Hi everyone!
Today we’ll be taking at look at Fire Wave by Ana Stanojevic: a spin on a superhero origin story that tells the tale of a woman who sets out for answers and uncovers a galaxy sized conspiracy in the process.
It’s a cool concept, and a story that’s clearly filled with a ton of effort and passion, which I always love to find. But while there was clearly a lot of heart and a lot of love put into these pages, the execution, unfortunately, leaves a lot to be desired.
Fire Wave
by Ana Stanojevic
ebook, 143 pages
Fire Wave #1
March 1st 2021
Published by Kobo
Young Adult | Science Fiction | Fantasy
Aiyana never expected that her life would change drastically.
After having a near-death experience and her company being attacked, Aiyana is shocked to wonder who would attack the work place and for what purpose. She found out that some classified chemicals had been stolen from Ihode Labs but despite the warning from the Head of the Company, Aiyana pursues her curiosity even further.
She soon learns that there is an evil brewing, nestled somewhere in Earth. Wanting to stop the threat, Aiyana never expected to do something that would be out of her league.
Find this book on: Kobo | Goodreads
You can always tell when an author has put themselves out there and tried to create a story that really matters to them, and that is definitely true with Fire Wave.
This author clearly has a vision for her world and characters, and you can feel it trying to come together into a wonderful story through every chapter. It’s a very ambitious narrative, and one that I haven’t experienced before outside of graphic novels, and that alone kept me intrigued. I’ll admit, the idea of someone throwing on a mask and cape to fight crime is exactly my idea of a good time, and there were more than enough clever moments and punchy heroic one liners to keep me entertained. Unfortunately, where the story falls short is more in it’s execution than it’s ideas.
There was an overall need for more proofreading. More than a few passages took me out of the story because of grammar or spelling mistakes, which could easily be solved with another round with an editor. There was also a general feeling disconnect between some plot points, which made the story feel like it was jumping from place to place rather than following a narrative as it developed. Unfortunately, there were times when I was confused as to what was happening, even during scenes of exposition, and that made it difficult to really connect with the story.
The main thing I disliked was that we never get a sense for the protagonist’s motivation. It’s absolutely understandable to be curious as to why your workplace exploded, but we never get a sense of why Aiyana is so determined to get to the bottom of this outside of curiosity. It’s a good start, but it’s a huge leap to go from asking questions to throwing on some tights and tossing ninja stars at criminals. We never really learn who Aiyana is outside of her investigation, and the lack of a personal motive works against the emotional aspects of the story. She has nothing to lose from walking away, and nothing much to gain by staying, and that’s makes it hard to believe that she’d put herself in this kind of danger – and that’s important for a superhero!
With that said, I still had a lot of fun with with story. There is a lot of passion in this story and the concept is just the right amount of silly and fantastical to make most superhero fans extremely happy. In my opinion, while there is a need for more time spent in development and polishing, there is definitely potential here to say the least.
Fire Wave is an ambitious and often clever story that has tons of potential, but falls short in it’s presentation. I hate giving negative reviews, especially to indie-authors, and I am sorry to do that here. But while I can’t say I will recommend this book as it is now, I do think this author has a lot of promise, and I really hope she continues working on her stories. There’s definitely more to explore in this idea, and I still want to know what happens next.
Thanks for reading everyone! Check out more of my posts below!
Here Be Dragons 