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Spirits of Fire
Haruki Kawakatsu should have died.
The Spirit of Fire had other plans. Now, forced to represent Japan as its top superpower in the international superhuman community & the U.N., he will fight not just international superhuman terrorists, but rogue gods and pharmaceutical companies selling superpowers in pill form.
And his ultimate enemy, the rogue God of War, holds the key to his past from before he was even born.
The Spirit of Fire had other plans. Now, forced to represent Japan as its top superpower in the international superhuman community & the U.N., he will fight not just international superhuman terrorists, but rogue gods and pharmaceutical companies selling superpowers in pill form.
And his ultimate enemy, the rogue God of War, holds the key to his past from before he was even born.
194 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
November 6, 2026
I read just about everything: novels in multiple genres, books from different cultures of origin, classics, occasional comics, manga, high brow, low brow, etc. I’ve been wanting to experiment with light novels recently and saw Spirits of Fire on Amazon, normally priced at .99c, on special offer - so $0.00. I’m not going to pass that up and at first glance it looked like a light novel.
If I had done a little more digging I would have seen that it was written by an Alejandro Gonzalez, an author born and raised in the US, and that the book was only 200 pages and had no reviews on goodreads (It had a few good reviews on Amazon). Ok, not exactly what I wanted or was expecting, but I’m ok experimenting with a Western take on anime tropes and I grabbed the book for free.
Within a few pages I started to wonder if I had accidentally picked up an AI book. Having finished it, I can’t really say for certain (I don’t want to jump to conclusions because that can be very damaging to an author's reputation). What made me think it could be AI was the whiplash fast pacing, reductive/summarized storytelling, and strange verbiage. However, it was missing a lot of the other tell-tale signs often associated with LLMs. What I think is more likely is that the book was human written, but I speculate that the author ran it through some kind of editing software that made suggestions that he accepted without thinking, creating this weird overly formal prose where a lot of descriptive words were used while the book as a whole lacked actual description. Sorry, it’s kind of hard to describe. There’s just something about the prose that felt . . . unnatural.
This has also got to be one of the flattest, blandest, most lifeless stories I’ve ever read. I think that is in large part due to the page count. Although I typically read longer books, that doesn’t mean I have anything against shorter stories. However, the pacing has to account for the length. Spirits of Fire feels like a much bigger story condensed down to 200 pages, but without removing any content, meaning that everything is breezed through with no time given to develop characters, plot points, create intrigue, or add any flavor to the story. It’s reduced to the bare-bones of what is necessary and everything suffers for it.
This is a superhero anime-esque story, you know, the medium known for batshit insane, Earth shattering fist fights between wacky, overpowered characters. And yet Spirits of Fire, while having all of that in theory, bored me with its clinical fight scenes that practically read like lists: A punch was thrown. A kick landed. Blows were exchanged. Another punch was thrown.
The characters were robotic shells whose only purpose was to carry the contrived plot from beginning to end. Haruki, the protagonist, was overpowered, but in the bad way. There’s no Saitama or Mob here, just a blue haired god who is handed power-up after power-up without an ounce of actual effort or personal growth. The book might give the illusion of struggle, but that’s all it was, an illusion. The thesaurus afflicted prose also made him read like every other character, offering no sense of depth or emotional relatability.
Halfway through the book I had to wonder why Haruki’s Spirit of Fire ability . . . granted no fire ability. Having absorbed the Spirit of Lightning, he got electromagnetic powers, but for some reason the Spirit of Fire gives you super strength, super speed, flight, healing, etc. - but no fire. How boring. Also, Haruki has blue hair . . . for no other reason than because he’s an anime protagonist . . . because the individual he reincarnated from has red hair. Yeah, it’s stupid.
And don’t think for a minute that I can’t enjoy dumb-fun literature. I love me some mindless entertainment, but Spirits of Fire was so flavorless that I can’t even give it that. I hate to be mean, and I never want to dissuade authors from pursuing their passion, but that’s why I refuse to hand out pity ratings or reviews. Author, if this is the feedback you need to improve, then please:
- The story had several confusing plot elements, particularly surrounding the Spirit of Earth. I finished the book and I'm not stupid, so I should not be sitting here with no idea who the Spirt of Earth is.
- The superheroes had extraordinarily dumb names that don't even work as a joke . . . speaking of, some of your Amazon reviews commented on the humor. I have no idea what they're talking about. Was there humor in this story? Did they read the same thing I did?
