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Micropowers #2
Duplex
Ryan wakes up to find his contractor dad building walls to turn their big old house into a duplex. The family that moves into the other side includes Bizzy Horvat, the pretty girl he has a crush on at school. Bizzy claims her mother is a witch with the power to curse people with clumsiness or, in Bizzy’s case, astonishing beauty.
When a bee gets caught in Bizzy’s hair, Ryan acts so quickly and radically to save her from getting stung that he attracts the attention of a group of micropotents — people with micropowers. He soon realizes that Bizzy and her mother also have such powers. It becomes Ryan’s job, with the help of the other micropotents, to protect the Horvats from a group of witch hunters from their native country, who are determined to kill Bizzy, her mother, and all the other “witches” — micropotents — who have gathered to protect them
When a bee gets caught in Bizzy’s hair, Ryan acts so quickly and radically to save her from getting stung that he attracts the attention of a group of micropotents — people with micropowers. He soon realizes that Bizzy and her mother also have such powers. It becomes Ryan’s job, with the help of the other micropotents, to protect the Horvats from a group of witch hunters from their native country, who are determined to kill Bizzy, her mother, and all the other “witches” — micropotents — who have gathered to protect them
293 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 2021
80 people are currently reading
2940 people want to read
About the author
Orson Scott Card
884 books20.8k followersOrson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
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May 7, 2021
Duplex
A Micropowers Novel
by Orson Scott Card
Blackstone Publishing
I want to thank the author, publisher, and NetGalley for letting me read this fantastic fantasy book!
This is a young adult/teen novel but I enjoyed it and I am a senior! (Of course I have been reading this author's books since he first put his books out!) This book is about family, acceptance, being different, and love. Yes, it has romance in it. I never read romance but these two have mini super powers so it's ok! ;)
Ryan is junior in high school and the smartest kid in school. He doesn't even study. His mom and dad split up a few months ago and now his dad turned their house into a duplex to rent out the other half. Ryan doesn't even know where his dad is staying.
The most gorgeous girl moves in next door. He met her at school. What attracted him to her was her quick wit and she was smarter than he was! She was also pretty but he really liked her for her!
Come to find out, through some strange situations, that Ryan and Buzzy, the girl he likes, have mini super powers! They aren't alone! There is several people with it. One of those is Buzz yes mom. "Witch hunters" have been following her for years that's why they move often. Now they have found them again. They also now know about the kids.
The group of kids, with their mini super powers, plan to use their powers for defense and security! It gets suspenseful briefly but amazing and humorous at times too! How do you turn the super power of knowing how many belly buttons are nearby into an advantage? Or make someone yawn?
This is a great novel that had me interested throughout the book. Sad in spots with family issues and giggling in spots with the silly powers the kids have. Everything this author writes is gold!
A Micropowers Novel
by Orson Scott Card
Blackstone Publishing
I want to thank the author, publisher, and NetGalley for letting me read this fantastic fantasy book!
This is a young adult/teen novel but I enjoyed it and I am a senior! (Of course I have been reading this author's books since he first put his books out!) This book is about family, acceptance, being different, and love. Yes, it has romance in it. I never read romance but these two have mini super powers so it's ok! ;)
Ryan is junior in high school and the smartest kid in school. He doesn't even study. His mom and dad split up a few months ago and now his dad turned their house into a duplex to rent out the other half. Ryan doesn't even know where his dad is staying.
The most gorgeous girl moves in next door. He met her at school. What attracted him to her was her quick wit and she was smarter than he was! She was also pretty but he really liked her for her!
Come to find out, through some strange situations, that Ryan and Buzzy, the girl he likes, have mini super powers! They aren't alone! There is several people with it. One of those is Buzz yes mom. "Witch hunters" have been following her for years that's why they move often. Now they have found them again. They also now know about the kids.
The group of kids, with their mini super powers, plan to use their powers for defense and security! It gets suspenseful briefly but amazing and humorous at times too! How do you turn the super power of knowing how many belly buttons are nearby into an advantage? Or make someone yawn?
This is a great novel that had me interested throughout the book. Sad in spots with family issues and giggling in spots with the silly powers the kids have. Everything this author writes is gold!
October 29, 2021
First of all, totally didn’t know this was book two of a series. Second, it was still a really good book!! The bizarreness is fun and humorous and unlike anything I’ve ever read before. This whole idea of micropowers was so interesting and seemed really believable to me. Like almost anyone could have a micropower and it’s such a small impact that no one else would know. Very intriguing.
Bizzy is absolutely my favorite character! She’s sweet, funny, smart, and more than keeps up with Ryan. He’s adorable and all, but Bizzy just kind of steals the show. Her mother is also an interesting character and I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side. I picture her as a superstitious woman who will totally spit on the ground to ward off evil. Which I find totally awesome for whatever reason. LOL!
Anyway, the plot is really entertaining and I was eager to see what the fate of Bizzy and Ryan would be. Will bad things happen to them?! How will they get out of tight spots?!?! Does Ryan’s micropower work in all the right situations?!?! Or will things come crashing down around them?? Such drama and a good dash of comedy thrown in too.
I recommend this to those who enjoy young adult books with a little superhero-ishness, humor, some action, danger, a bit of love, and a lot of growing up. There’s a lot to enjoy with this one!!
Thanks so much to NetGalley, Blackstone Publishing, and Orson Scott Card for the opportunity to read this for my honest and unbiased opinion!!!
Bizzy is absolutely my favorite character! She’s sweet, funny, smart, and more than keeps up with Ryan. He’s adorable and all, but Bizzy just kind of steals the show. Her mother is also an interesting character and I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side. I picture her as a superstitious woman who will totally spit on the ground to ward off evil. Which I find totally awesome for whatever reason. LOL!
Anyway, the plot is really entertaining and I was eager to see what the fate of Bizzy and Ryan would be. Will bad things happen to them?! How will they get out of tight spots?!?! Does Ryan’s micropower work in all the right situations?!?! Or will things come crashing down around them?? Such drama and a good dash of comedy thrown in too.
I recommend this to those who enjoy young adult books with a little superhero-ishness, humor, some action, danger, a bit of love, and a lot of growing up. There’s a lot to enjoy with this one!!
Thanks so much to NetGalley, Blackstone Publishing, and Orson Scott Card for the opportunity to read this for my honest and unbiased opinion!!!
August 22, 2021
My experience with Orson Scott Card up to this point had only been through his classic Ender’s Game saga. I wasn’t sure what to expect from him outside of that genre and those characters and wasn’t at all prepared for what I found in Duplex. All of the OSC tropes are there: hyper-intelligent kid, expository dialogue that doubles as a moral lecture to the reader, and a sarcasm that wavers between smarmy and witty. At his best, Card utilizes these constant components to his benefit. At his worst, it results in trite and clunky prose that breathes an aura of i-am-really-smart.
Duplex mostly sits between those extremes, though it hovers nearer to the lower end. I never could figure out who Card’s target audience was supposed to be. It’s a middle grade level plot worthy of a Disney Channel Original Movie, is allegedly written for a YA audience, and has teenage characters who in no way talk like teenagers. Ryan is just a normal kid with a normal life until his parents split up and their big house is literally split up to make the titular duplex. Ryan’s dad moves out and Bizzy’s family moves in.
Bizzy and Ryan become fast friends and Bizzy reveals to Ryan that her mom is a witch who can curse people with clumsiness—or, in Bizzy’s case—with astonishing beauty. Card does a pretty terrible job of explaining how this all works. Ryan seems to be the only person immune to Bizzy’s beauty, which prevents her from making friends as it makes the girls jealous and boys tongue-tied (what even.). It’s a cute, if dorky story that just keeps going on and on, interrupted only by scenes that are supposed to explain 1) how poor Ryan’s family is and 2) how much of a jerk his parents are.
I’m pretty sure that the second point was supposed to be that Ryan’s dad is tough-love and hard-work, but there’s an extended scene with him lambasting Ryan for laziness (though it’s not his fault entirely, because all kids are lazy), refusing to give him a job because he won’t work hard, excoriating him for not doing more chores, and projecting a smarmy know-it-all-ness that made me certain that Card’s intention was to portray him as an over-the-top villain. Nope. Dad’s the good guy. It’s Mom who got a secret abortion and played it off as a miscarriage and that secret coming out is what led to the family’s separation. (And that bombshell is just sort of dropped in from left field and never explored, either).
