Partial Function
Series: An Infinity Bagua Technique, #1
Author: JCM Berne
Genre: Fantasy (Wuxia-inspired)
Book Description:
Monster hunter Akina Azure inherited the most powerful weapon in the martial world before retiring to a peaceful life raising her twin girls. The Reaver has them kidnapped, thinking Akina will trade that weapon for their safe return. Will she? Or will she use it to wreak a terrible retribution on the men who took her girls? You get one guess.
Review:
A mom who’s not going to let anything get in her way, or stop her, from freeing her daughters.
That premise is what drew me to Partial Function. I like characters like this, and I like relationship motivations, I like it when relationships move the plot.
I can say, this book is chock-full of action scenes. Fuller than any of the Hybrid Helix books I’ve read so far, I am pretty sure. I will also say that, unlike the Hybrid Helix action scenes, I seriously had trouble following some of these, but then again fight scenes aren’t my thing. I also found that all the shouting techniques further pulled me out of it: my brain imagines the scenes as they’re happening, and I just can’t see how you’d have time even if you have breath to shout out those techniques all the time!
But, once again, fight scenes aren’t my thing, so if they’re yours, I can’t say whether they’re awesome or not.
The setting, however, is pretty neat. The various paths of channeling Qi are cool, and the way they’re developed and based on different attributes of animals or other things was neat. Bears, bats, wind, and so forth. It’s neat the way the magic is related to the animals, like being fat and sleeping is important for masters of the Way of the Bear. But there can be cross-over, too. Akina starts teaching her way to someone of a different path.
The world is rather not earth-like, though that isn’t immediately evident, and you learn about in bits and pieces, though if you’ve read the Hybrid Helix, you may figure out where you are pretty quickly. I think it’s introduced in a way that works very well, though.
That’s another touch I liked. It explores a certain bit of the world a bit deeper, showing people living their lives, and touching on the edges of their culture. I thought it was neat seeing how wide the world is, and the culture of the people has touches of other cultures, but it felt very fresh and well-developed.
As for the characters, sadly, none of them really stood out to me. In general, they felt unique, and I really liked Remy the Bear. He’s solid, and loyal, and the way he fits into the Path he follows (that of the Bear) just … worked. I also enjoyed Zhu; she is more than capable of being annoying and she’s really irritating for a while, and whiny at times, but she grows, and the annoying is the sort that grows on you.
As for Akina, the main character, I liked her at times, but there were five or so times throughout the book where she said something and I just heard Rohan, and it ripped me out of the book. I just really never connected to her characterization, so I was never able to either like or hate her, cheer for her or yell at her, the way I would have wanted to.
However, she is a complex, badass female character, with a lot to feel about, if you don’t run into whatever made it hard for me to connect.
I think the distance in the book, where she’s the main character, but we often don’t know what she’s thinking or planning – or even if she is planning, and not just wildly thrashing in the hope it works out – makes it hard for me to get into her. And with that brought up – I felt like things went her way just a little too much, and too easily. The first couple of times, it was like, okay, you try something wild and strange and it works. That’s fine. But all the time? It’s not as if any one thing should not have worked, but like all of it together pulled me out of the story.
There were a handful of interactions between the characters that really stood out to me. This book challenges the classic Hero and Villain approach, but without really feeling grimdark.
And, as I said, Zhu grows on one. She starts out seeming really annoying, but she asks lots of questions, something I liked.
There’s also a very real touch of heart-breaking grief. There’s something really sad that happens, and someone I feel horrible for, the way Akina manipulated them. Not saying this is a good thing or a bad thing. If you like a touch of grief and something tragic in a story, then it’s a good thing. So I’m just letting you know, since it was a rather small amount of page-time, but I thought it was really important.
So, to recap:
The premise drew me in, and there were things I enjoyed, but I really don’t think this Wuxia thing is the genre for me. I have a feel a lot of the things I didn’t enjoy may be a main-stay of Wuxia, so if you’re into that, you’ll probably enjoy this book!
Assuming I have the slightest clue what I’m talking about 😀
Enthralled By Love 