Review: The Reign of the Kingfisher

The Reign of the Kingfisher by T.J. Martinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After finishing this modern superhero story, I found I appreciated it. While listening to it, though, I found it hit and miss. The hit part was that it was an interesting concept, and the writing was cinematic. There was a lot of miss to go with that though. First, the story takes place in Chicago and burbs, where I live, and I usually enjoy that home town feel in a story. But here, it felt like it could have been any city, and that the author just randomly put references in to neighborhoods or streets that in actuality would have worked as well in St. Paul or Dallas. The localness felt phony. Second, the writing, though feeling like a television show, felt at times like a not-so-great superhero tv show on a minor network. The characters ended scenes with a corker of an overwrought statement, just like before you go to a commercial on a tv show. If it reminded me of, say, a classic comic book, I would have liked that gimmick. But here it reminded me of a bad tv show, so this was no plus for me. Thirdly, the plot just seemed to have too many holes. I find that I tend to be very forgiving on plot holes when reading something avant guard, but this tries so hard to be like a normal fiction city story that I can't suspend belief, and frankly, the plot holes are quite ridiculous. I found myself constantly wondering why people weren't thinking.Perhaps it was the water in the city that could have been Chicago.

But as I mentioned up front, on reflection I enjoyed this more than I would have thought while reading it. The concept was winning, and the take on the missing superhero was interesting. Overall, to use a horrible baseball metaphor, this was a lot like a massive Dave Kingman swing for a home run, occasionally pretty to look at, but often not connecting.

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