Review of Wesley King's "The Vindico"

    This one took me a while to get into because right out the gate, the writing did not impress me. I had suspected this would be a young adult novel, but the characters and writing would make the age range 10-14 year olds. Now, just because a book is catered towards a younger, does not mean that the writing has to be dumbed down. Yes, the jargon must be tamed, but trusting the readers to interpret a story should not change. A 10-year-old can understand that "he smiled" can infer that the character is happy. However, writing, " he said happily," is an insult to one's intelligence. Let's just get on with it:

    Gifted children attend a school where they are taught to control their powers so they may fight a great evil. This description can be used to describe many YA novels. The Vindico slaps on the twist that the children are being trained to be villains, but the only crime they seem to commit is not giving the reader enough credit. This book enlisted lazy adverbs to do most of the emotional work, and employed tons of dialogue for the exposition. The five protagonists are all giving one-dimensional personalities, and the side characters were difficult to distinguish from one another.
    Redeeming factors are hard pressed to find. If anything, the climax was a fast paced mix of twists and turns. King did a better job at juggling a double digit amount of characters in one scene than I would have expected. Overall, much like the villains in this story, the negatives outweigh the positives.
    If I had a shelf dedicated to books I did not want to reread, this would get a spot.

Review of Tom Reynold's "Meta"

    It's back to the summer reading season, and I started off with a book I'd bought a while back but never got to, "Meta." Years after all of the metas, humans who possess mysterious super-powered bracelets, have disappeared, Connor Connolly wakes up to find his wrists wrapped in almost unlimited powers. The bad guy thrown in there is The Controller, a meta who has the power to create monsters to fight for him anywhere he so pleases. Assisting Connor is Midnight, a non-meta vigilante who has been around since the old days.
    The book starts off on a hot streak, and then hits a wall as soon as Connor discovers his powers. Everything comes out of nowhere, and little explanation is every put behind events. Hostile situations will come out of thin air simply to move the plot along. The story jumps from scene to scene like a child playing "The Floor is Lava" where it is okay to omit bridging the gap between sequences. Trying to see it all together is like deciphering a "Connect the Dots to Form a Picture" puzzle that you see on the children's menu. The most glaring example is the magical rooftop of plot advancement, where Connor would teleport, and then some event would be waiting for him in the exact location. The book is relatively short though, so I can see the need to condense.
    One of the aspect that also receives the short end of the stick is character development. Specifically, Connor's relationship with the love interest Sarah. It plods along throughout the book making no significant headway until the end, where it still feels poorly wrapped up.
    The book does have moments that shine, in its humor and witty writing. One particular scene I enjoyed was describing Connor  honing his ability to fly. It was brief, but entertaining and to the point.
The fight scenes are also quite vivid, and the author isn't afraid to censor some of the more questionable moments. It is also a nice break from the slew of superhero fiction that involves months of training in an academy, or fighting the government agency that created the hero.
     Getting back into the swing of things, this was a quick, entertaining read. It has it's share of problems in character development and instances of deus ex machina, but nothing that breaks the tale. It does hint at a sequel, which I would be willing to pick up. This one gets a spot on the shelf.
 

Review of Brandon Sanderson's "SteelHeart"

            In the past I have been focusing on mostly self-published teen superhero novels and recounting them in a very structured way. In truth, structure bores me, so as start of my renaissance into reviews of mainstream novels, I’d like to be more conversational and less robotic in my approach. Comprende?

            “ I’ve seen Steelheart bleed.” Spoiler alert! That is the opening line to Steelheart, the superhero fantasy concocted by Brandon Sanderson. Steelheart is an Epic, able to Midas touch anything inorganic into steel. But Steelheart is no benevolent ruler, in fact all Epics are evil, a side effect of their amazing abilities. This line in such few words, and maybe with some prior knowledge, let’s me know that David, the protagonist, has seen a man who essentially a God among men show his humanity, and if David doesn’t use every ounce of his strength to see this overlord dead, then the author has failed to produce a novel worthy of it’s premise.

            What I am saying with that convoluted sentence is David is the chosen, this novel is a Hero’s Journey and we know he will kill Voldemort in the end, drop the ring in the fire of Mount Doom, bring balance to the force. So why read this book if the first line gives away the whole story? I can say everything that first line neglected to inform me, the characters, location, and the imagination managed to enthrall me.

            If I could pick out one thing that amazed me, it would be the twist. Not like an “ I see dead people twist,” where the revelation changes the reality of the entire story, but the tidbit of hidden information that is hinted at throughout the story and then revealed. All the connections come together and there’s that moment of “Aww, I should have seen that coming.” This book managed to fool me on 1 of 2 accounts.

            One objection I had was that most of the characters didn’t resonate enough with me. They felt like cogs in the plot, given a quirk. David makes terrible metaphors, Abraham has a slight French accent, Cody is eccentric about his heritage, Tia likes soda. I’d like to see the kind of humanity in them that David saw in Steelheart.

            This one goes on my shelf.