Anyway, the story is actually about how Ryan learns that he has superpowers when he cuts off his sister’s hair and puts a bee in his mouth. I’m not even kidding. A bee gets tangled in his sister’s hair and stings her. Ryan, so very quickly, grabs scissors and cuts the hair off to #freethebee and flicks the stinger out of sister’s scalp. She goes into anaphylactic shock and almost dies, but the doctors say she would have died if Ryan hadn’t acted so quickly. Further, another bee almost flies into Bizzy’s hair, but Ryan valiantly bats it away and then puts it in his mouth before blowing it away from his friend. I am not making any of this up.
As it would turn out, such a feat is not the result of anything natural. Ryan has a superpower…well, a micropower. Bizzy does, too. So does her mom. And so do a group of people who are banding together to study their weird and mostly useless powers. Of course, the micropowers turn out not to be useless and save them from the Slovenian terrorists trying to kidnap Bizzy.
I’ll give Card this: while I was reading the book, I wanted to know what happened next. I liked Bizzy and Ryan. There was potential here. Despite all of the wild things above, he had me invested in the story. But, wow, was this book something. Outside of Bizzy and Ryan, Card fails to develop any of his characters at all. The dialogue is clunky. The pacing is uneven. The action is anemic (until the final, or should I say only, battle).
My experience with Duplex could be summarized by this passage from the book:
“You forget what an incredible stud by little brother is,” said Bizzy. “I think the only thing wrong when he kisses girls is that they can’t stop squealing in excitement, which means that they’re always blowing down his throat, which makes a horrible burping sound.”
“Seriously?” asked Ryan.
She clamped her mouth over his and squealed. The air she expelled made a burping sound going down his throat. He pulled away from the kiss. “You have now officially ruined kissing,” he said.
Except in my version, I’m Ryan, Orson Scott Card is Bizzy, and the squealing is this book being shoved down my throat. It’s officially ruined Orson Scott Card books for me.
Duplex mostly sits between those extremes, though it hovers nearer to the lower end. I never could figure out who Card’s target audience was supposed to be. It’s a middle grade level plot worthy of a Disney Channel Original Movie, is allegedly written for a YA audience, and has teenage characters who in no way talk like teenagers. Ryan is just a normal kid with a normal life until his parents split up and their big house is literally split up to make the titular duplex. Ryan’s dad moves out and Bizzy’s family moves in.
Bizzy and Ryan become fast friends and Bizzy reveals to Ryan that her mom is a witch who can curse people with clumsiness—or, in Bizzy’s case—with astonishing beauty. Card does a pretty terrible job of explaining how this all works. Ryan seems to be the only person immune to Bizzy’s beauty, which prevents her from making friends as it makes the girls jealous and boys tongue-tied (what even.). It’s a cute, if dorky story that just keeps going on and on, interrupted only by scenes that are supposed to explain 1) how poor Ryan’s family is and 2) how much of a jerk his parents are.
I’m pretty sure that the second point was supposed to be that Ryan’s dad is tough-love and hard-work, but there’s an extended scene with him lambasting Ryan for laziness (though it’s not his fault entirely, because all kids are lazy), refusing to give him a job because he won’t work hard, excoriating him for not doing more chores, and projecting a smarmy know-it-all-ness that made me certain that Card’s intention was to portray him as an over-the-top villain. Nope. Dad’s the good guy. It’s Mom who got a secret abortion and played it off as a miscarriage and that secret coming out is what led to the family’s separation. (And that bombshell is just sort of dropped in from left field and never explored, either).
Anyway, the story is actually about how Ryan learns that he has superpowers when he cuts off his sister’s hair and puts a bee in his mouth. I’m not even kidding. A bee gets tangled in his sister’s hair and stings her. Ryan, so very quickly, grabs scissors and cuts the hair off to #freethebee and flicks the stinger out of sister’s scalp. She goes into anaphylactic shock and almost dies, but the doctors say she would have died if Ryan hadn’t acted so quickly. Further, another bee almost flies into Bizzy’s hair, but Ryan valiantly bats it away and then puts it in his mouth before blowing it away from his friend. I am not making any of this up.
As it would turn out, such a feat is not the result of anything natural. Ryan has a superpower…well, a micropower. Bizzy does, too. So does her mom. And so do a group of people who are banding together to study their weird and mostly useless powers. Of course, the micropowers turn out not to be useless and save them from the Slovenian terrorists trying to kidnap Bizzy.
I’ll give Card this: while I was reading the book, I wanted to know what happened next. I liked Bizzy and Ryan. There was potential here. Despite all of the wild things above, he had me invested in the story. But, wow, was this book something. Outside of Bizzy and Ryan, Card fails to develop any of his characters at all. The dialogue is clunky. The pacing is uneven. The action is anemic (until the final, or should I say only, battle).
My experience with Duplex could be summarized by this passage from the book:
“You forget what an incredible stud by little brother is,” said Bizzy. “I think the only thing wrong when he kisses girls is that they can’t stop squealing in excitement, which means that they’re always blowing down his throat, which makes a horrible burping sound.”
“Seriously?” asked Ryan.
She clamped her mouth over his and squealed. The air she expelled made a burping sound going down his throat. He pulled away from the kiss. “You have now officially ruined kissing,” he said.
Except in my version, I’m Ryan, Orson Scott Card is Bizzy, and the squealing is this book being shoved down my throat. It’s officially ruined Orson Scott Card books for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 4, 2021
Really enjoyed this "micropwers" YA fantasy book!
I've been a fan of author Orson Scott Card for a long time, so was excited to hear he had a new book coming out, and really enjoyed Duplex!
The idea of Micropowers- small, often silly super powers certain people have was delightfully played out, and really caught my interest right away! I liked Ryan as the hero, but Bizzy stole my heart with her wit and humor. This is a fun, engaging fantasy with likable characters and fantastic world building.
Duplex proves that author Orson Scott Card continues to create original fantasy worlds that could be right next door.
Thank you Netgalley for this ebook arc.
I've been a fan of author Orson Scott Card for a long time, so was excited to hear he had a new book coming out, and really enjoyed Duplex!
The idea of Micropowers- small, often silly super powers certain people have was delightfully played out, and really caught my interest right away! I liked Ryan as the hero, but Bizzy stole my heart with her wit and humor. This is a fun, engaging fantasy with likable characters and fantastic world building.
Duplex proves that author Orson Scott Card continues to create original fantasy worlds that could be right next door.
Thank you Netgalley for this ebook arc.
September 13, 2021
I was pretty intrigued about the premise of this book, instead of people having superpowers they have micropowers. They can do small things like making someone yawn or knowing if there are any spiders in the area. They're definitely unique and in some cases can actually make a big impact.
The plot unfolds kind of slowly and takes a bit to really get into the story. Ryan is dealing with his father's sudden departure and having his home turned into a duplex. Then a new girl moves in and Ryan is drawn to her. After he saves her from a bee attack, Bizzy introduces Ryan to the world of micropowers and those who hunt the people who have them.
There were fun parts of this, I especially liked seeing Ryan fight off the FBI imposters, and some cool action scenes. I couldn't quite tell if the world was supposed to be contemporary or not, it was a bit ambiguous. I also thought the side plot with Ryan's parents fighting seemed a bit odd and got unexpectedly heavy. I wanted more of Ryan being awesome with his ability and think this would be an interesting graphic novel.
I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all opinions are my own. Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for a complementary copy of this book
The plot unfolds kind of slowly and takes a bit to really get into the story. Ryan is dealing with his father's sudden departure and having his home turned into a duplex. Then a new girl moves in and Ryan is drawn to her. After he saves her from a bee attack, Bizzy introduces Ryan to the world of micropowers and those who hunt the people who have them.
