Thursday, March 1, 2012

Katana by Cole Gibsen

KatanaModern day chick discovers she's reincarnated and in one of her past lives, she was a samurai warrior. Buffy meets Kill Bill. Whoa. What's not to like?

I'll tell you. 


Great premise and plot. The fighting was well done, the samurai stuff superb and suspenseful, but what really put me off about this book was the stereotypes. First, the gay friend. He does hair, believes he may have been Marilyn Monroe, and moans about stupid stuff such as sitting on his Fendi glasses. And he and the heroine, Rileigh kiss and hold hands and declare they love each other. Um, they're only in high school. Gay or not, I don't see this comfort level occurring with high school kids... And did I mention he calls her "Ri-Ri?" So ANNOYING. I don't have a problem with gays at all, but stereotypes make me sick. 


Then you have the martial arts expert. He's Asian of course. (But the rest of the reincarnated group is white?) And a bar full of biker chicks wanting to kick ass. (Um, I am offended by that. Biker chicks aren't really like that.) And let's not forget the tattooed guy. He's psycho, of course.


It was a little too predictable too. I knew whodunnit way before the book actually told me whodunnit though the book earns one point in surprising me regarding the doctor. I honestly thought the other way around. I won't explain. And what was up with "Ri-Ri?" She fought hard NOT TO Senshi, but when denied, she's all upset because she is going to die as nothing but "Ri-Ri." So I think the heroine is bipolar.


It wasn't a bad book. I would have liked to have seen some things done differently, obviously, and due to the extremely annoying stereotyped gay friend, I won't be reading the rest of the series, but the fighting was cool. My eyes did some rolling at the magical wind stuff though. That was a bit much. Reincarnation I can fathom. Magic wind? Eh.


Something I really liked: the descriptions of silk taking over her body when her past life character took over. That was pretty neat. Gave me tingles. 




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