Sarcastic Sunday: Its "Heroic" Edition Wherein I talk irreverently about books I love and are hard to find more often than not.

Title: Resenting the Hero
Series: Hero Series Book 1
Author:  Moira J. Moore
Publisher/Year: Ace/2006
Out of Print?: Nope!  100% in print!

Why, pray tell do you like it?   I remember picking this book up and saying to myself "I'd resent the hero too if he looked like that".  I know I know don't judge a book by its cover (ha! so literal right?), but seriously I resented our 'hero' Shintaro Karish (Taro) even before our narrator Mallorough Dunleavy (Lee) disparagingly described his playboy tomfoolery.  But that's all forgiven because this is a hilarious novel/series.  Lee is a 'Shield', she channels all of her 'Source's power so it doesn't kill him.  Taro is her Source, which is some sort of cosmic joke because the two couldn't be so wildly different if they tried.  But there's a spark there and this first book proves that a spark is enough to ignite a passionate charge--even if that passionate charge is Lee trying desperately not to kill Taro.

That's nice.  Why should anyone care?  I've always been of the mind that Moira J. Moore is highly under-rated.  Somewhere around book 3 (I think), Heroes Adrift, there was the notion that she wouldn't be picked up for more books and she'd have to publish the next book online for free because she'd rather her fans had it then not.  Then thankfully she was given a longer contract and thus we find ourselves eagerly awaiting book 5, Heroes Return, due out in July 2010.  Oh but you want to know why you should care?  This is fantasy adventuring at its best.  The books remind me of Jennifer Roberson's 'Tiger and Del' (Or 'Sword-Dancer' depending on when you first began reading them) books.  You have two disparate personalities, who can barely tolerate each other let alone co-exist on page without threats and who together form a formidable fighting force...if they could get along long enough to hold it together.  This is my kind of series fantasy.

Is this a series?  Stand alone?  First book in the series, subsequent volumes are Book 2: The Hero Strikes Back, Book 3: Heroes Adrift, Book 4: Heroes at Risk and the forthcoming Book 5: Heroes Return.  Sadly the coverart style has undergone a lot of differences in terms of style and presentation.

And the ending?  As a series its not done yet.  As a first book I ran out to grab book 2 with what was left of my lunch money that week, so that says something doesn't it?

What did I learn? Sometimes reputations are decidedly earned, but perhaps not completely deserved.  This is not the case with Taro (I'm joking...mostly).  PS: Lee regularly kick's Taro's ass.  Just saying.