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mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
4.0
Reincarnated powers is certainly not a completely original idea. But its done pretty well here. The characters are mostly interesting and different. The powers also interesting and different and not obvious ones that have been done again and again. The ending felt a little soft, like it built up to nothing in particular. But all in all a good read.
rhodered's review
3.0
There was a lot to like about this book, with one significant exception - the romantic relationship. Although this isn't primarily a romance (to me it's an SF-style fantasy/adventure) the relationship between the two most prominent leads is a big enough plot thread that it pulled down the book's overall score for me. So, it's a four except for this.
What's wrong? Ages. The male lead is 32, and a true 32 at that (although he has a mystifying total lack of friends which is never addressed). The female lead is perhaps 22 at most, but her stunted life experience puts her somewhere around 14-15. I'm not that happy seeing a 32 year old with a 22 year anyway; this is worse. And it's not really explained - they hop into bed very early on (so, not really a spoiler) for no reason beyond hormones and random, fairly inconvenient whim. It's just...odd.
Ok, so what's good? A handy, non-comprehensive list:
- sense of place: the author absolutely nails Washington State and Oregon. The vegetation, the houses, the weather, the people. It's redolent of the pacific northwest.
- gender roles: some characters are capable of reincarnation, and they don't always wind up as the same genders each time. The author used this to explore several ideas - including 'gay for you' - brilliantly.
- feminism: passes the Bechtel test with flying colors, includes female characters of several ages (not just 20-somethings), includes a variety of female professionals, healthy male-female friendships, and unabashed female sexuality.
- mythology & magic: unlike the trend in paranormal and fantasy, this book's M&M doesn't stray beyond a very defined arena. You don't have shamans or vampires or werewolves or fae or angels or any other magical creatures popping up. This is basically our own world with just one specific, small group of gods and their offshoots added in.
- nobody is kick ass or utterly exhausted: I'm so tired of the tropes of the kick ass heroine who can do judo and magic and god knows what else. I'm also tired of the tired, where the lead goes without adequate sleep for days and days while fighting the big bad. Neither of those occur here - relief!
- fun cultural asides: at the start of each chapter, you'll find a little "quote" from a cultural source, slightly altered to account for this world. It's elegant and delightful.
- no cliffy: the current story wraps up, but there's room to go on. Well done.
What's wrong? Ages. The male lead is 32, and a true 32 at that (although he has a mystifying total lack of friends which is never addressed). The female lead is perhaps 22 at most, but her stunted life experience puts her somewhere around 14-15. I'm not that happy seeing a 32 year old with a 22 year anyway; this is worse. And it's not really explained - they hop into bed very early on (so, not really a spoiler) for no reason beyond hormones and random, fairly inconvenient whim. It's just...odd.
Ok, so what's good? A handy, non-comprehensive list:
- sense of place: the author absolutely nails Washington State and Oregon. The vegetation, the houses, the weather, the people. It's redolent of the pacific northwest.
- gender roles: some characters are capable of reincarnation, and they don't always wind up as the same genders each time. The author used this to explore several ideas - including 'gay for you' - brilliantly.
- feminism: passes the Bechtel test with flying colors, includes female characters of several ages (not just 20-somethings), includes a variety of female professionals, healthy male-female friendships, and unabashed female sexuality.
- mythology & magic: unlike the trend in paranormal and fantasy, this book's M&M doesn't stray beyond a very defined arena. You don't have shamans or vampires or werewolves or fae or angels or any other magical creatures popping up. This is basically our own world with just one specific, small group of gods and their offshoots added in.
- nobody is kick ass or utterly exhausted: I'm so tired of the tropes of the kick ass heroine who can do judo and magic and god knows what else. I'm also tired of the tired, where the lead goes without adequate sleep for days and days while fighting the big bad. Neither of those occur here - relief!
- fun cultural asides: at the start of each chapter, you'll find a little "quote" from a cultural source, slightly altered to account for this world. It's elegant and delightful.