There were fun parts of this, I especially liked seeing Ryan fight off the FBI imposters, and some cool action scenes. I couldn't quite tell if the world was supposed to be contemporary or not, it was a bit ambiguous. I also thought the side plot with Ryan's parents fighting seemed a bit odd and got unexpectedly heavy. I wanted more of Ryan being awesome with his ability and think this would be an interesting graphic novel.
I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all opinions are my own. Thank you to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for a complementary copy of this book
April 13, 2022
Disclosure: I have read 30+ books by OSC and haven't found any I dislike. I probably have unofficial enderverse citizenship or something so take my review with a grain of salt.
This is a very Dean Koontz-type title from Card. Ryan is a highschool student in Virginia. The book starts with a divorce literally splitting Ryan's home. He learns some hard lessons about family and life. He has a crush on the girl who moves into the other half of their house (now a duplex).
The girl's mom is nuts... but you're not actually paranoid if someone is coming for you, right?
We learn about Ryan's micropower (like a superpower but smaller) and the micropowers of the people around him. Also, people with these micropowers used to be persecuted as witches. Hot girl's crazy mom? Yeah she's from Slovenia and the bad guys are witch hunters from the old country.
There's a club of people with micropowers called Grut: the group of rare and useless talents. If this group actually existed, I would want to join. Belly buttons and spiders... anyways.
This was a blast to read. Will probably reread eventually. Looking for book 1.
This is a very Dean Koontz-type title from Card. Ryan is a highschool student in Virginia. The book starts with a divorce literally splitting Ryan's home. He learns some hard lessons about family and life. He has a crush on the girl who moves into the other half of their house (now a duplex).
The girl's mom is nuts... but you're not actually paranoid if someone is coming for you, right?
We learn about Ryan's micropower (like a superpower but smaller) and the micropowers of the people around him. Also, people with these micropowers used to be persecuted as witches. Hot girl's crazy mom? Yeah she's from Slovenia and the bad guys are witch hunters from the old country.
There's a club of people with micropowers called Grut: the group of rare and useless talents. If this group actually existed, I would want to join. Belly buttons and spiders... anyways.
This was a blast to read. Will probably reread eventually. Looking for book 1.
May 6, 2024
I mostly like OSC but not in Duplex. I had to use the brown Listerine to get that taste out of my mouth.
July 6, 2023
I started reading this book and had to check what I was reading… hadn’t I read this before? As a big fan of Card I’ve read most of his works, at this point though it becoming repetitive, if you’d never read one of his you may enjoy this. But his default characters are continually unlikeable. I enjoyed lost and found but this and wakers are picture perfect the same (also several others of his, cough, cough, ender) a young weak boy is smarter than everyone and kind of an ass, then he meets a girl they “fall in love” at some ridiculously young age, and then bicker like they’ve been married for 40 years the rest of the book. More mature and understanding each other better than anyone else, because everyone else is an idiot. They have awesome powers but they sometimes hurt people so the powers are bad, so let’s whine about it.
At the end of the day this book had some fun ideas but for trying to be within our reality it lives far enough outside of reality to kind of piss off the reader. Also answer some questions… where does the mom go everyday? Where the heck was Bizzys dad the whole book? He shows up randomly and is supposed to be some thug of a guy but helps not one iota. To many hanging pieces, and as a Card fan I feel it’s a phoned in job.
At the end of the day this book had some fun ideas but for trying to be within our reality it lives far enough outside of reality to kind of piss off the reader. Also answer some questions… where does the mom go everyday? Where the heck was Bizzys dad the whole book? He shows up randomly and is supposed to be some thug of a guy but helps not one iota. To many hanging pieces, and as a Card fan I feel it’s a phoned in job.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 10, 2022
This was a good follow-up to Card's Lost and Found. Same world, some of the same supporting characters, but a new protagonist with a new micropower. Once again, it turned out a little darker than I expected. Not Life-Is-Meaningless-And-Evil grim, but with the main characters being high school age, it didn't pull any punches either.
I enjoyed it, and if you liked Lost and Found you'll like this. Though, thinking about it, I can't remember anything that would have been spoiled if you read them in the opposite order.
I enjoyed it, and if you liked Lost and Found you'll like this. Though, thinking about it, I can't remember anything that would have been spoiled if you read them in the opposite order.
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April 29, 2023Darn you, Orson Scott Card!
I like to listen to an audiobook while I mow the lawn, but I listened to the final emotional chapter of this one just before pulling out the mower, and I couldn't bring myself to start on a new book or even listen to music while I was mowing. I needed to give this one time to process!
A quick look at the book for anyone who didn't read a synopsis before reading this: the book is about two teenagers who discover that they have "micropowers" - sort of like very tiny superpowers. For example, there is one character in the book who can make people yawn. That's it... she can make them yawn. Without yawning herself, without saying anything to them. That's what the micropowers are like. I won't tell you what Ryan and Bizzy's micropowers are, but they are pretty astounding! It turns out that someone is trying to kidnap or kill Bizzy, and Ryan winds up doing everything he can to save her, including activating his micropower. In the process (of course), they fall in love.
At its heart, this book seems to me to be about what makes people special. Are you special if you have a micropower? What if your micropower is that you've learned to play the piano? What if you can draw? What if your micropower is that you can make a goofy face and get people to laugh? Is your whole specialness-of-self wrapped up in that one thing? The book would say no. Although that is part of who you are, it's not the only part of who you are. And it's not the reason that people who love you, love you.
OSC is really good at writing male characters with an analytical mind. That's probably why Ender’s Game is such an amazing piece of work. I always feel like his female characters start off as guys in dresses, and become more feminine as the story progresses. Could this be because the story is being told through Ryan's male eyes? First he becomes Bizzy's friend because of her mind, which thinks a bit like his, then later he begins to notice the "girl" things about her? Quite possibly - Bizzy's micropower is linked pretty strongly to her gender, and at the beginning everybody notices it (more or less) except Ryan, who barely registers it at all. (And guys, if that last sentence hasn't got you curious, nothing will! No, her micropower doesn't have anything to do with THOSE.)
In the end I think Bizzy comes off as a well-written female character. I say this having just finished The Cottingley Secret, a book written by a woman and filled with mostly female characters. Bizzy doesn't reach the level of girl-ness that the characters in that book do. But then again, in that book we are inside the female characters' heads and we are privy to their thought processes. Bizzy isn't that degree of empathetic, just because Ryan's head is the one we are inside, but both she and Ryan, and Ryan's sister and his mom and dad (who are having their own problems) come off as believable characters that you are sorry to leave behind when you finish the story.
And that's why I needed processing time after I finished the last chapter. Sure, there is adventure and mystery and friendship and love and loss and high school politics (even a schoolyard brawl), and all those things are great fun. But good characters are what makes a good book a great book. The characters you miss when the book is over. The ones you cheer for when they win and hurt for when they lose. The ones you hope for a sequel for, so maybe the things they lost can be restored!
Apparently this is the second book of a Micropowers Series - I lost may way in the Enderverse long ago, but maybe I can keep up this time! My next project is to go back and listen to book #1, Lost and Found. Let's see if other micropotents are as interesting as Ryan and Bizzy!
I like to listen to an audiobook while I mow the lawn, but I listened to the final emotional chapter of this one just before pulling out the mower, and I couldn't bring myself to start on a new book or even listen to music while I was mowing. I needed to give this one time to process!
A quick look at the book for anyone who didn't read a synopsis before reading this: the book is about two teenagers who discover that they have "micropowers" - sort of like very tiny superpowers. For example, there is one character in the book who can make people yawn. That's it... she can make them yawn. Without yawning herself, without saying anything to them. That's what the micropowers are like. I won't tell you what Ryan and Bizzy's micropowers are, but they are pretty astounding! It turns out that someone is trying to kidnap or kill Bizzy, and Ryan winds up doing everything he can to save her, including activating his micropower. In the process (of course), they fall in love.
At its heart, this book seems to me to be about what makes people special. Are you special if you have a micropower? What if your micropower is that you've learned to play the piano? What if you can draw? What if your micropower is that you can make a goofy face and get people to laugh? Is your whole specialness-of-self wrapped up in that one thing? The book would say no. Although that is part of who you are, it's not the only part of who you are. And it's not the reason that people who love you, love you.
