(no subject)
When we left our hero, Hero Regen, gambolling freely with her ruc-pard companion Fink at the end of Hero - The Hero Rebellion Book 1, so much seemed rosy. Many of her enemies were dead or incapacitated, while her friends, the important ones, are back in health. But because this IS Hero Regen, it isn’t long before challenges and obstacles start to pile up.
As the book opens, Hero and teammate Norah Joshi - her best friend and racing team partner, another special or Jørgen like Hero, and her lynch-adder, Harish are preparing to participate in still another illegal street race. Hero is steaming because Timon Dane her main competitor called her a pixie. She doesn’t know what that is, but it has to be bad - right?
As the race progresses it soon becomes clear, that this is a very changed Hero. In Book 1, she was a sulky but still likeable teenager; here she seems so full of rage and anger that she can barely control let alone understand her murderous impulses - nor does she seem interested in controlling these mad rages. After alienating Norah with her temper, an isolated, angry and paranoid Hero takes refuge in her computer labs, determined to learn how to control the power of the explosive jwak.
Soon her old friend The Librarian is back with a new, more dangerous and more critical task. “Cumulus City is failing … the ground-side machines that generate the magnetic fields on which the city is kept aloft are no longer sufficient to the task. The outer burbs will fall first.” And on this Hero and her increasingly anxious friends, which in a stunning reversal come to include Timon and his snooty toa-mare, Phara, are off on another hair- raising adventure which includes facing off against giant roaches, evading agents of various organisations trying to kill or capture them and, when they reach the surface, discovering Fink’s original family.
As much as I enjoyed the chases, races and battles, I’m not a teenager; although I heartily recommend them to you if you are. They are taught and sharply written. However, for me, the real fascination is the towering sky scraper world that Ms Crawford has created in Cumulus City. Anchored to Old Terra, these almost limitless tower blocks have been allowed to thrust ever higher into the upper atmosphere. And, like so many man-made projects, insufficient thought or care has been given to maintenance or repair. Down here on earth, my first thought was to ask why haven’t the municipal authorities been doing their jobs properly? One answer is that there don’t seem to be any. The towers of Cumulus City seem to be totally under the control of a plethora of mercantile entities which include Bayard Corp. Hero’s mother’s nominal employer. Any book set in a far-future fantastical world is only as good as its world -building. In the Hero books, the complex places and creatures described are endlessly fascinating; so complex that the existence of telepathy between characters is only a part of how messages are transmitted. Far more provocative is the way in which the presence of colour and scent announce the arrival and mental state of a particular individual. When the friends finally get down to Old Terra, the colours and creatures of this semi-abandoned world are described so vividly, it is a joy to read about them
It is often said that the second book in a series is often the most difficult, but in Riven, Belinda Crawford has brilliantly expanded the depth and interest of this creation.
Happily 5*****