- no cliffy: the current story wraps up, but there's room to go on. Well done.
kittyg's review
3.0
* This is one of my #SPFBO reads for 2018 *
I wasn't too sure what this story would be like from the cover, it seemed a little bit stylised, sexy, urban, and witch-crafty all at once...and to some extent this story does have all of those elements. This is a book which is very magical right from the start. We are following a character who is called Eric and he works for a lady called Ariadne. She used to be a lover of his, and they have a fairly good relationship still, until he realises that some of the jobs he's been doing for her aren't overly legal and certainly have horrible repercussions. He's even noticed that some of the people he's had to track are now dead!
Eric as a character isn't really someone I connected to at first, he's not a bad guy, but he's mixed up in a bit of trouble and I don't think I would be the sort of person to get on with him too well in reality. However, his story was interesting enough to me and I quickly got hooked when he started to meet the Powers.
In this book we have 5 characters who are known as Powers. They are: Breath, Map, Lantern, Hound and Key. They are all basically immortals and they keep being reborn into new bodies each time they die. We know at the start f the book that there are five out there and some of them live together under Ariadne's control, but Lantern is missing and they want to find her.
The niggles I had with this book came largely from the sexual relationship which began very suddenly and didn't really seem overly romantic or developed. I found this relationship a little hard to swallow and it didn't feel overly authentic to me.
I also found that some of the things that happened in this story were a little too predictable for me and although I enjoyed it on the whole it didn't feel quite as original as I had hoped. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, probably it is due to my own vast fantasy reading, but I would have liked a few more shock moments.
The magic of this one is interesting because as I say they are essentially immortal and get reborn into new bodies when they die. They also each have a magic which is to do with their name so Key can unlock things, Breath can steal Breath, Map can navigate and locate and Hound can track. Lantern is a bit more of na enigma at first.
Overall, this was a fun story and I read it quickly and enjoyed it, but it didn't leave me with a really strong feeling about it. I wish it had been a little bit more emotional and developed because then I may have really loved it, but on the whole it's a fun one :) 3*s from me which is 6/10 for SPFBO.
I wasn't too sure what this story would be like from the cover, it seemed a little bit stylised, sexy, urban, and witch-crafty all at once...and to some extent this story does have all of those elements. This is a book which is very magical right from the start. We are following a character who is called Eric and he works for a lady called Ariadne. She used to be a lover of his, and they have a fairly good relationship still, until he realises that some of the jobs he's been doing for her aren't overly legal and certainly have horrible repercussions. He's even noticed that some of the people he's had to track are now dead!
Eric as a character isn't really someone I connected to at first, he's not a bad guy, but he's mixed up in a bit of trouble and I don't think I would be the sort of person to get on with him too well in reality. However, his story was interesting enough to me and I quickly got hooked when he started to meet the Powers.
In this book we have 5 characters who are known as Powers. They are: Breath, Map, Lantern, Hound and Key. They are all basically immortals and they keep being reborn into new bodies each time they die. We know at the start f the book that there are five out there and some of them live together under Ariadne's control, but Lantern is missing and they want to find her.
The niggles I had with this book came largely from the sexual relationship which began very suddenly and didn't really seem overly romantic or developed. I found this relationship a little hard to swallow and it didn't feel overly authentic to me.
I also found that some of the things that happened in this story were a little too predictable for me and although I enjoyed it on the whole it didn't feel quite as original as I had hoped. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, probably it is due to my own vast fantasy reading, but I would have liked a few more shock moments.
The magic of this one is interesting because as I say they are essentially immortal and get reborn into new bodies when they die. They also each have a magic which is to do with their name so Key can unlock things, Breath can steal Breath, Map can navigate and locate and Hound can track. Lantern is a bit more of na enigma at first.
Overall, this was a fun story and I read it quickly and enjoyed it, but it didn't leave me with a really strong feeling about it. I wish it had been a little bit more emotional and developed because then I may have really loved it, but on the whole it's a fun one :) 3*s from me which is 6/10 for SPFBO.
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