Review: reformation of the tool with the gift for gab
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 19, 2014
The Infected: Gabriel makes for a good read providing you can stifle your inner grammarian. These stories could seriously do with some re-editing. This is Book 2 in P.S. Power's Infected series. It surprisingly features Denis Tompkins (a.k.a. "Itch") as the central protagonist. You may remember him as the mean-spirited jerk who kept provoking Brian Yi in Proxy (The Infected). Last we saw Denis, he was languishing in an IPB cell.This series lifts that persecution vibe straight off the X-Men pages. As this sequel opens, anti-Infected hysteria is welling up from the normal humans. The IPB (Infected Protection Bureau) has worked up a stop-gap by establishing a special anti-riot squad that will be deployed to event hot spots to act as a bridge between the Infecteds and the hostile humans, to quell mob mentality.Denis Tompkins's six month incarceration ends abruptly by virtue of a parole predicated on his participation and good behavior in that special anti-riot squad. If you recall, Itch's heady power revolves around the manipulation of emotions. He can compel others to feel any sensation. You can see why this makes Denis invaluable as a calming influence over potential mobs. One immediate question is how will this affect Denis's primary emotional node? (A "primary emotional node" is the overriding trait that shapes an Infected's conduct and persona; Denis, for example, is driven by incessant greed).The Infected: Gabriel does have its share of action set pieces, but it isn't as ba11s-to-the-wall action-packed as Proxy (The Infected). It makes sense, given the nature of Denis's power versus Brian's. Denis is a more cerebral hero. I think the writer does a terrific job of making the reader warm up to Denis. If you'd read the first book, then you know just how terrific of a job because Itch was a first class piece of crap. I guess there's nothing like six months in isolation and a heap of self-help books to make one aspire to be a better person. The writer smartly doesn't make it easy for Denis who, time and again, as the book progresses, has to curb his poisonous tongue and refrain from abusing his psychic ability. When you get to the end of the book, chances are you'll feel Denis has earned his redemption.I'm a big fan of Brian Yi, so it's gratifying to see him make crucial cameos throughout the book. This sequel is worth it alone just to see how Brian's colleagues perceive him.Overall, I liked this sequel. But it's nowhere near as brilliant or pulse-pounding as the first book. Partly, it's because Denis's power isn't conducive to close quarters combat so we lose out on the immediacy and intensity of Brian's in-your-face fight scenes. Nor is Denis's power as original and compelling as Brian's. And I have two big quibbles. One, of course, is the spotty editing. Put me down as another restless reader who kept getting distracted by the poor grammar and the rampant misapplication of punctuations. The second quibble is that Denis' dialogue and speech pattern seem too reminiscent of Brian Yi's. So that's disappointing, and I'm concerned now about P.S. Power's ability to sketch out distinct lead characters. I'd already purchased the first six books. I'll be seriously pissed if, in the third book (The Infected: Cast Iron), the lead character, Marcia, also speaks like Brian. 3.5 out of 5 stars.The Infected series:-Proxy (The Infected)- The Infected Book Two - Gabriel-Cast Iron (The Infected)-Proxy: Reunions (The Infected)-Cellophane (The Infected)-Goblin (The Infected)-Ghost Girl (The Infected)For something lighter on the wallet, you may want to instead getThe Infected Books 1-6.