OSC is really good at writing male characters with an analytical mind. That's probably why Ender’s Game is such an amazing piece of work. I always feel like his female characters start off as guys in dresses, and become more feminine as the story progresses. Could this be because the story is being told through Ryan's male eyes? First he becomes Bizzy's friend because of her mind, which thinks a bit like his, then later he begins to notice the "girl" things about her? Quite possibly - Bizzy's micropower is linked pretty strongly to her gender, and at the beginning everybody notices it (more or less) except Ryan, who barely registers it at all. (And guys, if that last sentence hasn't got you curious, nothing will! No, her micropower doesn't have anything to do with THOSE.)
In the end I think Bizzy comes off as a well-written female character. I say this having just finished The Cottingley Secret, a book written by a woman and filled with mostly female characters. Bizzy doesn't reach the level of girl-ness that the characters in that book do. But then again, in that book we are inside the female characters' heads and we are privy to their thought processes. Bizzy isn't that degree of empathetic, just because Ryan's head is the one we are inside, but both she and Ryan, and Ryan's sister and his mom and dad (who are having their own problems) come off as believable characters that you are sorry to leave behind when you finish the story.
And that's why I needed processing time after I finished the last chapter. Sure, there is adventure and mystery and friendship and love and loss and high school politics (even a schoolyard brawl), and all those things are great fun. But good characters are what makes a good book a great book. The characters you miss when the book is over. The ones you cheer for when they win and hurt for when they lose. The ones you hope for a sequel for, so maybe the things they lost can be restored!
Apparently this is the second book of a Micropowers Series - I lost may way in the Enderverse long ago, but maybe I can keep up this time! My next project is to go back and listen to book #1, Lost and Found. Let's see if other micropotents are as interesting as Ryan and Bizzy!
January 6, 2022
1st book of 2022:
This is the second and I hope not last in the Micropowers series. Micropowers, lots of people have them. Unlike superpowers who only happen in the movies Micropowers are just that (for the most part) small powers that in day to day life don't often add up to much. Being able to make people yawn. Knowing where all the spiders are. Being able to know if someone has an innie or outie bellybutton. Things like that. Bizzy moves to town and Ryan befriends her and starts having feelings for her. Bizzy has a micropower, she can change her face from pretty to mind numbingly stunning. There are people from Bizzy's mother's home country hunting her because she has a micropower of her own, has been branded a witch and slated for death. Then we discover Ryan too has a micropower, the ability to act faster than thought to protect someone he loves or feels responsible for. The story builds from there. Bad men getting closer, more details on micropower, the extent Ryan can go to to protect the girl he loves. I don't see this as young adult, it's just very good writing for any age group.
Spoiler thought's below:
This is the second and I hope not last in the Micropowers series. Micropowers, lots of people have them. Unlike superpowers who only happen in the movies Micropowers are just that (for the most part) small powers that in day to day life don't often add up to much. Being able to make people yawn. Knowing where all the spiders are. Being able to know if someone has an innie or outie bellybutton. Things like that. Bizzy moves to town and Ryan befriends her and starts having feelings for her. Bizzy has a micropower, she can change her face from pretty to mind numbingly stunning. There are people from Bizzy's mother's home country hunting her because she has a micropower of her own, has been branded a witch and slated for death. Then we discover Ryan too has a micropower, the ability to act faster than thought to protect someone he loves or feels responsible for. The story builds from there. Bad men getting closer, more details on micropower, the extent Ryan can go to to protect the girl he loves. I don't see this as young adult, it's just very good writing for any age group.
Spoiler thought's below:
June 5, 2021
My appreciation to Blackstone Publishing, NetGalley, and indirectly to Orson Scott Card for an early-access digital copy in return for an unbiased review.
Like many of my generation, I was floored by Ender's Game in the mid 1980s. It was a story about an exceptional child doing exceptional things and understanding that with those powers comes exceptional responsibility.
Two concepts remained with me. First, that Card went into great detail to explain what it was inside Ender that made him who he was. It was very easy to identify with Ender, even though I was never a candidate to become a genius military strategist. And second, the story of his two siblings was an idealized snapshot of what, eventually, has turned into places like Reddit and local message boards. The only pieces Card missed were that anonymity invariably turns people into narcissistic jerks and no one seems to read anything written with nuance or longer than 280 characters.
Point Dorsey. Sadly.
But here we are 36 years after the publication of the full version of Ender's Game. Card is still writing young adult novels - there have been 19 in the Ender series alone, along with dozens of short stories. I haven't kept up. I tried in the '80s and didn't find the subsequent work as interesting.
This isn't a review of the Ender series, however. Card has written a lot of other young adult fiction. Duplex, which will be released in September, is apparently part of a new fantasy world. I don't know if Card is planning other novels for this series or whether it will catch on.
Duplex begins as a 15-year-old boy, Ryan Burke, comes down to breakfast one morning and finds his father dividing the family home into two. Dad's moving out and a new family will move into the new half-house.
Later, at school, Ryan meets a new student, Bizzy Horvat, and it's clear to him and everyone around him that he is in love. Inevitably, it seems, because two such notable events must be intricately connected (it's not like we're delving into James Joyce style stream-of-consciousness here), Ryan comes home from school to find Bizzy and her family moving into the freshly walled side of his home. Bizzy's parents are from Slovenia, though she was born in the US.
Soon, we learn something important about Ryan and Bizzy. They are both "Micropotents", which means they have one unusual superpower. If you've seen the first season of the television series Heroes - yes, precisely that. Bizzy's power attracts a lot of attention, which connects them to a group of Micropotents led by a local professor.
An element of danger is added in the form of Bizzy's mother, who has her own power and claims people are trying to kill her because those with unusual powers are considered witches in Slovenia and have been trying to track her down for decades.
That's how the novel is set up. Ryan and his parents' marital difficulties. Ryan and his crush on the girl next door. The potential life-threatening danger facing Bizzy. And this group of heroes with unusual powers.
I found two themes within the novel notable.
First, from a stylistic perspective, dialogue in this novel is not typical high-school dialogue. Characters speak without superfluous thoughts. They are extraordinarily eloquent. Adults and teens speak with the same voice. Everyone is similarly mildly sarcastic and somewhat self-deprecating. You can almost hear a faint fake British accent as they verbally joust with each other. Tally-Ho.
They instantly understand situations with a maturity far beyond their years. When the Micropotents assemble to discuss their powers, they solve problems efficiently with deductions and insights that reminded me of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson working a difficult puzzle based on arcane knowledge and lightning-fast reasoning.
You, as the reader, cannot possibly track this or even understand it. In this sense, I didn't enjoy Duplex the way I enjoyed Ender's tale. It is very well written, but Card works too hard to stay ahead of us. Even Ryan's younger sister, Dianne, understands small details in her parents' behavior and makes deductions that should require many years of relationship experience.
Vasco de Gama High School is not a high school you or I would ever attend. Not that most high schools are named after 15th Century explorers most notable for amazing cruelty in their conquests.
Second, I found Ryan's development during the course of the novel more interesting than his story. When the novel begins, he is simply an eloquent valedictorian-level student who is mildly sarcastic to friends, teachers and parents alike. His love for Bizzy transforms him into someone with far greater depth. And the challenges he faces in learning about his own power teach him, as similar circumstances taught Ender, that power creates extraordinary responsibility. We feel for Ryan in a way that we wouldn't if he didn't distinguish himself from his monotonous collection of glib and scarily intelligent peers.
In that sense, Ryan's unusual and impossible challenge becomes something else. Readers can gain inspiration from the way he tries to better himself. We all have micropowers, it seems, and we all are responsible for making the world just a little bit better. This is what makes Duplex far better than the average young adult novel, though it doesn't have the depth (well, nothing else does in this genre) of the Harry Potter series.
While I liked Duplex, I didn't love it. I'm not sure I would want the Micropotents to assemble once again, with new challenges awaiting. Young Dahlia's power to make anyone yawn might, then, become Card's own special ability. But I'm giving Duplex a thumbs up.
Like many of my generation, I was floored by Ender's Game in the mid 1980s. It was a story about an exceptional child doing exceptional things and understanding that with those powers comes exceptional responsibility.
