Resenting the Hero [マスマーケット]

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.

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

On the surface this may seem like a quirky fun book, with it's title and comical cover. On the cover it gives the blurb "She wanted someone reliable. Instead she got him..." well, I would like to switch that around. HE wanted someone reliable. Instead, he got her.

This was a very interesting book. The author does a good job easing you nicely into the fantasy world (one which has a slight SF background that seems rather unnecessary). The idea of Source and Shield working together to protect the world from disaster is very interesting and the plot, while rather flat at times, still kept me interested and wondering what was going to happen next. Really, this would have been a 4 or even 5 star book...were it not for her.

We are unfortunately put in the viewpoint of the heroine of this novel, Dunleavy "Lee" Mallorough, a very plain girl who from page 1 resents the fact that she's being paired with Lord Shintaro Karish, an aristocrat and playboy who loves to drink and always has a woman. At least, this is what Lee hears about Karish, but in fact during the book we hardly see any of these traits. From the beginning Karish seems kind, charming, and yes a bit flirty and adventurous but certainly not in a way that was annoying. He seemed like a generally nice guy, and yet Lee insists on hating him and being annoyed by him throughout the novel. She is cold, arrogant, and often takes Karish offerings of friendship as him wanting Lee to obsess over him. Lee is convinced that Karish hates the fact that she doesn't worship the ground he walks on, when in reality it seems clear that Karish just wants to be friends with her.

Lee also seems to be a bit in the background at times, watching the plot from the side. I think it would have been much better if we saw the story from Karish's POV, because not only would we get a much better personality but we could get a more first-hand experience of the power Karish deals with and the dangerous trouble he faces in High Scape.

But despite Lee's rather annoying personality, this book still kept me reading until the very end and I might be tempted to even buy the next book, if only to see if Lee's character improves at all. So all in all Lee was irritating, Karish was okay, and the plot was rather interesting.