Action Heroine Fans discussion

K. W. Jeter is a well-known author, mostly of science fiction, whose work has typically been published by the big presses. With his Kim Oh series (featuring an orphaned Korean-American girl in her late teens who's the caregiver for her wheelchair-bound little brother and who, finding herself in a "dark and gritty" milieu and behind the proverbial 8-ball, has to learn to handle a gun and fight back), he chose to go the self-publishing route.

There are currently four novels in the series, with more in the works. (Jeter is so excited about Kim as a character that he's not currently working on anything else.) At present, these are only available as e-books. I don't buy e-books, and don't often read them; but I was lucky enough to get the series opener, , when it was still being offered for free. (It's still a bargain at only 99 cents, though, if you buy books in that format!) As yet, that's the only one of the four I've read; but I gave it five stars. Kim is a stand-out character, Jeter has a genuine moral vision, and the standards of the writing and content are top-notch. If the quality of the next three books is the same as the excellent debut, this is going to be one of the best series in the field, IMO.

Yesterday, I finished reading the second Kim Oh novel, (I received a free review copy from the author). IMO, that book is every bit as good, or better than, the preceding one. The quality of the writing is definitely holding up in every way.

As an update, I want to note that most of the original self-published e-books (and the one paper book) are no longer being sold on Amazon. They've been superseded by new editions from Lincoln Square Books, which are available in both electronic and paper format, and which mostly each combine two of the original books into one volume. (I learned this only very recently; it's a boon to readers like myself who prefer paper format --the reason I hadn't pursued the series was that for a long time, it was only available electronically!)

Over a period of about nine years, I read and liked the first several books of this series (now renamed the Real Dangerous Girl series). But I lost respect for Jeter's artistic integrity after he changed the protagonist's ethnicity from Korean to white, and rewrote all the books to change all the character's names. :-( I've now started on a back-to-back read of the last two books, Real Dangerous Ride and Real Dangerous Plan, just because I want to see the completion of Kim's arc (no matter what she's called). But I don't plan to promote either book by reviewing it.