Two concepts remained with me. First, that Card went into great detail to explain what it was inside Ender that made him who he was. It was very easy to identify with Ender, even though I was never a candidate to become a genius military strategist. And second, the story of his two siblings was an idealized snapshot of what, eventually, has turned into places like Reddit and local message boards. The only pieces Card missed were that anonymity invariably turns people into narcissistic jerks and no one seems to read anything written with nuance or longer than 280 characters.
Point Dorsey. Sadly.
But here we are 36 years after the publication of the full version of Ender's Game. Card is still writing young adult novels - there have been 19 in the Ender series alone, along with dozens of short stories. I haven't kept up. I tried in the '80s and didn't find the subsequent work as interesting.
This isn't a review of the Ender series, however. Card has written a lot of other young adult fiction. Duplex, which will be released in September, is apparently part of a new fantasy world. I don't know if Card is planning other novels for this series or whether it will catch on.
Duplex begins as a 15-year-old boy, Ryan Burke, comes down to breakfast one morning and finds his father dividing the family home into two. Dad's moving out and a new family will move into the new half-house.
Later, at school, Ryan meets a new student, Bizzy Horvat, and it's clear to him and everyone around him that he is in love. Inevitably, it seems, because two such notable events must be intricately connected (it's not like we're delving into James Joyce style stream-of-consciousness here), Ryan comes home from school to find Bizzy and her family moving into the freshly walled side of his home. Bizzy's parents are from Slovenia, though she was born in the US.
Soon, we learn something important about Ryan and Bizzy. They are both "Micropotents", which means they have one unusual superpower. If you've seen the first season of the television series Heroes - yes, precisely that. Bizzy's power attracts a lot of attention, which connects them to a group of Micropotents led by a local professor.
An element of danger is added in the form of Bizzy's mother, who has her own power and claims people are trying to kill her because those with unusual powers are considered witches in Slovenia and have been trying to track her down for decades.
That's how the novel is set up. Ryan and his parents' marital difficulties. Ryan and his crush on the girl next door. The potential life-threatening danger facing Bizzy. And this group of heroes with unusual powers.
I found two themes within the novel notable.
First, from a stylistic perspective, dialogue in this novel is not typical high-school dialogue. Characters speak without superfluous thoughts. They are extraordinarily eloquent. Adults and teens speak with the same voice. Everyone is similarly mildly sarcastic and somewhat self-deprecating. You can almost hear a faint fake British accent as they verbally joust with each other. Tally-Ho.
They instantly understand situations with a maturity far beyond their years. When the Micropotents assemble to discuss their powers, they solve problems efficiently with deductions and insights that reminded me of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson working a difficult puzzle based on arcane knowledge and lightning-fast reasoning.
You, as the reader, cannot possibly track this or even understand it. In this sense, I didn't enjoy Duplex the way I enjoyed Ender's tale. It is very well written, but Card works too hard to stay ahead of us. Even Ryan's younger sister, Dianne, understands small details in her parents' behavior and makes deductions that should require many years of relationship experience.
Vasco de Gama High School is not a high school you or I would ever attend. Not that most high schools are named after 15th Century explorers most notable for amazing cruelty in their conquests.
Second, I found Ryan's development during the course of the novel more interesting than his story. When the novel begins, he is simply an eloquent valedictorian-level student who is mildly sarcastic to friends, teachers and parents alike. His love for Bizzy transforms him into someone with far greater depth. And the challenges he faces in learning about his own power teach him, as similar circumstances taught Ender, that power creates extraordinary responsibility. We feel for Ryan in a way that we wouldn't if he didn't distinguish himself from his monotonous collection of glib and scarily intelligent peers.
In that sense, Ryan's unusual and impossible challenge becomes something else. Readers can gain inspiration from the way he tries to better himself. We all have micropowers, it seems, and we all are responsible for making the world just a little bit better. This is what makes Duplex far better than the average young adult novel, though it doesn't have the depth (well, nothing else does in this genre) of the Harry Potter series.
While I liked Duplex, I didn't love it. I'm not sure I would want the Micropotents to assemble once again, with new challenges awaiting. Young Dahlia's power to make anyone yawn might, then, become Card's own special ability. But I'm giving Duplex a thumbs up.
July 29, 2024
Not to overthink things, but in the final interview, he can't actually say for sure the others helped. Because maybe knowing the danger that is coming amped him up.
Overall, another great tale from Card.
Overall, another great tale from Card.
April 16, 2022
Very fun read. Youth discovering odd powers, secret plots, family secrets, unexpected parental wisdom, the value of responsibility, true love, some hard life lessons, and much more. I was also very impressed by a very realistic portrayal of a character's reaction to a justified killing - very un-Hollywood.
UPDATE - I just learned from another review that this is Book 2 in a series, and Book 1 is Lost and Found. So I have added Lost and Found to my reading list!
UPDATE - I just learned from another review that this is Book 2 in a series, and Book 1 is Lost and Found. So I have added Lost and Found to my reading list!
October 3, 2021
I've read a number of YA books that I've enjoyed, even though I'm far from being a YA.
This was not one of them.
I made it almost 50% of the way but just couldn't connect with any of the characters.
This was not one of them.
I made it almost 50% of the way but just couldn't connect with any of the characters.
November 15, 2021
I was surprised by this book, in some ways impressed and in some ways disappointed. I don't think a kid should read it alone without an adult to explain how "friendzoning" and other sexist crap in here are in fact crap. Of course, never buy an Orson Scott Card book because he's a homophobic bigot, I library borrowed it.
July 7, 2021
This book had two interwoven storylines, one about teenagers with micropowers -- small powers, like the ability to make people yawn, the ability to make facial hair grow faster, and the ability to tell whether a belly button is an innie or an outie -- the other about one such teenager (Ryan) trying to come to terms with his parents' separation.
I liked the basic micropower idea. I also liked the idea of a group of people with such powers banding together to try to find creative ways to make better use of their micropowers. I was onboard with the idea of "witch hunters" coming after them. I also liked Card's illustration of the family dynamics in Ryan's home, and the struggles of having the house suddenly converted into a duplex.
Where I found this book weak was in the thought process and dialogue of the children. These teenagers -- supposedly normal aside from their micropowers -- have the reasoning ability of Sherlock Homes, and they speak in fully punctuated sentences (semicolons and all). I've read a lot of Card's work (almost every novel he's published, including multiple versions where they've been published), so I know he can do better than this, and that's what makes this really disappointing. I don't know if he was distracted by another project or if he thought this would be good enough for a book that will be marketed as "young adult", but either way, the dialogue and thoughts of the children here are distractingly unrealistic (when they're supposed to be mostly ordinary kids).
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
I liked the basic micropower idea. I also liked the idea of a group of people with such powers banding together to try to find creative ways to make better use of their micropowers. I was onboard with the idea of "witch hunters" coming after them. I also liked Card's illustration of the family dynamics in Ryan's home, and the struggles of having the house suddenly converted into a duplex.
Where I found this book weak was in the thought process and dialogue of the children. These teenagers -- supposedly normal aside from their micropowers -- have the reasoning ability of Sherlock Homes, and they speak in fully punctuated sentences (semicolons and all). I've read a lot of Card's work (almost every novel he's published, including multiple versions where they've been published), so I know he can do better than this, and that's what makes this really disappointing. I don't know if he was distracted by another project or if he thought this would be good enough for a book that will be marketed as "young adult", but either way, the dialogue and thoughts of the children here are distractingly unrealistic (when they're supposed to be mostly ordinary kids).
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
June 23, 2021
This book takes a little bit of time to get used to the style of writing - or at least it did for me. It is very apparent from the beginning that this book is a YA book. I'm only mentioning this because I have found recently that some of the books in this YA genre should REALLY not be in this genre.
We get introduced to Ryan and then eventually to his new neighbor Bizzy. As I began to read this, I was thinking that the writing style was reminding me of something familiar. When I began to try to figure that out, I realized that there are some things that remind me of the writing of TJ Klune. I mean this as the most utmost compliment because I LOVE TJ Klune and his writing is always so amazing. Sometimes innocent, sometimes quirky. That was what was resonating with me.
