Review: A tightly-written dystopian sci-fantasy
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 14, 2013
This dystopian post-apocalyptic science fantasy is tightly written and well edited, with virtually no errors to distract one from becoming immersed in the story. It's nice to read something so professionally done, and this is a very strong point in its favor.`Kindreds' starts out strong, introducing us to several characters who will carry us through the book by showing us their actions, zeroing in on their personalities and cementing their friendship. The first quarter of the book was my favorite part by far, with good pacing, a believable society, and a number of conflicts that caused the characters to grow. I loved the world and could see many possibilities for conflict and resolution.However, the middle third of the book consisted mostly of oddly analytical, detailed conversations regarding the organization of society. The main character, Raine, is suddenly stalled in space, doing nothing. In fact, not much happens at all in this section, a let-down after the fun of the first part. Although the book is set on earth in some distant future time, the laws of physics seem to have been suspended; wars cause continents to rip apart, people float, and when the environment cools, peoples' body temperatures drop so quickly that they're unable to use heat-activated weapons. Despite their technological advances, this society doesn't seem to have figured out the rules of inheritance, and their dysfunction is almost cartoonish. Raine becomes a damsel in distress, ala `Princess Bride', with evil forces so depraved as to be unbelievable. One of the main characters seems useless, and it's hard to understand why the trio has been brought to the world at all, or at this time.The resistance to which Raine is bound seems so disorganized that it's hard to tell anything about their plans, extent, or organization. There are several `deus ex machina', where totally unforeshadowed groups or individuals drop in at opportune times to save the day. Not that it isn't okay to have some coincidences; without them there wouldn't be much of a story in any book. But some of these feel made-up-as-it-went-along.To be fair, I'm likely not the target audience of this book - it's probably more appropriately YA, and I'm in my fifties and have been reading dystopian sci-fi since the 1960s, when I got hold of a stack of old Analog magazines, so I am somewhat jaded. I ended up not finding anyone to really care about; some of the characters that started out so promising seemed to deteriorate over the course of the book. This was made all the more disappointing in contrast to the extremely strong start; I kept thinking, `if only it had continued in that vein!'It does feature a (usually) strong young female character, always a plus in my book. In many ways I'm torn about my rating - there are many good things here. But besides a review of the technical writing, which is strong, this is a consideration of my own opinion.  I do believe that a number of younger (and less jaded) readers will probably enjoy this book and become involved with the characters to a greater degree.