Review: Interesting characters
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 17, 2013
This book needs narrative drive.  There were times that I felt like it took me as long to read as it did for the characters to live. Too much is described that does not support/contribute/shape the plot. And at least on my kindle the formatting was fugly - random switches to a font that reminded me of a dying typewriter and really made it difficult to read. There are times when Mr. Hayes tries too hard - wit ceases to be witty when it ceases to be brief. The antagonists take a long time to take the stage, and when they do, their motivation is a mystery (which facilitates a sequel).That said, I found I kept coming back to this book, even in preference to other books on my kindle and on my nightstand.  Clearly Mr. Hayes is doing something right.  Part of that right is the characters.  There are too many characters to track, but the focus characters are portrayed quite well.  Not all of them are likeable all the time - but that's true of all three dimensional characters.I don't agree with every choice that Mr. Hayes made in building the setting, but I was very glad to see something in this genre that explicitly addresses some of the tropes of the superpowered world.  Mr. Hayes has worked through how and why things work. (there are still some holes, but I have the intuition that they'll be covered in more depth when the antagonists reveal themselves).This isn't a great book, but it is a good book, and I've already bought the sequel and am looking forward to reading it.