This book IS quirky. It does take a while to settle down and there were times in the beginning that I wasn't sure if I was going to continue, but I did and I'm glad that I did.
Be patient and the you will get to meet some unusual but interesting characters who end up making this story original and one to resonate with you as a reader.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone.
We get introduced to Ryan and then eventually to his new neighbor Bizzy. As I began to read this, I was thinking that the writing style was reminding me of something familiar. When I began to try to figure that out, I realized that there are some things that remind me of the writing of TJ Klune. I mean this as the most utmost compliment because I LOVE TJ Klune and his writing is always so amazing. Sometimes innocent, sometimes quirky. That was what was resonating with me.
This book IS quirky. It does take a while to settle down and there were times in the beginning that I wasn't sure if I was going to continue, but I did and I'm glad that I did.
Be patient and the you will get to meet some unusual but interesting characters who end up making this story original and one to resonate with you as a reader.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone.
July 5, 2023
I didn't really like this book too much. Card uses a boatload of ridiculous dialog, which seems to have gotten more ridiculous since his earlier books. He got away with this type of dialog in the Ender books largely because he was writing about geniuses. But the dialog here even less believable and set in a modern-day high school, its far less believable.
On top of the dialog, there is also a lot of people reacting to events in inexplicable ways. Much of it feels like writing where the author skips over moments while focusing, almost comically, on some of the bizarre details during the times he does write about. I found it to be an unsatisfactory number of unconnected dots and unexplained behavior.
Card also tends to get philosophical and is generally pretty well aligned with my views, even if the thoughts and ideas he chooses to give focus spend a lot of time on the trivial and pedantic. In this case, I upgraded the book a star or two because we listened as a family and a few of the more 'philosophical' points about responsibility seemed to hit home with my kids.
On top of the dialog, there is also a lot of people reacting to events in inexplicable ways. Much of it feels like writing where the author skips over moments while focusing, almost comically, on some of the bizarre details during the times he does write about. I found it to be an unsatisfactory number of unconnected dots and unexplained behavior.
Card also tends to get philosophical and is generally pretty well aligned with my views, even if the thoughts and ideas he chooses to give focus spend a lot of time on the trivial and pedantic. In this case, I upgraded the book a star or two because we listened as a family and a few of the more 'philosophical' points about responsibility seemed to hit home with my kids.
February 12, 2023
not the author I’m used to
I’m not sure what happen to OSC, but his last few haven’t been good. This one, was one of the worst I’ve ever read.
It’s odd that it was good enough that I never quit it, but the entire time I was reading, I hated the characters and their micro powers. The Micropowers intrigue me. I loved the first book, and I’ll probably read another if it comes out, but this one sucked.
The main character just felt like most of his other protagonists: smartest kid around, but someone that wants to help out of reasons?
None of the dialogue felt real. Characters had stupid arguments in the heat of action that no one would have.
I just didn’t like this book. I hate saying that because he’s one of my favorite authors, and I hate rating authors poorly in general. It’s hard to make anything, but this one just didn’t do it.
I’m not sure what happen to OSC, but his last few haven’t been good. This one, was one of the worst I’ve ever read.
It’s odd that it was good enough that I never quit it, but the entire time I was reading, I hated the characters and their micro powers. The Micropowers intrigue me. I loved the first book, and I’ll probably read another if it comes out, but this one sucked.
The main character just felt like most of his other protagonists: smartest kid around, but someone that wants to help out of reasons?
None of the dialogue felt real. Characters had stupid arguments in the heat of action that no one would have.
I just didn’t like this book. I hate saying that because he’s one of my favorite authors, and I hate rating authors poorly in general. It’s hard to make anything, but this one just didn’t do it.
June 28, 2021
I was excited to receive this ARC since I am a big Orson Scott Card fan, and this book did not disappoint! I didn't realize until I started reading it that it tied into Lost and Found, another book he published a couple of years ago. Both books have characters with "micropowers" and while different from his previous books, I find them to be witty and entertaining. The characters are rich and complex, the plot is intriguing, and the book is a really great "coming of age" read the covers some deep topics in a different way than many other books do. I thought this book was quite interesting and thought provoking.
January 20, 2022
The first micropowers book was good enough to buy for others, but this one is only meh. The best part is the dad's awesome parental lecture towards a whiney teen 20ish pages into the story. I'd recommend THAT to anyone. The rest was a weaker version of the first book, with a family conflict about abortion that I didn't really buy, and a gay reference that should have been edited out. Even the micropowers at the center of the story were lame, beauty and protecting those you care about. ALL of the powers from the first book were more intriguing. Also, the bad guys were caractures of bad guys. It's like someone read the first book and then wrote a knock-off.
May 8, 2021
This is a solid YA book. You’ve got the typical hyperintelligent teen as is common in many of Card’s most popular works, mixed with a more down-to-earth urban fantasy story compared to the actual sci-fi we usually get. It’s mostly a very twee romance story between two kids, mixed with some superpower (“micropower”) stuff.
It’s a fun book for kids, but that’s about it. You won’t find anything here Card hasn’t done better in other books.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC.
It’s a fun book for kids, but that’s about it. You won’t find anything here Card hasn’t done better in other books.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC.
April 26, 2022
Audio. Although quite similar in style to the first in the series, this story did not carry the same suspense or thrill. It’s almost as if Mr. Card had a few more “micro powers” in mind, so he tossed them in a second book and called this a series.
The original cast (except for the head of GRUT) are not in this story. Secondary members make an appearance.
The teens’ precocious, eerily adult, and verbal sparring is still present.
I’m finding the micro powers a bit too trivial/foolish for the intensity of the plot.
Disappointed. :/
September 20, 2021
Trigger warning: Let me be the first to say that I love Orson Scott Card and have read and enjoyed many of his books including the last micro powers book. However, I was deeply upset by the abortion in this book and that truly sucked my enjoyment of the book down. I really think that that subplot wasn’t needed and without it I would have thoroughly enjoyed this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2022
What worked:
The supernatural element of the plot is slowly sprinkled into the plot until it becomes a major conflict. Some characters have micropowers and they form a support group of micropotents to learn about their abilities. The unexpected twist is the powers are relatively useless but they are special abilities none-the-less. Making others yawn and being aware of the presence of spiders aren’t particularly useful in most situations. Bizzy is able to make herself stunningly beautiful, and Ryan can instantly react to situations perfectly. The micropowers aren’t remarkable but they’re enough to make the micropotents targets for witch hunters and create the main conflict of the plot.
Ryan is the fifteen-year-old main character, and he’s a dynamic young man. In the beginning, he seems to be a sassy, angry teenager due to his parents’ failed marriage. He’s actually very intelligent, caring, and has a high moral character. Ryan deeply misses his father living at home and he wants to earn his trust and respect. He strives to prove his maturity by becoming more responsible, and his efforts become part of his everyday behavior. His micropower causes him to do things he regrets, and this humility reflects his inherent kindness and heart. He does what needs to be done but it doesn’t mean he needs to like it.
Several types of interpersonal relationships are blended into the overall plot. Ryan and Bizzy explore becoming boyfriend/girlfriend and consider what that actually means. Bizzy’s beauty makes her skeptical of Ryan’s intentions, and Ryan’s never been with a girl that’s way out of his league. Ryan struggles with Defense’s pranking behavior and his newfound maturity makes it harder to tolerate the harm Defense is causing. Ryan’s parents are going through a nasty separation and the kids are stuck in the middle. Ryan and his sister feel anger toward the situation, and their mother is especially malicious toward the father. It’s not until later in the story that the kids discover the root of the problem.
What didn’t work as well:
The dialogue includes playful banter between Bizzy, Ryan, and his best friend Defense that sometimes lasts longer than necessary. The exchanges are usually entertaining and help to describe relationships, but their duration stalls the momentum of the plot.
The Final Verdict:
There’s power in working together. It’s a novel concept to endow characters with powers that aren’t especially useful, but it makes them underdogs readers can cheer for. The numerous levels of personal problems maintain interest throughout, and the main conflict builds to a suspenseful climax. I recommend you give this book a shot.
