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A review by suzjustsuz
Inkarna by Nerine Dorman
4.0
Review at http://paperbackdolls.com/?p=11586
This one is kind of hard to label. There aren’t any of the current tropes of the urban fantasy genre in here, that’s for sure. There are no werewolves or vampires or demons or angels. Steeped in ancient Egyptian lore that is brought to a contemporary South African urban setting, the story was original and engaging, providing just enough “realism” to leave me thinking “can you imagine if that really happened?” Seriously, imagine dying as one gender expecting to eventually be reincarnated as an infant of the same gender only to wake up as an adult of the opposite gender. In fact an adult jackass with lots of enemies, no resources, and no friends – and all that’s on top of your own situation being completely hosed, too.
Perhaps what was most interesting about the story was the lore itself. Nerine Dorman creates a very believable and seamless melding of the living world with the ancient Egyptian afterworld (one that’s nearly pronounceable to the average Western reader), making it very easy to believe that the notion of “as above, so below” applies in more ways than one.
The characters were all pretty broken, even the heroes. So I found myself both rooting for and disappointed in them in equal measure. Just about the time I thought I’d developed a nice comfortable box to put one of the characters in Dorman would prove they are human and mix it all up again in a frustratingly human way. Ash is a bit of an anti-hero, but we’re never sure if we’re rooting for the Ash who is the previous resident of the body who was the jackass who happened to be a rock and roll god wanna-be, or the new resident of the body who is a bit of a supernatural bad ass but perhaps a bit more narcissistic than she’s willing to own up to while she fools herself with her delusions of altruistic grandeur. Or are we rooting for them both?
It’s a stand alone book and I don’t know if there are any plans to make a series of it, but after I’d finished the book I found my mind wandering back to the characters and wondering about their continued stories and what might have happened to them, so I guess that speaks to my investment in the story and the believability of the characters.
I don’t have a lot of experience with writers who are based in South Africa but there were regional nuances in the dialog and location descriptions that made the location sing to me, and had me at Google and Youtube in curiosity.
If I had any negative feedback it would be that the book needed a bit more copy-editing but I was reading an ARC so it’s possible that the version I was reading was not the version that went to final publication. Even with that there was nothing so jarring that made it a significantly less pleasurable read.
If you’re looking for something that’s still “supernatural” but somehow different this might be just the ticket. I gave it four of five stars and would enjoy reading a second installment to the storyline if she decided to continue the story, but don’t feel at all cheated if she doesn’t, and that’s really a wonderful and talented way to end a book.
This one is kind of hard to label. There aren’t any of the current tropes of the urban fantasy genre in here, that’s for sure. There are no werewolves or vampires or demons or angels. Steeped in ancient Egyptian lore that is brought to a contemporary South African urban setting, the story was original and engaging, providing just enough “realism” to leave me thinking “can you imagine if that really happened?” Seriously, imagine dying as one gender expecting to eventually be reincarnated as an infant of the same gender only to wake up as an adult of the opposite gender. In fact an adult jackass with lots of enemies, no resources, and no friends – and all that’s on top of your own situation being completely hosed, too.
Perhaps what was most interesting about the story was the lore itself. Nerine Dorman creates a very believable and seamless melding of the living world with the ancient Egyptian afterworld (one that’s nearly pronounceable to the average Western reader), making it very easy to believe that the notion of “as above, so below” applies in more ways than one.
The characters were all pretty broken, even the heroes. So I found myself both rooting for and disappointed in them in equal measure. Just about the time I thought I’d developed a nice comfortable box to put one of the characters in Dorman would prove they are human and mix it all up again in a frustratingly human way. Ash is a bit of an anti-hero, but we’re never sure if we’re rooting for the Ash who is the previous resident of the body who was the jackass who happened to be a rock and roll god wanna-be, or the new resident of the body who is a bit of a supernatural bad ass but perhaps a bit more narcissistic than she’s willing to own up to while she fools herself with her delusions of altruistic grandeur. Or are we rooting for them both?
It’s a stand alone book and I don’t know if there are any plans to make a series of it, but after I’d finished the book I found my mind wandering back to the characters and wondering about their continued stories and what might have happened to them, so I guess that speaks to my investment in the story and the believability of the characters.
I don’t have a lot of experience with writers who are based in South Africa but there were regional nuances in the dialog and location descriptions that made the location sing to me, and had me at Google and Youtube in curiosity.
If I had any negative feedback it would be that the book needed a bit more copy-editing but I was reading an ARC so it’s possible that the version I was reading was not the version that went to final publication. Even with that there was nothing so jarring that made it a significantly less pleasurable read.
If you’re looking for something that’s still “supernatural” but somehow different this might be just the ticket. I gave it four of five stars and would enjoy reading a second installment to the storyline if she decided to continue the story, but don’t feel at all cheated if she doesn’t, and that’s really a wonderful and talented way to end a book.