- You're bio on Amazon says "His stories contain loads of social commentary." You better not be talking about this one, because just saying "governments are corrupt" and putting a gay character in your book is not the same thing as "Social commentary" since it lacks the oh so important "commentary" part.
- Please, please, please learn how to write fight scenes. It's not the same thing as a grocery list.
- And Haruki liking music and food is not the same thing as a "personality"
- If you want more specific feedback, I made plenty of notes and highlights.
There's just . . . nothing here.
If I had done a little more digging I would have seen that it was written by an Alejandro Gonzalez, an author born and raised in the US, and that the book was only 200 pages and had no reviews on goodreads (It had a few good reviews on Amazon). Ok, not exactly what I wanted or was expecting, but I’m ok experimenting with a Western take on anime tropes and I grabbed the book for free.
Within a few pages I started to wonder if I had accidentally picked up an AI book. Having finished it, I can’t really say for certain (I don’t want to jump to conclusions because that can be very damaging to an author's reputation). What made me think it could be AI was the whiplash fast pacing, reductive/summarized storytelling, and strange verbiage. However, it was missing a lot of the other tell-tale signs often associated with LLMs. What I think is more likely is that the book was human written, but I speculate that the author ran it through some kind of editing software that made suggestions that he accepted without thinking, creating this weird overly formal prose where a lot of descriptive words were used while the book as a whole lacked actual description. Sorry, it’s kind of hard to describe. There’s just something about the prose that felt . . . unnatural.
This has also got to be one of the flattest, blandest, most lifeless stories I’ve ever read. I think that is in large part due to the page count. Although I typically read longer books, that doesn’t mean I have anything against shorter stories. However, the pacing has to account for the length. Spirits of Fire feels like a much bigger story condensed down to 200 pages, but without removing any content, meaning that everything is breezed through with no time given to develop characters, plot points, create intrigue, or add any flavor to the story. It’s reduced to the bare-bones of what is necessary and everything suffers for it.
This is a superhero anime-esque story, you know, the medium known for batshit insane, Earth shattering fist fights between wacky, overpowered characters. And yet Spirits of Fire, while having all of that in theory, bored me with its clinical fight scenes that practically read like lists: A punch was thrown. A kick landed. Blows were exchanged. Another punch was thrown.
The characters were robotic shells whose only purpose was to carry the contrived plot from beginning to end. Haruki, the protagonist, was overpowered, but in the bad way. There’s no Saitama or Mob here, just a blue haired god who is handed power-up after power-up without an ounce of actual effort or personal growth. The book might give the illusion of struggle, but that’s all it was, an illusion. The thesaurus afflicted prose also made him read like every other character, offering no sense of depth or emotional relatability.
Halfway through the book I had to wonder why Haruki’s Spirit of Fire ability . . . granted no fire ability. Having absorbed the Spirit of Lightning, he got electromagnetic powers, but for some reason the Spirit of Fire gives you super strength, super speed, flight, healing, etc. - but no fire. How boring. Also, Haruki has blue hair . . . for no other reason than because he’s an anime protagonist . . . because the individual he reincarnated from has red hair. Yeah, it’s stupid.
And don’t think for a minute that I can’t enjoy dumb-fun literature. I love me some mindless entertainment, but Spirits of Fire was so flavorless that I can’t even give it that. I hate to be mean, and I never want to dissuade authors from pursuing their passion, but that’s why I refuse to hand out pity ratings or reviews. Author, if this is the feedback you need to improve, then please:
- The story had several confusing plot elements, particularly surrounding the Spirit of Earth. I finished the book and I'm not stupid, so I should not be sitting here with no idea who the Spirt of Earth is.
- The superheroes had extraordinarily dumb names that don't even work as a joke . . . speaking of, some of your Amazon reviews commented on the humor. I have no idea what they're talking about. Was there humor in this story? Did they read the same thing I did?
- You're bio on Amazon says "His stories contain loads of social commentary." You better not be talking about this one, because just saying "governments are corrupt" and putting a gay character in your book is not the same thing as "Social commentary" since it lacks the oh so important "commentary" part.
- Please, please, please learn how to write fight scenes. It's not the same thing as a grocery list.
- And Haruki liking music and food is not the same thing as a "personality"
- If you want more specific feedback, I made plenty of notes and highlights.
There's just . . . nothing here.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review