources. Even the fairly cut and dried plot isn't a bad one. I was impressed that the author was able to expand upon the talents of the Source and Sheild to make them interesting and engaging. That peice of original design kept the story from becoming too run of the mill or familiar. One of the authors best bits of writing is whenever her main character encounters music. The descriptions are rich and vivid and provide some key character building to the story. Other than the fact that I started off thinking this was a comic fantasy and finding out otherwise, my chief complaint is character. This is a big issue for me, since I read for character first and foremost in a story. Dunleavy's dislike of Taro based on mere rumor is very over the top, and it was very hard to be charitable towards her at all, especially when the rumors did not match his behavior. Taro, on the other hand, is painfully bland--he's friendly, handsome, generous and just seems like a decent fellow with good-looks and a few extra talents. I would have liked to see more friction between them because of actual personality clashes rather that Dunleavy's own personal prejudice against him. Neither character has a true depth of personality or a sense of the profound about them. Perhaps its the fact that Dunleavy is essentially narrating the story, so the story is filtered through her character. If so, I still feel like more could have been done to fill out the characters and make them more three dimensional.
Still, overall this was a good romp, and a decent recreational read for fantasy lovers. Those who like this and would enjoy other fantasy reads might want to check out the sequel, The Hero Strikes Back (the cover is still pretty bad) and also might want to look for The Prince of Ill-Luck by Susan Dexter or Bronwyn's Bane by Elizabeth Scarborough.
Happy Reading ^_^ Shanshad
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved the Hero, and the Heroine, March 26, 2006
This review is from: Resenting the Hero (Mass Market Paperback)
This first novel was refreshingly tongue-in-cheek. The cover sums up the heroine's feelings well enough. The synopsis above describes the plot well enough that I won't waste time repeating it. This book sucked me in from the get-go. It was delightfully funny and heartwrenching in turns. The heroine gets paired with a man who is the antithesis of everything she wanted in a partner and is severely disappointed. She wasted no time in subtly letting him know that. In fact there was no subtlty to it. She was just short of rude. The hero, on the otherhand, seemed to be quite open and accepting of his new partner and maybe even a little attracted to her in the beginning. But as time and exposure always does, they begin to learn that the person underneath may not be as advertised. They have to learn to trust each other with their lives. The resentment slowly fades under a growing admiration and comraderie. In the end, their fledgling trust is put to the ultimate test.
The book was smart, funny and endearing. I have already recommended it to everyone I know! I am highly anticipating the sequel and the author has a third planned! Yeah! I love following a set of characters that I have watched mature and grow. BTW: this book was not a romance- their relationship is completely platonic- which made it strangely enough, more interesting.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
