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Kindred Spirits
Michelle Long's life is the life of a typical engineering student until the night of September 17, 1991. Jason Dyer travels back to 1991 to save Michelle's life. He gives up the life of an ordinary college graduate for what he believes--to save the world from destruction in his time, an amicable patriarch of a local church has to die in 1991, and Michelle has to kill him.
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First published September 15, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 6, 2020
3 stars because I liked the storyline, but the book needs an editor.
September 29, 2011
Oh god, where to start? This book is a mess!
First of all, if you are a grammar/spelling/punctuation freak, for the sake of your health, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. I'm not even that fanatic about it, and I found myself feeling twitchy after 10 minutes of reading this book. Not good. The author doesn't seem to like commas. I'd like to take a 5 gallon bucket of commas and throw it on this book.
I wanted to quit this book so many times. But I hate quitting books, and once I got to 80% or so, I thought I might as well just keep going. So yes, I read this to the bitter end. Well, bitter may actually be a kinder word than it deserves. I read it until the bland, unbelievable, "ARE YOU FRIGGIN' KIDDING ME??" end.
Oh the humanity. Oh the plot holes.
The sad part is this book seems to get off to a very good and exciting start. The author tends to write like he's writing a movie script, but this made for somewhat exciting action in the first chapter. (Later it becomes highly annoying.) Jason has traveled back in time to stop an accident that will kill Michelle. He has a cool car with all this hi-tech stuff in it that tells him exactly where to be and at what time to be there. CAN HE MAKE IT??? He does.
Then the book drags on for 12 chapters (TWELVE!) and doesn't explain anything that went on in the first chapter. Michelle whines about her homework and her job and her ex-boyfriend who, like, just won't get a clue. Some guy named Roger (who isn't important to the story at all) meets a fine-azz lady at a bible study. We sit in on testimonial at Richmond Church of God. Jason stalks Michelle and whines about not knowing how to approach her to tell her 'the big secret.' When the big reveal happens, it's quite a letdown, and frankly doesn't make much sense. We're told Max, the leader of the Church of God, is the big villian and he must die to 'save the world.' Yep, that's about as deep as the author gets, unfortunately. Mkay.
As to characterization...it's kinder to say that there isn't any. Why is Michelle so special? Why must she be saved? Because...she's pretty and she cusses like a sailor? I don't know. The author seems to think it's blatantly obvious. It's not. Jason is...well, he's the big hero. At least that much is obvious. The author gives every single character the same voice style and the same sarcastic sense of humor. He makes use of a lot of tired one-liners and crass jokes in the first 15 chapters or so. This makes it very confusing to read, especially towards the end of the book where the author starts changing point of view often. Very often. Like every other paragraph. I wish I was kidding. It gets to the point where the same spoken line is repeated in the next paragraph because we're hearing it from the other person's point of view. ANNOYING. He also throws in some random points of view that we only hear about for 2 paragraphs. POINTLESS. DIDN'T FURTHER STORY. AT ALL.
Also, I'm all for writing character dialogue authentically to how they actually speak (a la Hagrid by JK Rowling) but there's a point where it just becomes too much. It gets difficult to read. Every character talks like this: "I was gonna go up'ere an' figure out why I haven't been gettin' mah mail. I useta get it every mo'ning 'bout 10." Think that's not bad? Try 27 chapters of it in a largely dialogue driven book.
I don't like writing a review with 100% criticism, so I will say that the author did one thing well. There's a chapter in the book that I actually enjoyed reading. It was the testimony at the Church of God chapter. I'm a firm atheist, and I thought the author did an excellent job of showcasing the ridiculousness of religion. That chapter had me shaking my head at what was going on, but also thinking YES. Someone else out there gets it.
Mr. Luke, I commend you for finishing a book. Something that I've never done. It could be a much better book if an editor with a chisel went after it, though.
First of all, if you are a grammar/spelling/punctuation freak, for the sake of your health, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. I'm not even that fanatic about it, and I found myself feeling twitchy after 10 minutes of reading this book. Not good. The author doesn't seem to like commas. I'd like to take a 5 gallon bucket of commas and throw it on this book.
I wanted to quit this book so many times. But I hate quitting books, and once I got to 80% or so, I thought I might as well just keep going. So yes, I read this to the bitter end. Well, bitter may actually be a kinder word than it deserves. I read it until the bland, unbelievable, "ARE YOU FRIGGIN' KIDDING ME??" end.
Oh the humanity. Oh the plot holes.
The sad part is this book seems to get off to a very good and exciting start. The author tends to write like he's writing a movie script, but this made for somewhat exciting action in the first chapter. (Later it becomes highly annoying.) Jason has traveled back in time to stop an accident that will kill Michelle. He has a cool car with all this hi-tech stuff in it that tells him exactly where to be and at what time to be there. CAN HE MAKE IT??? He does.
Then the book drags on for 12 chapters (TWELVE!) and doesn't explain anything that went on in the first chapter. Michelle whines about her homework and her job and her ex-boyfriend who, like, just won't get a clue. Some guy named Roger (who isn't important to the story at all) meets a fine-azz lady at a bible study. We sit in on testimonial at Richmond Church of God. Jason stalks Michelle and whines about not knowing how to approach her to tell her 'the big secret.' When the big reveal happens, it's quite a letdown, and frankly doesn't make much sense. We're told Max, the leader of the Church of God, is the big villian and he must die to 'save the world.' Yep, that's about as deep as the author gets, unfortunately. Mkay.
As to characterization...it's kinder to say that there isn't any. Why is Michelle so special? Why must she be saved? Because...she's pretty and she cusses like a sailor? I don't know. The author seems to think it's blatantly obvious. It's not. Jason is...well, he's the big hero. At least that much is obvious. The author gives every single character the same voice style and the same sarcastic sense of humor. He makes use of a lot of tired one-liners and crass jokes in the first 15 chapters or so. This makes it very confusing to read, especially towards the end of the book where the author starts changing point of view often. Very often. Like every other paragraph. I wish I was kidding. It gets to the point where the same spoken line is repeated in the next paragraph because we're hearing it from the other person's point of view. ANNOYING. He also throws in some random points of view that we only hear about for 2 paragraphs. POINTLESS. DIDN'T FURTHER STORY. AT ALL.
Also, I'm all for writing character dialogue authentically to how they actually speak (a la Hagrid by JK Rowling) but there's a point where it just becomes too much. It gets difficult to read. Every character talks like this: "I was gonna go up'ere an' figure out why I haven't been gettin' mah mail. I useta get it every mo'ning 'bout 10." Think that's not bad? Try 27 chapters of it in a largely dialogue driven book.
I don't like writing a review with 100% criticism, so I will say that the author did one thing well. There's a chapter in the book that I actually enjoyed reading. It was the testimony at the Church of God chapter. I'm a firm atheist, and I thought the author did an excellent job of showcasing the ridiculousness of religion. That chapter had me shaking my head at what was going on, but also thinking YES. Someone else out there gets it.
Mr. Luke, I commend you for finishing a book. Something that I've never done. It could be a much better book if an editor with a chisel went after it, though.
April 4, 2011
Good story, a bit of a cross between Terminator and Snow Crash. It is apparent that the author is aware of the relation to Terminator as the Terminator 2 movie is mentioned several times throughout the book. Definitely worth a read, especially if you download the free Nook version from Barnes & Noble. If you are the type of person who cringes at typos and errors in grammar you may have nightmares as this book is loaded with them. With that said I did truly enjoy reading Kindred Spirits and look forward to reading other works by Ashanti Luke.
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October 10, 2011Also in Nook Archive.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews