"The Soprano Sorceress" by L.E. Modesitt Jr, basic premise, a small time opera singer is magically teleported to another world, a world where song creates magic. I give this book a D+.
"Replay" by Ken Grimwood, basic premise, a 43 year old man is magically teleported back to his earlier life, taking over the body of his younger self, but remember all he had learned, knowing what will happen. And this happens more than once. I give this book a C.
...spoiler warning : Maroon.
Both of these books deal with a normal person, finding them selves dealing with extreme culture shock. There are no rational explanations, they just have to deal. Both of these books are about the protagonists having escapist thoughts, and escaping in a much stranger way than they could have predicted. And who among us hasn't wanted to escape and have great power at some point in our lives?
Neither of the protagonists freaked out very much. I think a normal person would freak a little if they woke up back in time, or a sorceress. Or atleast think, "am I crazy?" Both books deal with this for a few pages, but our heroes soon accept the proof that even though things are wacky, they are perfectly sane. Hasn't it been said, a crazy person doesn't think they are crazy? Bad mental health transitions for both authors.
"Soprano" is about power corrupting, or at least that is what is preached at us. Power corrupts, and that's bad! But is our heroine is corrupted? No-no, not at all, and when she does something terrible it's because the bad guys gave her no choice. More than a couple of times she appoints herself judge & executioner. This could be forgivable in the beginning, when she doesn't know how to use her powers, but by the third time of her fretting over having been forced to use deadly terrible force, you would think she could have found a subtler way. Oh well, what did I expect, she is a soprano after all. And finally, where the heck did she get the ability to stay calm in battle? Just natural I guess. It was kinda boring, kinda a chore to finish it.
"Replay" is about knowing then, what you know now. Easy, buy Microsoft stock. But for all of the cash the hero makes, not once in the book does the IRS look funny at him. Within the first year he makes big fat crazy money off a couple of sport bets, and no real issues there from either the mob or the feds. A question brought up is, who are your friends, are they the biological person, or the person you've went through experiences with together? "50 first dates" does a much better job of showing, what would it be like if you had to meet someone over and over again. It wouldn't necessarily work out the same way twice. The book dealt poorly with relationships, and the female characters seem one dimensional, although in they sometimes change dimensions in different replays. Maybe the character wasn't good at relationships, it seems the only way he could show gratitude to those he was emotionally indebted to was by giving stock tips. I read it quickly, but it wasn't good.
How would you change the world if you had great powers? Modesitt's heroine seeks to solve all the world's problems with broad strokes of power.
Grimwood's hero goes for more money, and more sex.
In the book I'm reading (Spoiler warning: Maroon)...The Time Traveler's Wife...
Since it is a time travel book, there are some parts that the time traveler uses his ability to time travel to his and his friends' advantage by buying a winning lotto ticket or buy giving stock market tips. For a while there, I thought he was being good by not sharing this information - it seemed like it was going that way, but that changed soon enough.
Posted by: Heather at March 16, 2005 07:33 AMBummer. Those are two of my favorite premises. Charles De Lint has a few characters who create magic through art - one whose paintings create life. I enjoy them in a fluffy way. There's little deep exploration of power corruption there, either. She never paints herself the ideal man, or anything. Good thing I can't paint.
P.S. stop making Mark think that we would abuse the time fork. I'm still trying to borrow it for my birthday.
Posted by: Michelle at March 16, 2005 12:36 PM