Review: Sovran's Pawn

I recently had the chance to read and review this first book from J.C. Cassels. Regular readers might remember J.C. from her previous interview on this site.

Overview: J.C. Cassels delivers an enjoyable sci-fi romp. She has created a vast universe of (some-what) cooperative peoples, but avoids the common pitfall of describing every single aspect of these worlds. The reader gets enough description to feel engaged without feeling the need to skip ahead to the action.

Characters: 4 stars:
If you love your heroes in the mold of Han Solo and Malcolm Reynolds, you'll be left idolizing Blade Devon. I was not as enamored with the heroine, Bo Barron, but my feelings on her were mainly subjective. I like my heroines a little more self-assured. Bo could be a bit more assertive, but Cassels gives her room to grow in future books. None of the characters are flat and unimaginative, even the supporting cast keeps you engaged.

Plot (no spoilers): 4 stars
If I had one complaint with "Sovran's Pawn" it was that I didn't feel there was enough resolution to the storyline. I understand that J.C. intends to write more books in this series, but I would have been happier with the conclusion of at least one plot aspect. That is, however, my only complaint with the plot. The action is fast paced and does not bog down at any point. As an author, I can appreciate how hard it is to create new worlds without boring readers. As a reader, I greatly appreciated the pacing of "Sovran's Pawn".

Formatting: 3 stars
I want to qualify this by saying that:
1. I am an e-book snob. I recently wrote a scathing review of an atrociously formatted e-book by Clive Cussler.
2. I purchased an advance edition of "Sovran's Pawn", so some of the technical details I will mention could have already been corrected.
This book was missing chapter navigation hyperlinks for the Kindle. That is a relatively minor item and does not detract from the reading experience. Paragraphs and chapters were well formatted without any egregious errors. I did notice a few blank pages at the end of chapters, but, again, these did not interrupt my reading.

Summation: For under $5 you can pick-up an easy read that will make you laugh, wince, and wonder what insane situations the characters will get into on the next page. I gave this book 4 stars.

Let's Hear It For the Heroines

I do so love a good heroine.  Don’t get me wrong; I’m still madly in love with Han Solo, Captain Reynolds, Apollo, and any man to sit in “the chair” on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. But, come on, girls like me don’t get guys like that.  I can, though, become my favorite heroines.

That’s why I think all this talk about the need for “positive female role-models in media portrayals of women” is a bunch of bunk.  “Positive”--that’s just another way of saying “perfect women who are smart, wordly, virtuous, independent, emotional honest, and responsible citizens”.  In a word: BORING.  Pop Quiz: who did you love more, Scarlett O’Hara or Melanie Hamilton?  Yeah I thought so.  Authors don’t (or shouldn’t) write perfect role-models because perfect people are too unreal.  Do you know a perfect person in real life?  Someone without a single fault?  I highly doubt you do.  Characters should be people that we can associate with, or at least recognize as being realistic copies of people we encounter every day.

That isn’t to say we need to be raging alcoholics like Starbuck, or have the myriad psychological disorders of Ripley or Sarah Connor.  We can, though, be unabashedly awesome at our jobs, fiercely protective of our young, or really good at delivering snarky one-liners in the face of gruesome death. (Though, really, spend the energy avoiding the gruesome death and save the snark for when the YouTube re-enactment is filming.) Laura Roslin certainly wasn’t perfect, but I’d sure as hell rather vote for her to be our next president instead of the choices we currently have! Yes Kaylee was naive and hopelessly pining after a man with severe commitment issues, but damn wouldn’t we all like to have her skills with engines? And come on, even a sarcastic cynic like me can appreciate a woman so positive that “there’s not a power in the `verse can make Kaylee stop being cheerful”.

Instead of encouraging girls and young women to be a Madonna-like (speaking of the Holy Virgin Mother, not the pop star, obviously) paragon, let’s teach them to celebrate the good in themselves while acknowledging the bad.  Teach them to recognize that the literary, movie, and television characters they encounter have flaws because they are based on real women.

Real women have flaws.  Battling and, if we are very lucky, over-coming those flaws makes us better women. Honestly sharing our stories, even the painful bits, can make us Big Damn Heroes for the next generation.