Defying Terror
Title: Defying Terror
Author: faintplanes
Genre: Paranormal
Quick Summary: Amnesiac boy gets integrated into the Great Imperialist Machine... sorta?
Thoughts:
I'm not really sure what to make of this. The prose is clean, the major characters stand out from each other well enough... But there's a lot of logistical and general issues that made this book unenjoyable for me.
For starters, Slater is an asshole. And not in the kind of way that you love to hate, like Gregory House or Sherlock Holmes or something. He's just a dick and I can't find any real reason to like him at all, which doesn't make me inclined to read the rest of the story, which is bad because he is the narrator. And what's worse, I don't like or care about the rest of the cast enough to want to tough it out for them. And he keeps admitting he's a dick but... if he's so self-aware of his own behavior, you'd think he'd do something about it. Or stop bringing it up so much since he's obviously not going to change. Not to mention, half the time he blames it on the sometimes-there being in his head.
And Slater is supposed to be the "most hated kid in Oltima" or whatever but... why? Yeah, okay, he's a criminal, but surely there are people who have done worse. Certainly he's killed people, but... surely there's something else that makes him so hated.
Secondly the plot doesn't really click for me. Teenage boy does some illegal things and is on the run, decides to rob the Emperor's house five months later, and apparently has done WAY MORE illegal shit that he doesn't ever remember doing. Meanwhile, by his recounts, he should've been caught sooner but doesn't because... some reason? And what makes you think robbing the Emperor's house while you're on the run is a good idea? Then he gets "One Last Chance"d and the book [so far] is him "training" for that and sometimes dealing with a paranormal entity. Emphasis on sometimes.
It feels like the "training to be a glorified cop" arc and the "I have... something in my head" arc do an awkward push-and-pull dance. When one takes the stage, the other tends to get shoved into the corner. This is most prominent with the bits about training.
This whole "One Last Chance" bit, which involves joining the Imperial Guard, bothered me a ton. It would've been cool if Slater held onto and actually showed his hatred of them, but sadly it seems gone by chapter 3. I can't find any palpable hatred after aside from Slater mentioning he was raised to hate them, and for someone raised like that he sure as hell doesn't show it. And not even two days after being around them, he's suddenly thinking he should "see it from their side" or whatever. Someone who was raised for a lot of their life to hate the guard would not have this change of heart - or at least, act like they did - after two days. He talks the talk a lot throughout this book, but he doesn't walk the walk.
And speaking of the guards... just who ARE they? I don't know. I don't know who they work for aside from some vague Emperor, or why, or why they're needed or even what sort of world we're in here. It acts a lot like earth, but with different names so are we in a dystopia? Parallel universe? I barely have any feel for the setting and that is a very bad thing.
The program meant to reform criminals is... flawed. They... don't do a good job of keeping an eye on their criminals. They're training for an eventual competition, sure, but outside of that training convicts - or at least, Slater - seem to have minimal supervision. What's to stop them from running away here? And why do they want former criminals in a position of power over the rest of society?
And speaking of the program, Manchester is supposed to be watching and training Slater, but for the first six chapters all he does is have Slater do some running and then just... leaves him at his house and tell him not to go anywhere? It's established in chapter six the big event they're training for happens in a week and a half. Even if Manchester hadn't been spending the last couple of days pissing into the wind and actually training Slater, that's not enough time. But apparently, training with Manchester's daughter and her friend is enough to compensate? I know he's been on the run for five months, but the skills it takes to be a fugitive aren't quite the same as it is to be a glorified police officer. And didn't he have to learn some things, too?
It's established Slater at times does things outside of his own volition, but it's really foggy WHEN this happens until Slater points it out after the fact. And speaking of weird things, he can turn invisible in water, or something? It's established people have a hard time seeing him in the first chapter, and again when he's running from Medo, but in chapter ten he conveniently doesn't turn invisible from anyone despite being in torrential downpour. Which means there's either unspoken conditions for this ability, or the author is being inconsistent.
This book raises more questions than it tends to answer and the logic leaves my brain spinning. Unfortunately, I didn't like this.
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