Review: Interesting New Urban Fantasy
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 14, 2012
The setup is pretty standard... Sort of an X-men setting where the infected (mutants) are distrusted in the public eye by the 'normals'.  There are bad infected who abuse their powers; most however, simply try to live their lives and be left alone.  Yet, another group fights for the government (as the IPB), battling rogue infected and protecting those infected who happen to be victims.From there however, the book really comes into its own, showing unique plot twists and situations, characters and powers.  Brian, the protagonist, is an overweight Chinese nerd who happens to be a box boy, gifted, or rather cursed, with what seems to be the worst superpower imaginable - slated to get him killed.  Trained by the IPB in order to give him a ghost of a chance of surviving future encounters, he is submitted to a near impossible training regimen.What was intriguing about this story was the transformation Brian undergoes from a no-name waste-of-space to a verifiable killing machine; a natural-born leader, endeared by many, who changes the lives of millions.  He accepts death from the very beginning and his incredibly selfless demeanor gives him a singular purpose.  This sets him apart from other main characters because he doesn't let the culture shock of entering a military setting phase him.  He doesn't whine about the intensity of abuse.  He isn't arrogant or hot-headed when faced with success.  When encountering a threat, he runs towards it, not because of courage or some high and mighty principles, but because he's already resigned himself to his fate, driven to protect as many others as he can before his time runs out.I had a couple gripes with the book.  First, the awkward ending, I guess trying to show a cliffhanger, really comes out of nowhere, stopping the story in the middle of a conversation.  Second, the idea that all police are dumb, evil, corrupt, monsters that do more harm than the criminals.  It's not simply Brian's paranoia brought on by some terrible experiences with them, because their actions speak for themselves.  If this was explained in some way throughout the story, I could understand.  Instead, it's just presented like it should be the most obvious thing in the world; instances of such behavior happening many many times over the course of the book.  In this way, it seems like the author is showing his own bias against police, using the book as an outlet.I'd rate it a 4.5 (rounding up for indy authors).  If you can overcome these minor setbacks, and an acceptable (IMHO) amount of grammar/spelling errors, I think you'll find this a rare gem in the ever-increasing output of Amazon e-books.  With an extraordinary cast of characters backing up a truly refreshing protagonist, I was elated to give this one a chance.  You really can't beat the price (free when I downloaded it) for this enormous book, so check it out if you're looking for something different.  I eagerly await the sequel.