The supernatural element of the plot is slowly sprinkled into the plot until it becomes a major conflict. Some characters have micropowers and they form a support group of micropotents to learn about their abilities. The unexpected twist is the powers are relatively useless but they are special abilities none-the-less. Making others yawn and being aware of the presence of spiders aren’t particularly useful in most situations. Bizzy is able to make herself stunningly beautiful, and Ryan can instantly react to situations perfectly. The micropowers aren’t remarkable but they’re enough to make the micropotents targets for witch hunters and create the main conflict of the plot.
Ryan is the fifteen-year-old main character, and he’s a dynamic young man. In the beginning, he seems to be a sassy, angry teenager due to his parents’ failed marriage. He’s actually very intelligent, caring, and has a high moral character. Ryan deeply misses his father living at home and he wants to earn his trust and respect. He strives to prove his maturity by becoming more responsible, and his efforts become part of his everyday behavior. His micropower causes him to do things he regrets, and this humility reflects his inherent kindness and heart. He does what needs to be done but it doesn’t mean he needs to like it.
Several types of interpersonal relationships are blended into the overall plot. Ryan and Bizzy explore becoming boyfriend/girlfriend and consider what that actually means. Bizzy’s beauty makes her skeptical of Ryan’s intentions, and Ryan’s never been with a girl that’s way out of his league. Ryan struggles with Defense’s pranking behavior and his newfound maturity makes it harder to tolerate the harm Defense is causing. Ryan’s parents are going through a nasty separation and the kids are stuck in the middle. Ryan and his sister feel anger toward the situation, and their mother is especially malicious toward the father. It’s not until later in the story that the kids discover the root of the problem.
What didn’t work as well:
The dialogue includes playful banter between Bizzy, Ryan, and his best friend Defense that sometimes lasts longer than necessary. The exchanges are usually entertaining and help to describe relationships, but their duration stalls the momentum of the plot.
The Final Verdict:
There’s power in working together. It’s a novel concept to endow characters with powers that aren’t especially useful, but it makes them underdogs readers can cheer for. The numerous levels of personal problems maintain interest throughout, and the main conflict builds to a suspenseful climax. I recommend you give this book a shot.
August 25, 2023
3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
Ryan, a smart but lazy student who mouths off to teachers, but gets away with thanks to his intelligence, is troubled by his father moving out of the house. It's worse when Dad turns the house into a duplex and rents out the other half to a new family - including a pretty intelligent new girl in Ryan's class who turns out to have problems and powers he'd never imagined.
Review
As with the previous book in this loose series, Lost and Found, Card is playing to his strengths here – intelligent, thoughtful young people. He largely pulls it off, but also as with the last book, there are some missteps. As before, the protagonist’s father is far too understanding to be credible, while the mother is warped and somewhat crazy. There’s clever banter, but it goes a step too far at times – e.g., when, agreeing to meet with an adult, our hero asks what kind of car she drives, and she answers, “The kind that has me sitting in the driver’s seat.” She has asked him to meet her, and she’s a full-grown adult, not his designated wisecracking friend. It’s the kind of thing that comes off as slightly clever in print, but in real life would annoy the hell out of you.
There’s a love story at the heart of the story, but the book invests a little too much in its tragic potential. While I give Card credit for his intelligent teens, the core characters are a little too mature to be credible here, and the story a little too keen to wrap up their life story within the narrow confines of the book’s brief time period.
Still, it’s enjoyable, engaging, and very readable. What felt odd to me was just how salutary it’s evidently intended to be. Protagonist Ryan learns just a little too obviously – from his wise father – some valuable lessons about how to be a man: think about others, be patient, take care of what’s needed without being told. It’s all valuable stuff that should hopefully make young readers think, though they may wonder how Ryan got to his teens without his wise father apparently teaching any of this earlier. But for those aware of Card’s politics, some things stand out a little more than they might for others – mostly, throwaway comments that suggest appropriate (to the author) gender roles. It’s not really grating, but it’s not entirely comfortable either. It’s a fun book and a good one for waking young people up to maturity, but I’d hope most readers will have more progressive role models to fill in other lessons.
Summary
Ryan, a smart but lazy student who mouths off to teachers, but gets away with thanks to his intelligence, is troubled by his father moving out of the house. It's worse when Dad turns the house into a duplex and rents out the other half to a new family - including a pretty intelligent new girl in Ryan's class who turns out to have problems and powers he'd never imagined.
Review
As with the previous book in this loose series, Lost and Found, Card is playing to his strengths here – intelligent, thoughtful young people. He largely pulls it off, but also as with the last book, there are some missteps. As before, the protagonist’s father is far too understanding to be credible, while the mother is warped and somewhat crazy. There’s clever banter, but it goes a step too far at times – e.g., when, agreeing to meet with an adult, our hero asks what kind of car she drives, and she answers, “The kind that has me sitting in the driver’s seat.” She has asked him to meet her, and she’s a full-grown adult, not his designated wisecracking friend. It’s the kind of thing that comes off as slightly clever in print, but in real life would annoy the hell out of you.
There’s a love story at the heart of the story, but the book invests a little too much in its tragic potential. While I give Card credit for his intelligent teens, the core characters are a little too mature to be credible here, and the story a little too keen to wrap up their life story within the narrow confines of the book’s brief time period.
Still, it’s enjoyable, engaging, and very readable. What felt odd to me was just how salutary it’s evidently intended to be. Protagonist Ryan learns just a little too obviously – from his wise father – some valuable lessons about how to be a man: think about others, be patient, take care of what’s needed without being told. It’s all valuable stuff that should hopefully make young readers think, though they may wonder how Ryan got to his teens without his wise father apparently teaching any of this earlier. But for those aware of Card’s politics, some things stand out a little more than they might for others – mostly, throwaway comments that suggest appropriate (to the author) gender roles. It’s not really grating, but it’s not entirely comfortable either. It’s a fun book and a good one for waking young people up to maturity, but I’d hope most readers will have more progressive role models to fill in other lessons.
January 18, 2026
“All of them have told me at one time or another that they wish they didn’t have their micropower. Even the ones who’ve found a real use for it, a way to genuinely help other people, they still want to hide it, to protect themselves from their own micropower.”
“In Slovenia, if you can mutter a curse and then bad things happen to the person you cursed, there are people who take note. People who hunt for witches.”
Ryan Burke has a micropower but it seems a small thing: he can save people from bee stings. This is the not the sort of gift that will help him stop bullies at Vasco de Gama high school, patch up his parents’ failing marriage, or even win over the pretty girl who has moved into the other side of his duplex…
However, that pretty girl, Bizzy Horvat, descends from a line of women that in an earlier age might have been considered witches. Her micropower is to give herself a glamour to make herself impossibly, even dangerously beautiful…
“In Slovenia, this group, the lovece, ‘loveks’, began before there was any nonsense about witches being servants of some imaginary devil. What the word used to mean, what the group used to search for, was people who could affect people in a magical way…”
I like what Orson Scott Card is doing in his Micropowers universe. These novels blend urban fantasy with crime/police procedural and YA topical themes (in this case, divorce and abortion). The plots are interesting and driven by characters with strong moral dilemmas.
Ryan’s power turns out to be to be considerably more complex than it originally presents itself. In fact, a theme of these books is that most any power, no matter how slight it may seem at first, can be wielded to surprising and even deadly results when properly understood:
“I don’t want to enhance my power if that means I’ll kill people by reflex, without even thinking. Because that’s not a superpower. Or maybe it is, but it’s not the power of a superhero. I think my micropower makes me a supervillain.”
While Duplex is not exactly a sequel, several minor characters do return from Lost and Found. We find out what Jannis’ real micropower is. It feels like there may be more stories to tell about her in coming volumes…
The ending of this novel is bittersweet on multiple fronts, and it leaves enough unanswered mystery to make me hope this is not the last we have seen of Ryan and Bizzy…
I alternated between the kindle edition and the audiobook narrated by Stefan Rudnicki.
4 stars
“In Slovenia, if you can mutter a curse and then bad things happen to the person you cursed, there are people who take note. People who hunt for witches.”
Ryan Burke has a micropower but it seems a small thing: he can save people from bee stings. This is the not the sort of gift that will help him stop bullies at Vasco de Gama high school, patch up his parents’ failing marriage, or even win over the pretty girl who has moved into the other side of his duplex…
However, that pretty girl, Bizzy Horvat, descends from a line of women that in an earlier age might have been considered witches. Her micropower is to give herself a glamour to make herself impossibly, even dangerously beautiful…
“In Slovenia, this group, the lovece, ‘loveks’, began before there was any nonsense about witches being servants of some imaginary devil. What the word used to mean, what the group used to search for, was people who could affect people in a magical way…”
I like what Orson Scott Card is doing in his Micropowers universe. These novels blend urban fantasy with crime/police procedural and YA topical themes (in this case, divorce and abortion). The plots are interesting and driven by characters with strong moral dilemmas.
Ryan’s power turns out to be to be considerably more complex than it originally presents itself. In fact, a theme of these books is that most any power, no matter how slight it may seem at first, can be wielded to surprising and even deadly results when properly understood:
“I don’t want to enhance my power if that means I’ll kill people by reflex, without even thinking. Because that’s not a superpower. Or maybe it is, but it’s not the power of a superhero. I think my micropower makes me a supervillain.”
While Duplex is not exactly a sequel, several minor characters do return from Lost and Found. We find out what Jannis’ real micropower is. It feels like there may be more stories to tell about her in coming volumes…
The ending of this novel is bittersweet on multiple fronts, and it leaves enough unanswered mystery to make me hope this is not the last we have seen of Ryan and Bizzy…
I alternated between the kindle edition and the audiobook narrated by Stefan Rudnicki.
4 stars
September 2, 2021
This was my first read of a novel from Orson Scott Card and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I first became aware of the author when I was lent a copy of his short stories in the 1980s called Unaccompanied Sonata - all the stories were thought provoking, quirky and mind expanding with some staying with me ( Unaccompanied Sonata, Kingsmeat, and the outstanding Enders game) all these years later.
As always I find the authors writing style engaging and I was drawn into the story of Ryan Burke who one day finds that his father is leaving and dividing the family home into two duplex residences. There is some element of teen angst (parents don't understand me) however as a parent to two teen boys the prose resonated with me. Early in the story there is a conversation between Ryan and his father around work - Ryan wants a job from his father but is rebuffed. The passages describing initiative and responsibility struck a deep chord which made me feel seen as a parent - I am not quite sure what a young adult would think of it but I have copied the text and sent it out in our family Whats app!
Getting back to the main theme - Ryan meets a new classmate Bizzy Horvat who we subsequently find has moved into the other side of the duplex he now lives in. Bizzy and Ryan discover that they have micropowers and are contacted by a research (and support) group called GRUT (Group of Rare & Useless Talents) led by Dr. Withunga for micropotents. Micropowers are often bizarre - able to tell if someone has a bellybutton in or out, making people yawn, controlling spiders and so on - the group aims to test and explore these talents in the hope of finding ways they could be useful.
We discover that those with micropowers are seen as witches with groups in society who wish to eliminate them. Bizzy and her family are hiding from such a group from Slovenia and tension mounts as the hunters search comes closer to discovering them. This provides Ryan and his fellow micropotents an opportunity to see what they can really do when they act in concert.
As the story moves forward Ryan matures as an individual, his attachment to Bizzy deepens and links of family are explored. I loved it and now will need to go back and reread some of Cards previous work!
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this ARC all opinions are my own.
As always I find the authors writing style engaging and I was drawn into the story of Ryan Burke who one day finds that his father is leaving and dividing the family home into two duplex residences. There is some element of teen angst (parents don't understand me) however as a parent to two teen boys the prose resonated with me. Early in the story there is a conversation between Ryan and his father around work - Ryan wants a job from his father but is rebuffed. The passages describing initiative and responsibility struck a deep chord which made me feel seen as a parent - I am not quite sure what a young adult would think of it but I have copied the text and sent it out in our family Whats app!
Getting back to the main theme - Ryan meets a new classmate Bizzy Horvat who we subsequently find has moved into the other side of the duplex he now lives in. Bizzy and Ryan discover that they have micropowers and are contacted by a research (and support) group called GRUT (Group of Rare & Useless Talents) led by Dr. Withunga for micropotents. Micropowers are often bizarre - able to tell if someone has a bellybutton in or out, making people yawn, controlling spiders and so on - the group aims to test and explore these talents in the hope of finding ways they could be useful.
We discover that those with micropowers are seen as witches with groups in society who wish to eliminate them. Bizzy and her family are hiding from such a group from Slovenia and tension mounts as the hunters search comes closer to discovering them. This provides Ryan and his fellow micropotents an opportunity to see what they can really do when they act in concert.
As the story moves forward Ryan matures as an individual, his attachment to Bizzy deepens and links of family are explored. I loved it and now will need to go back and reread some of Cards previous work!
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this ARC all opinions are my own.
December 24, 2023
Learning about your parents splitting up by being awakened by construction sounds as your dad turns your one-family home into a duplex isn't the best way to receive bad news. But this is just the beginning of what will prove to be a very strange few months for Ryan. Because after he meets the new girl at school, nothing will ever be quite the same.
Bizzy Horvat is Slovenian, second generation, but life in the old country has followed her in terms of her witch of a mother and the people who literally want to kill that lady. Verbally sparring with Ryan during their first class together is the highlight of this most recent move the family has made to avoid the killers. It is a delightful surprise to her to find out his family are the people on the other side of the duplex.
The two develop a friendship that involves walking to school together and Ryan winds up saving Bizzy from a bee. Not a big deal accept he did so in seconds and using some very unusual methods. This all leads to Ryan discovering he has the coolest micro-power on Earth. If someone he loves is in danger, he can essentially turn into John Wick. Given that he's a scrawny git who can't make any sports team in his school even as a bench sitter, you'd think he'd be thrilled. But once he figures out that he might have to actually hurt the people trying to kill Bizzy or any of his friends and family, he's a lot less happy.
I read this because I loved the first micropowers book and was excited to continue the series. But I did not like the angst surrounding Ryan's power and especially didn't love the heaping helpings of misogyny that came with the story. This is especially true in regard to how the parents are depicted. Both mothers are essentially crazy witches and the dads calm, intelligent, caring responsible beings. It was so prevalent it was impossible to ignore. If you are triggered by pro-life messages as all, this is also to be avoided. The positives are the issues surrounding the micropowers and what all that means and how one actually lives their life with a seemingly worthless but potent power. I didn't like how Ryan chose to deal with his issue but I liked the concept overall. So yeah, a good story made less good by inserting unneeded isms.
Bizzy Horvat is Slovenian, second generation, but life in the old country has followed her in terms of her witch of a mother and the people who literally want to kill that lady. Verbally sparring with Ryan during their first class together is the highlight of this most recent move the family has made to avoid the killers. It is a delightful surprise to her to find out his family are the people on the other side of the duplex.
The two develop a friendship that involves walking to school together and Ryan winds up saving Bizzy from a bee. Not a big deal accept he did so in seconds and using some very unusual methods. This all leads to Ryan discovering he has the coolest micro-power on Earth. If someone he loves is in danger, he can essentially turn into John Wick. Given that he's a scrawny git who can't make any sports team in his school even as a bench sitter, you'd think he'd be thrilled. But once he figures out that he might have to actually hurt the people trying to kill Bizzy or any of his friends and family, he's a lot less happy.
I read this because I loved the first micropowers book and was excited to continue the series. But I did not like the angst surrounding Ryan's power and especially didn't love the heaping helpings of misogyny that came with the story. This is especially true in regard to how the parents are depicted. Both mothers are essentially crazy witches and the dads calm, intelligent, caring responsible beings. It was so prevalent it was impossible to ignore. If you are triggered by pro-life messages as all, this is also to be avoided. The positives are the issues surrounding the micropowers and what all that means and how one actually lives their life with a seemingly worthless but potent power. I didn't like how Ryan chose to deal with his issue but I liked the concept overall. So yeah, a good story made less good by inserting unneeded isms.
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