2/5 stars
Synopsis
Warning! This section contains spoilers, if you would like to avoid these spoilers, jump to the review below.
The book started with the characters doing a mission that was assigned to them by the Gentry, their civilization’s god. Before the mission was completed, the chapter ended and the book went into backstory. The first 10% of the book went through the years leading up to the mission the book started with.
Kyle was then given a mission to assassinate his uncle who was apparently feeding information to rebels.
Kyle disobeyed his orders, and the consequence of that was his mother was murdered and his home torched. His father was wounded and fell unconscious. Kyle vowed vengeance.
Kyle and crew escaped to a remote planet that housed some of the rebels.
They started to train the rebels. Kyle felt guilty asking them to go to war and was talking to one of his friends. His friend suggested killing the Gentry, and Kyle thought that was a brilliant idea.
The characters built a nuclear bomb to aid in their assault on the Gentry.
Kyle started fighting the Gentry. He was severely wounded, but killed the Gentry.
Review
The book was…okay. It was not my favorite. I thought the idea was good, to have a man turn on those who trained him. But I felt like the book needed more substance.
The characters and the relationships between them were flat. Especially the women. The female characters were not developed at all other than craving physical attention from the male characters. Not all women are that shallow; I really wish authors would stop portraying them that way.
Kyle’s character wasn’t developed well. He was super strong, had mysterious powers that didn’t seem to have any limits, but had a massive temper that made it hard to control himself. Or at least, that was what I was told. In reality, Kyle didn’t seem to have any problem controlling his temper. Sure, he got angry a few times, but he never lost control. The big weakness the author gave him wasn’t really a weakness at all.
There was one scene in the book where Kyle was talking to a girl named Ellie, who he just met. She was trying and failing to flirt with him, because he was oblivious, and when he was leaving, he came across his childhood friend, Angel. She was angry with him that he was talking to Ellie, and asked him if he had slept with Ellie. Kyle was confused, but instead of actually answering that question, and truthfully saying no, he deflected and said something to the effect of “I can’t answer that.” Angel was angry and cut him off after that. I didn’t understand the point of that interaction. I think the author was trying to add in some emotional conflict to deepen the story, but it didn’t work because there wasn’t enough setup for it to be impactful. Sure, Kyle talked about how special Angel was to him, but it was the author telling, not showing. The closest thing to the author showing the reader that Kyle and Angel were close was Kyle rushing to protect her after his mother was killed.
The government and the rebels were portrayed fairly consistently. It was a cliche way to portray them, but at least it was consistent. The government people were all portrayed as evil, while the rebels were all portrayed as kind. Cliche, yes, but at least it was consistent.
The author jumped around in time. Being in the present, then jumping into the past for several chapters, and then jumping back to the present, gave me whiplash. I didn’t enjoy reading through those chapters. Flashbacks can be an effective way for authors to give a reader backstory on a character, but only when done properly. I didn’t feel like this author used them correctly. The flashbacks were not seamlessly integrated into the story, and it probably would have been better if they weren’t in the book at all.
The book had a lot of random point of view shifts. I wished the point of view shifts had some consistency to them, but they didn’t. I feel like the book would have been better without the different points of view.
One thing that irritated me about the book was the author had a fascination with describing how wide Kyle’s shoulders were. Kyle’s massive shoulders billowed like thunderclouds, Kyle’s shoulders clogged the hall, Kyle’s massive shoulders eclipsed Bryan’s face. I get it. He’s big and buff. Let’s move on.
I didn’t really feel like this book had substance. Yeah, it had an intriguing plot idea. A super soldier was betrayed and turned on the government that created him. But the book needed more than just a man with massive shoulders and some bizarre powers. It needed deeper relationships, more emotion, and bigger emotional impacts.
Fireheart Books 