Trial by Fire by
Lore Graham
My rating:
4 of 5 stars
*I received this book from NetGalley, and Less Than Three in return for a fair review.*‘And that’s enough for me to keep playing superhero.’ – Lacey, near end of story.
There’s several ways I can ‘read’ and ‘take’ the story. And yes, that has an impact on rating and enjoyment of the story. I chose to take the story, read it in a certain way that ended up causing the story to be an enjoyable enough read. Though I might not have liked it as well if I’d gone a different direction.
I chose to go the direction that pulls in that quote above that started me off. The ‘playing superhero’. Because this story sure did seem to be filled with amateurs, people who didn’t really seem to know what they were doing, and were largely lucky to a) find someone to fight; b) ‘win’.
Why do I say that? Amateur superheroes? Well, a lot of time and effort apparently went into recruiting a new superhero to the group – that’s good, professional. But . . . then it was all – okay, you are in, make sure to come to the meetings, here are some phone numbers, be on call. And . . . that’s that. No attempt at any kind of training. No words on what to do on a day to day basis. No words on fighting techniques. Nothing. Heck, you could have everyone be from a military or police background and there still would have been some ‘okay, I was trained to do x in a situation like y, how were you trained?’ Here, no one seems to have any kind of background training. Nor do they appear to have taken any time to even think about how they might ‘mesh’ together (‘I have fire power. As in, fire comes out of me. ‘ ‘I have the ability to run really really fast.’ ‘I’m largely unable to be hurt – largely, not sure about bullets. Oh, and I might be strong-ish’.) Nope just – you are in now. Nothing was even said about what kind of costume might be best; Elena had to ask about that.
And the action that takes place in this book? Reflects that amateur hour approach to things. Like, they just kind of noticed/made mention of someone threatening the city without doing much about it. Elena, on her own, tracked down some information. Then she got some of her new teammates to help but – even there its amateur hour. Using your own personal vehicle? Um . . . a big thing was made about hiding your personal identities but . . .. *shrugs* And, what’s up with ‘everyone’ heading to that first crisis event (after Elena joined) but only Elena and Lacy actually going into action while everyone else just kind of sat around in their cars (everyone available, some couldn't make it . . . for . . no explained reason - I mean, Elena came and she was dead asleep and had to come in her work-out clothing because she doesn't have a costume, what were the others excuses?)? No clue what anyone else on the team brings to the group, maybe they are just pretending to be superheroes – only Lacy and Elena have shown their ‘abilities’ (super speed; ability to shoot fire out of fingers). Maybe the others stayed in the cars because they lied about having any kind of abilities (I know Guardian said they had something like invulnerable skin (or similar) but they never did get involved in any of the fights so . . . lying? Just . . . too busy to get involved in the fights? Fell asleep and forgot? Amateur hour.
Can’t really blame Elena, really, for the amateurish stuff she did. Using her personal car. Basically hugging her new girlfriend out late at night in plain sight of parked cars that she has under surveillance, instead of doing the more professional thing of having separation (so one ‘blast’ of whatever, bullets, magical power, fists, doesn’t take out both superheroes), and remaining in contact by the phones they did have (there are such things as hand free devices). As said, can’t blame her because no one taught her anything. And yes, this is also why I went this direction in my read – I think the author intended the story to be read this way – it is titled ‘Trial by Fire’ – she’s just tossed out there, unguided, untrained, trial by fire indeed.
Right, so, I wrote like three pages of notes while reading this short story. Let me see if I’ve covered everything in those notes. Oh, right. There’s a weirdly sibling like vibe coming off Elena and Lacey that I know isn’t intended, since they interact in sexual relations – and can’t keep their hands off each other (especially when they should, like when they are standing around watching a bad guy late at night). Made the sex scenes oddly disturbing. Mmphs. Bad vibe. Luckily the sex in the second scene quickly turned in a direction I want nothing to do with so I just leapt over it (eww, butt sex). First one was oddly interesting and arousing, though, so eww for a different reason. Hehe. Oh right. Heh. I lead into the ‘amateur hour’ in my notes by noting that safe sex practiced, but they didn’t seem to practice safe . . . um . . . superheroing (see training and stuff like that). Bah. I kind of ranted for three pages about the amateur hour stuff in my notes so I don’t have anything else from there to add.
Okay then. So, this story is about Elena, and from her point of view. She’s a paralegal living and working in Los Angeles California. She’s a Latina, a white Latina, as she puts it (parents from Chile), and has a superpower – the ability to have mild to strong resistance to heat and fire, while also being able to generate fire from her hands. She didn’t really want to actually use her powers until she got bored and decided to join a local superhero group. The story opens with them interviewing her.
Fairly quickly she’s a member, doesn’t have a suit yet, but does have some phone numbers. Despite lacking training or a costume to wear, she’s put on call immediately. And, almost immediately, she’s out in the thick of things. Battling a villain who calls himself Consequence.
Meanwhile, on the personal front, Elena picks up a new girlfriend named Lacy. Who happens to already be a member of the same superhero group Elena has joined (this kind of makes it seem like they meet first at a supermarket or something – no, Elena meets Lacy through the group). Luckily for my own sensibilities, they don’t go immediately from meeting to love, but they do seem to get to ‘can’t stop touching you’ rather quickly.
A good interesting story. I’d like to read more in this universe. And yes, I realize that I kind of said a bunch of stuff that could be seen as negative – I saw it as positives – as these are real people attempting to ‘do stuff’ with powers in the real world instead of something like personifications of goodness . . . or something like that.
ETA: Of note: If it's important to someone - Lacy, it is quickly learned, is transgender (MtF), and hasn't fully transitioned yet (and might never have 'bottom surgery' (did have whatever it is that is done to have breasts; still has a penis. Which she calls her lady cock . . . or clit)).
Rating: 3.77
May 17 2017
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