Customer Reviews

Temping Fate

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

 

 

Ilana Newhouse is desperate for a summer job. Any summer job. So, she doesn't worry too much when the temp agency that hires her proves to be a little . . . strange. It turns out that Ilana is temping for The Fates of ancient Greek fame.

Chaos ensues as Ilana tries to navigate the complexities of her new job with the Fates while helping prepare for her Bridezilla-sister's upcoming wedding. Add in some fun co-workers, spastic gods and goddesses and this book has all the makings for an entertaining read. Happily, at the same time, the story does have some twists and turns to keep things interesting.

This book gets major points for putting ancient Greek gods (and some other myths from other countries) into a modern setting and preserving their integrity. The gods that we meet in the story are convincing characters and they work perfectly in the modern environment. It's the first book I have read in a while that can claim as much.

Furthermore, the story is hysterical. Ilana is a true oddball and following the plot through her point of view is a lot of fun. Friesner had me laughing out loud several times during the reading of this story. Some of the characters come off more like cartoons than "real" people, but that's probably to be expected of a story like this. Friesner introduces some great characters in a fun, upbeat story that readers will definitely want to see again.

Ilana Newhouse needs a summer job, and she's not having much luck. For some reason, potential employers are put off by the little skull she drew on her face in ink, or the t-shirt reading ORC: The Other Green Meat, or her unfortunately sardonic sense of humor, or maybe just her hazy acquaintance with punctuality. Things aren't looking good until she finds a business card in her sister's room, and calls the Divine Relief Temp Agency.
It's very disorienting when she finds herself temping for the Three Fates--Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Oh, and Arachne hangs around the office, too. Weekly meetings with her fellow temps, at a coffee house run by Circe, also add variety to her life, and the only damper on what's turning out to be a good summer is all the disruption caused by her sister Dyllin's upcoming wedding. When Ilana learns that she and the other temps can borrow the powers of the gods they temp for, she can't help trying to fix just one or two little things, and Ilana starts to get acquainted with the meaning of the word "chaos." (This is apparently a sequel to an earlier book, but not having read it didn't seem to be a problem.)
Great fun.

In her newest novel, Friesner takes us into the world of teenage summer jobs-and actually makes it exciting! This book has the perfect mix of everyday life (friendships, bosses, family, love interests, COFFEE) and mythical fantasy (gods, goddesses, talking insects, what have you). I was drawn in by the witty, fast paced dialogue and the original plot line. I think this story will appeal both to the die hard sf fans and to people new to the genre, myself included. Maybe we'll be reading more about the gang at D.R. Temps in the future? I hope so!

When Ilana took her summer temp job with "D.R. Temps", little did she know that she would be working for the Fates. Yes, Lachesis, Atropos and Clotho, in the ... well, not exactly flesh. Ilana gets to help them with their office paperwork -- even gods have paperwork -- and then things get complicated.

Friesner has delivered another superb romp that has characters you can care about, has a plot that keeps you guessing, and had me laughing out loud and annoying the patrons of the coffee shop I was reading in.

Highly recommended. Oh, and it makes a great gift so buy two. Just don't read it in front of folks with no sense of humor.

Esther Friesner has always been one of my favorite authors. She's a great writer and story teller. The books she's written tell thoroughly satisfying stories. The anthologies that she's edited are always interesting and include some really great authors. Temping Fate? It seems like a good YA novel. The plot is interesting and geared toward a young adult female. Despite it being about mythology, it was a very grounded book. In fact, I feel the story itself was worth five stars. At least, what I could read of it. I sent the book back twice. The pages were out of order. There were repeated chapters. There were missing chapters. The ending was missing in both copies. The middle chapters were mixed up. Both books were brand new.

The publisher was SPEAK, an imprint of Penguin Group. I've never read anything else published by SPEAK, but if this is an example of their work, then woe betide the authors who deal with them. I think they should take back unsold copies of Temping Fate, reprint them correctly and then reissue the books with lots of fanfare and advertising. The author and the cover artist both deserve nothing less than that.

This book was very funny and well-written, regardless of how irreverent it was. I enjoyed it thoroughly and it showed me that there are worse summer jobs than mine. Unfortunately, it didn't have so much closure, and I really want a sequel to tie up all the loose ends. Excellent.

I would have rated this book a 5 but there an issue with the book, after page 218, the book has pages 187-218 reprinted again, then it picks up again at page 251. So pages 219-250 are missing from the book, which left me wondering what happened and ruined the reading experience for me. If you order this book be make sure that the copy that you received does not have the problem that mine had. :(

Derivative pseudo chick-lit. The idea of Greek gods as air-headed Americans is neither new nor, in this case, amusing. The humour is unfunny slapstick and the more serious points are hammered in as crudely as if to an audience of six-year-olds. Even as a young adult novel it is condescending and shallow. If this were the work of some incompetent first-timer I might be more forgiving, but Friesner is capable of far, far better work than this.