ToL: Mad Mags: Beyond Waterdome

[John (Taloni)]

Cracked open Trail of Lightning and kept getting a nagging feeling of "this feels familiar."

Spoiler protected to be polite...
(view spoiler)[
There's a lot of straightforward tropes in use. Comic book style modest powers, complete with downside. Maggie could be right out of the New Mutants, beside Rahne the wolf shapeshifter and Danielle Moonstar. Or perhaps Xi'an Coy Manh and her psychic weapons.

Kai also participates in the trope game. Reminds me of Michael Twoyoungmen, the shaman of Alpha Flight. Maggie feels a lot like the Badger, a schizophrenic superhero with martial arts skills. Heck, Badger even teamed up with the comics character Coyote once.

But considering the environment...dry and dusty...fuel in short supply...main character is a fighter substantially better than the locals...colorful characters abound...

Well, it hit me when one of the characters called her "Mags." It's Mad Max done up in Navajo trappings. Mad Mags, Beyond Waterdome.

The book starts off well enough with tight opening. Drags for a bit while indulging in by the numbers plot points. There's the inevitable fight with her mentor. That's partly a set up for the end, intended to show that Kai can heal a wound to the heart.

Trope reversals made for some fun. The violent, great fighter is a woman, and the man a healer. A roving gang of thugs that's actually a better police presence than the cops. If you get pulled over by the Thirsty Boys they're not going to rob you, they're...giving out hazard warnings.

The book held my attention well enough, but there is little original about it. It's a walk down well worn tropes. Needed a better, less puzzling ending. (hide spoiler)]

[Buzz]

John (Taloni) wrote: "Cracked open Trail of Lightning and kept getting a nagging feeling of "this feels familiar..."

Remember the old saying "There is nothing new under the sun..."? I think all books use tropes of some sort or another. There is no truly original story, just fun ways of telling the same ones differently.

Doesn't bother me personally...