SPSFC3 First Phase Mini Reviews
Fear and Fury
by Jamie Jackson
Beginning note: I am so far behind posting, sorry. Almost read all the books allocated, just need to post them. They will probably be rough as and the poor authors at the end of my list will probably just get a line or two (running out of time) – sorry again. But back to it.
My Vote:
Unfortunately, I’ve decided to say ‘no’ to this book going forward, but not entirely for the reasons within. Unfortunately, I don’t consider this sci-fi or science fantasy. At the 20% point mark I’ve been given no information that even hints at a science fantasy book. In fact, the start implies the story’s roots are in traditional fantasy. As such I’d list it as Urban Fantasy rather than any subcategory of Science Fiction.
The author will probably hate me for this. But that’s my opinion. Perhaps other judges will feel differently.
Note on Votes: A Yes/No vote is just my own. The other judges in the team might vote differently. Undecided usually means I think it has potential but I still have others to read before ranking them by personal preference.
Summary:
At ~20% read. In a superhero society where heroes and villains are everywhere, Meg, a super-powered individual with the power of fear has no interest in joining up with villains or heroes. She’s just a girl trying to get by in life. But unfortunately for her the world just won’t leave her alone and she is forced to team up with the heroes when a villain who uses her own power against her shows up and takes a particular interest in her.
Overall impression & Criticisms:
The book is written in first person which I tend to struggle with when it’s anything longer than a short story. I’ve always found being inside just one head as frustrating and tiresome and this is no different. I personally find Meg highly unlikable. I mean that’s the point. She is a self-centered character and admits it and I’m sure that’s part of her character growth. But due to the limitations of reading only a 20% snippet I cannot know if this is the character’s personality itself or a character set up for growth and improvement along the way (or a bit of both) – all I can say, is that what I read I found highly unlikeable. But I’m sure there are a host of people who are into the plucky, independent-to-a-fault archetype.
I also found Meg’s language use rather frustrating. She had a tendency to replace “um” with “like” and the first chapter is littered with so many internal monologue interruptions of Meg saying ‘“What?” you didn’t ‘x’ that’ (where x was something she just explained earlier). I was practically in tears from the start, and not the good kind. It’s a very young American dialect choice that unfortunately, as a non-American I find tedious … the good news is that minor hiccup seems to fade away once the first chapter of self-narration ends and you are actively part of the story. But the character herself remains frustratingly annoying. Not just Meg, but her new unwanted partner in crime (I mean hero’ing) Greg … essentially a Superman-like character. At least from what I’ve seen up to chapter 3.
Outside my own personal issues with First person POV I did find some of the descriptions in the early chapters quite natural and visually beautiful. And most impressive of all is that they were short and sharply written. What I was reading could be simple, just the way Gary sits at the table with his cup of coffee. The impression these little scenes implant in my head are so vivid. I’m not subject to the “void” world like others. Things don’t just float in empty spaces if they’re not described. My brain is pretty good at filling in gaps and bringing things to life. But if you asked me what exactly was in that scene I couldn’t really tell you, all I can say is that it’s filled in with a lot of detail as I’m reading. But when a skilled author puts those little details in, it instantly improves the whole picture in my head and I’m in awe of how beautiful or detailed that simple act can make it. I had a few of these moments early on within Fear and Fury and they were nice. It really shows the potential of the writer.
Spoiler filled criticisms:
If you want to skip this part to avoid any possible spoilers then shift on ahead.
Cultural differences: Again, coming back to not being American I do find some of the characters’ actions and attitudes a bit off-putting. For example, there is a small conflict in the first chapter between our protagonist Meg and Lauran, a girl she works with. In it Meg uses her power to try and stop a gunman in her workplace (some kind of department store). The Gunman directs his aggression towards one girl, Lauran. Meg confronts him and makes some right guesses about him being her boyfriend. Eta. While readying her power Meg makes some off-the-cuff remarks to throw the gunman off balance. Even telling him to shoot Lauren, she didn’t care (Meg didn’t care if he shot her that is). Anyway the situation resolves (without Lauran being shot) and later on Meg is ostracised by everyone in her workplace because Lauren told them what she said. They focused on words and not actions – there’s next to no way that would’ve been the reaction where I live. The manager was on point, because well, it was dangerous and there is protocol, they couldn’t show sympathy or reward even if they wanted to. Lauron could be a horrible person (I get the impression she is) she perhaps would react the way she did … but the WHOLE department turned their back. Every single one. Faceless people we weren’t given any data about reacted the same way. If there was any foreshadowing, that perhaps she was generally unliked (being anti-social isn’t foreshadowing, some antisocial people are very popular amongst others) I would’ve accepted that … so I thought that was mildly frustrating from a human nature perspective and my mind is thinking “perhaps that’s just the way people act in America” – anyway, this is a small, quib. I wouldn’t have even brought it up if I didn’t see a theme of questionable human behaviour.
This brings up one of my big issues with my ability to suspend disbelief. I can suspend disbelief under certain circumstances. Obviously superpowers aren’t real, so yeah, I can suspend disbelief. Sometimes characters can do silly things or react in an unrealistic way and whatnot. It’s all quite specific to place, individual, and stress. Lots of things. But when it comes to human nature in general I have a limited tolerance for their actions in entertainment. If it’s an off-chance event I can live with it, but I’ve often found it’s used to progress the plot or move it in a desired direction and I’ve come to hate this. Again if it’s a once off it probably will itch at the back of my brain and irritate me but I can look past it and enjoy the rest of the story.
On the whole, I’ve found the character reactions in the first 20% more on the off-putting side than the forgivable. It feels like a trend settling in and part of me is cringing with the thought of reading on, because I suspect there will be more.
What triggered this fear is that after our Lauran and gunman incident (and after talking to a hero) we have our introduction to the antagonist and the subsequent events that unfold. I liked the initial description of the villain’s arrival. I thought it was awesome and creepy, but what followed left me sighing at the execution and character choices.
The second run-in with the villain leaves our anti-protagonist’s apartment being broken into and her being attacked, just before being saved and taken away by the hero, Greg. Afterwards, Meg and Greg are both standing in a field on the outskirts of the city. After some weirdly illogical debate about her wanting to go back because it’s her home, Greg returns to the apartment and comes back unsettled. He reluctantly tells her that a message was left for her. He doesn’t tell her what it is or how it was left. But the implication was obvious – so much so that a cynical character such as Meg should’ve easily deduced how the message was left – or at the very least suspected. But instead, we get this “what was it?’ back and forth dialogue that lasted way too long and left me wanting to scream at her.
Eventually Hero Greg takes her back – to show her and to retrieve some clothes.
This is strike 2 – I find it hard to believe (but dimly possible) that Greg would agree with doing this. An overprotective male good guy would do anything to shield another character (especially female) from something that could possibly traumatise them. – Even if he knew she was a bad arse who could handle it, he wouldn’t let her because that’s the type of guy he is. Protective and almost naive in his innocence. In reality, a hero like that would take her someplace safe and then return to the scene of the crime and retrieve things she needs. A contentious act in itself, especially with a prickly person like Meg, but in a risk assessment mind he’d choose her potential mental health over incurring her disdain any day – unless our hero is more than he seems. Quite possibly, but I’m not sensing any complex psychological mystery in this story. Certainly tilting towards romance vibes rather than anything else.
Another thing about strike 2 is the complete lack of anyone else around. The world seems small and empty. Meg was attacked in an apartment. There was a smashing window followed by screams. A hero turned up, grabs the villain and throws it so hard it goes through the wall and into the next apartment. Then there are more screams from the people next door. Greg and Meg flee. Then off page the villain murders the neighbours and manages to write a message in their blood on the wall before leaving again.
Greg in all this has the time to take Meg out to the field, have an argument, fly back to assess the situation at the apartment, fly back to Meg. Have another argument before both return to the apartment… again.
And the building is … quiet AF … nothing outside to suggest anyone else lived there. It was as empty as a building block in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. There are no eyes peaking fearfully from cracks in doors. No brave citizens investigating what happened. No terrified soul fleeing the building. No police or signs they’re even coming. No other superheroes present at all (despite the assurance they were always watching her) … nothing … the universe feels empty.
Final Thoughts:
Though readable nothing really grabbed me. Not good and not bad. Nothing to offset the the logical part of my brain that is screaming at the characters’ behaviours and actions. It’s a reasonable read and I’m sure some people would enjoy it very much. But I don’t think it has what it takes to progress in the competition even if I did consider it part of the sci-fi family.
Small world feeling – I think the author has done a reasonable job, but they perhaps become more conscious of their imagined surroundings, stand back a bit when writing and perform a mental exercise of the faceless extras that would populate the world around the story. What would they see and hear? What would they do? – a small single action taken from someone not part of the story can go a long way to making it feel larger. With this slight shift in thinking we as a reader are shown a story taking place in a world, not a world built up around the characters.
The blurb of the book depicted it as Deadwood but funnier … when I read that I thought “that’s a bold statement.” And thought it would probably backfire. I did find some of the first chapter entertaining, even got one or two amused internal chuckles from me. But overall I don’t remotely see it as funny. Light, perhaps. The story doesn’t take itself too seriously. And after sitting on this review for a while one of our other judges came out saying they loved this book, they thought it was hilarious (and they read the entire thing) – but unfortunately, like me, they didn’t think it was a sci-fi book.
I’m sorry it came to this. I’m sure if it fit the rules of the competition then you’d have some supporters. But as it is, it doesn’t fit those rules. Just because something has superheroes doesn’t automatically mean it fits in a particular genre. Superhero stories cover a wide variety of groups and though many of them could loosely be placed in sci-fi or science fantasy I don’t think this is one of them.
This review was crazy larger than I was aiming for with this mini-reviews, oops.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Fear-Fury-Adventures-Villain-Leaning-Humanoid-ebook/dp/B094JXY88G
