Reborn – D.I. Freed

‘Reborn’ is an entertaining read. (In fact, when I finished it I hunted down its sequel.) The protagonist, after a rough start, is ‘reborn’ as an optimal human: Not only does she have the best attributes it is possible for a human to have, but she has them all. With enough training, effort, and pluck, she can grow into an expert warrior, an expert sorceress, etc. She also has a few handy super powers. What follows is self-indulgent but enjoyable wish-fulfillment fantasy.

Main weaknesses of the novel:

1. Exposition. Too much tell-don’t-show. Numerous lectures, often wrapped in “Here are the basics everyone ought to know, but since your parents didn’t tell you about them, I will.”

2. Too many challenges calibrated to make the protagonist look good. Some enemy will decide - for reasons that are not necessarily obvious - to destroy her. She will be attacked, and the attack will be just weak enough that it can be overcome through heroic effort. The next time the protagonist is stronger - and faces a challenge that would have defeated her the previous time.

3. Too many challenges are insufficiently motivated. The father’s first wife orchestrates efforts that make her childhood miserable, even though she is perceived as being too weak to affect the prospects of the first wife’s children. Scions of politically-important - and presumably politically-savvy - families go out of their way to make enemies unnecessarily.