Resenting the Hero

I'm thinking how to convey my feelings for this book, and bittersweet is the only adjective I come up with.
* Good story? Check.
* Interesting and original world and magic system? Check.
* Better than expected from the cover? Check.
* Main characters with potential? Check.
* Will I read the next installment? Nope.

Why?
Bittersweet.

I think my main peeve is the self-centered heroine and some incomprenhensible reactions not just from her, but from people surrounding her. I may understand a character who starts being annoying and changes along the way. It's called character growth, and it's expected. But this woman manages to be equally annoying all throughout the story. Remarkable, in a sense.

Unfortunately, it means I don't care much about her show more future adventures with her Source.

Good luck to you out there, who dare strive further. show less

Hmm. This is a hard book to review. On one hand, there is something quite charming about this book. On the other hand, I found the characters to be a bit annoying, especially Dunleavy, who hated her source for no reason I could determine. The world, while interesting, seemed about a simple.

I appreciated that this world, while set in a feudal type class system, both Men and Women were mostly equal. At the same time, this can be a bit jarring. It felt like the author went with a modern feel, set it up in a feudal society, but didn't account for why this society worked.

As I said in the initial sentence, this book is charming. I spent a lot of time annoyed at the attitude of the lead character, but I couldn't wait to finish it. I think this show more book is refreshing in some ways, we have an interesting world, an interesting society. The characters were flawed but overcame the problem.

The book is a solid. Not a great book, but enjoyable. show less

This book (and series) has a number of things going for it:

(1) A really interesting premise.
(2) Two really interesting main characters, with a fascinatingly awkward relationship between them. The heroine is a bit clueless relationally, which makes the story more entertaining. We don't know much about the hero (nothing is told from his perspective); we just see the heroine get to know him better, but we also suffer from her misunderstandings. The hero has an interesting background which is only hinted at in this book, but is developed to great effect in later volumes.
(3) A decent mystery story.
(4) Plausible bad guys, with good points as well as bad, suffering real grievances, who you could imagine developing a real following. (And, of show more course, you have no idea who they are until near the end--as it should be, in a mystery story.)
(5) A lot of humor and sarcasm.

I usually do not not read either magic or romance books that much, but this one was good enough that I really enjoyed it. And it made me gobble up the rest of the series.

(The subsequent books are also good, though more uneven. This first book I have wanted to reread multiple times, which I did not feel about the subsequent books.) show less

RESENTING THE HERO is the start to an excellent series, much better than you'd guess looking at the title or cover art. I decided to trust other reviews pointing this out, and now I'm repeating it in mine because it's true.

The origin story for this fantasy series sets up the odd world where Lee and Taro, our hero and heroine, have their adventures: nearly six hundred years before the start of the story, spaceships descended from the sky. The passengers intended to settle, but when their sophisticated machinery didn't operate properly and the beautiful landscape was constantly beset by terrible natural disasters, most of them packed up and left. The result? The state of technology is relatively primitive, but morals are relatively show more modern. Example: characters travel on land via carriages but enjoy near total gender equality. Since I really like a good medieval-style sword and sorcery novel and also really enjoy modern sensibilities, I was pretty tickled by how cleverly this world was designed.

The zeitgeist is familiar, rational and scientific, with the notable exception of the Sources and Shields - who are able, through their combined efforts, to "channel" the energy of natural disasters into a harmless form. Sources channel the energy, and Shields stop them from dying in the process. While any Shield and Source can work together, almost all of them bond to a particular partner, forming a Pair. The connection is instant and life-long, and if one member of the Pair dies, the other does too.

The narrator, Dunleavy Mallorough (Lee), is a Shield, and a very gifted one. Shields are unemotional, sensible people who are numbed to physical sensations like pain but profoundly, intensely affected by music. Lee is intensely practical, intensely cerebral, with a wicked dry wit. She's very funny, though sometimes it's just because she finds regular people - people with emotions - completely mystifying.

Much has been made of Lee's dislike for the Source she's matched up with - handsome, aristocratic, charming, and wildly talented Shintaro Karish (Taro). After all, what's to dislike about being professionally attached at the hip to a bona-fide hero? Well, as Lee points out, "I would die with this man. He'd catch some sexual disease, or some enraged spouse would kill him, and the bond would drag me down with him. He was that sort, the sort that shone too bright and burned out fast." Can I just say that I love her narrative voice? Lee is straightforward, always cutting right to the stinging heart of the matter. And Taro shines brightly indeed. It would be noble of Lee to want her destiny tied to his - but it's sensible to hope for something less dramatic.

RESENTING THE HERO seems to wander a bit as Lee and Taro meet up, travel to their assigned city of High Scape, and settle in. But the wandering is an illusion - everything adds up at the end, as the Pair unravel a plot to destroy the city. I've read all four books currently available in the series, and I really like the way that the series is going. Not only do Lee and Taro develop as characters, but the world they live in does too. Big changes are afoot, and Lee and Taro are at the center of them. But the real centerpiece of this series, it's spine and chief delight, is the relationship between Lee and Taro - opposites in almost every way, they are excellent partners to one another. show less

Fast, light read set in a world where technology doesn’t work but magic does. Dunleavy is a Shield ‘bonded’ to a Source, Lord Shintaro Karish, she’d rather not have. Irked at being matched with a man reputed to be a wastrel but talented, Dunleavy must protect Shintaro’s mind and body from destroying itself as he tries to diffuse natural disasters including the occasional typhoon and earthquake. Dunleavy is a sassy, I’ll-take-charge kind of gal that I couldn’t help but like. She professes to only want peace and quiet but she proves her mettle as she rescues Shintaro time and again. This is a fun book with an interesting premise – bring on the sequel!

Entertaining. Shield Dunleavy Mallorough is dumber than a box of sub-average rocks, but this is not necessarily a flaw in the book (she says repeatedly that she hates to think, and she's quite right). Moore is playing around with reputations and how people see themselves vs. how others see them. It can be frustrating, though, to see a plot twist coming 100 or 150 pages ahead of the protagonist. I facepalmed a couple of times.

I've read this series completely out of order and, now that I've swapped most of it away, I finally read the first book... and want to read them all again. (that sound you hear is me banging my head against the wall)

It's fun, mostly light-hearted and even though there isn't a whole lot of action, I found myself tensing or laughing because of what's going on in the story. Having read the others in the series, I found myself getting really upset by how resentful and mean Lee was to Taro at first. The story is told from Lee's point of view, so it's hard to get a full picture of Taro, but he's revealed more fully in later books and he's just a sweetheart. The world building is subtle but thorough; I actually recalled nuances of behavior show more from the later books that only really make sense now that I've read this one.

The romantic subtext is very subtext-y in this book. As another reviewer mentioned, Lee and Taro are not exchanging longing glances and forbidden smooches. Mostly they're trying to figure out how to deal with each other now that their lives and futures have been tied together by the unnamed Powers That Be while also trying to figure out what's responsible for the changing weather patterns that are threatening the land.

I don't think this would appeal to everyone, but if you like your fantasy light and YA appropriate, this might be your thing. (It also reminds me a bit of a less violent version of Simon R. Green's Hawk & Fisher series.) show less