Review of The Fourth Kinetic
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Dartemis
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- Latest Review: The Fourth Kinetic by Brady Moore
Review of The Fourth Kinetic
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Fourth Kinetic" by Brady Moore.]
The Fourth Kinetic, by Brady Moore, is the first book in the Clairvoyants series. The Fourth Kinetic is told in the first-person perspective of Rion Grean. Rion isn’t your typical seventeen-year-old, high school student. Due to his mother’s work, they move constantly from place to place. Rion doesn’t make friends because of this. He doesn’t see the point when he’s just going to end up leaving them. It wouldn’t be so bad, between him and his mother, if she wasn’t so secretive and closed off. She refuses to give Rion any answers to what she was like before she had him. She won’t even disclose anything about Rion’s father. To add the cherry on top of the “not so typical”, Rion has psychic powers - he can move objects with his mind!
It wasn’t the most normal life, but it was the one Rion had gotten used to. Going to school, coming home to practice his abilities, and having dinner with his mother when she got back home late from work. However, that all changed when during a routine move, Rion and his mother are attacked and separated and Rion comes face to face with others like him. Rion finds out that he is a Clairvoyant - specifically a Kinetic: those that can influence the energy around them to defy the rules of gravity. He meets Clairvoyants that can read minds, Readers, ones that can possess another’s body, Aurals, those that see into the future, Prophets, and other Kinetics like himself. Between those that want to stay hidden and those that want to fight, Rion must figure out who he can trust if he wants to be able to reunite with his mother.
The Fourth Kinetic is your run-of-the-mill origin story. A kid finds out they have mysterious abilities, gets separated from their guardian, meets others like them; then teams up to go save said guardian figure. That’s not to say that The Fourth Kinetic can’t stand on its own two feet. It has enough original content in it that makes you come back for more each chapter. Seeing the different types of Clairvoyants had to be my favorite part of the book. Their origins, plus how each one used their abilities to the fullest, were interesting to read about.
That being said, the power scaling between the four different Clairvoyants is very unbalanced. The Readers and Aurals’ powers don’t even work on other Clairvoyants, while Readers’ powers do more harm than good for the user. While the book is titled The Fourth Kinetic, it baffles me how just more powerful Kinetics are compared to the other three. Unlike the other three, they don’t seem to have any real downsides to their powers. If anything, they felt like they could do so much more than the other Clairvoyant variances. The others just feel completely useless in some instances. There was literally one character that I questioned why they were even there in the first place. The book even seems to forget they were there in the final act.
Another problem I had with this book was the pacing. The first half of the book I thought was well structured. It was when it got to its second and final half that I felt things were being rushed. Rion started out as a simple beginner, who barely knew how to use his abilities. In the end, he is somehow the most powerful, beating those that had years of practice. Then there are characters who change allegiances on the spot that just felt so forced. It just felt like whiplash after the beginning started out so promising.
At the end of the day, however, I found The Fourth Kinetic to be an enjoyable read. It reminded me a bit of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. If you are a fan of that series, like I am, I believe you will also get some entertainment out of this book, regardless of its flaws. It is a bit more mature than that series, though, with some cursing and suggestive content. The book is very well edited, as I found no mistakes while I was reading it. With all that being said, I give The Fourth Kinetic 3 out of 4 stars. The way certain aspects were handled is the main reason why I decided not to give it a perfect four.
******
The Fourth Kinetic
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
The Fourth Kinetic, by Brady Moore, is the first book in the Clairvoyants series. The Fourth Kinetic is told in the first-person perspective of Rion Grean. Rion isn’t your typical seventeen-year-old, high school student. Due to his mother’s work, they move constantly from place to place. Rion doesn’t make friends because of this. He doesn’t see the point when he’s just going to end up leaving them. It wouldn’t be so bad, between him and his mother, if she wasn’t so secretive and closed off. She refuses to give Rion any answers to what she was like before she had him. She won’t even disclose anything about Rion’s father. To add the cherry on top of the “not so typical”, Rion has psychic powers - he can move objects with his mind!
It wasn’t the most normal life, but it was the one Rion had gotten used to. Going to school, coming home to practice his abilities, and having dinner with his mother when she got back home late from work. However, that all changed when during a routine move, Rion and his mother are attacked and separated and Rion comes face to face with others like him. Rion finds out that he is a Clairvoyant - specifically a Kinetic: those that can influence the energy around them to defy the rules of gravity. He meets Clairvoyants that can read minds, Readers, ones that can possess another’s body, Aurals, those that see into the future, Prophets, and other Kinetics like himself. Between those that want to stay hidden and those that want to fight, Rion must figure out who he can trust if he wants to be able to reunite with his mother.
The Fourth Kinetic is your run-of-the-mill origin story. A kid finds out they have mysterious abilities, gets separated from their guardian, meets others like them; then teams up to go save said guardian figure. That’s not to say that The Fourth Kinetic can’t stand on its own two feet. It has enough original content in it that makes you come back for more each chapter. Seeing the different types of Clairvoyants had to be my favorite part of the book. Their origins, plus how each one used their abilities to the fullest, were interesting to read about.
That being said, the power scaling between the four different Clairvoyants is very unbalanced. The Readers and Aurals’ powers don’t even work on other Clairvoyants, while Readers’ powers do more harm than good for the user. While the book is titled The Fourth Kinetic, it baffles me how just more powerful Kinetics are compared to the other three. Unlike the other three, they don’t seem to have any real downsides to their powers. If anything, they felt like they could do so much more than the other Clairvoyant variances. The others just feel completely useless in some instances. There was literally one character that I questioned why they were even there in the first place. The book even seems to forget they were there in the final act.
Another problem I had with this book was the pacing. The first half of the book I thought was well structured. It was when it got to its second and final half that I felt things were being rushed. Rion started out as a simple beginner, who barely knew how to use his abilities. In the end, he is somehow the most powerful, beating those that had years of practice. Then there are characters who change allegiances on the spot that just felt so forced. It just felt like whiplash after the beginning started out so promising.
At the end of the day, however, I found The Fourth Kinetic to be an enjoyable read. It reminded me a bit of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. If you are a fan of that series, like I am, I believe you will also get some entertainment out of this book, regardless of its flaws. It is a bit more mature than that series, though, with some cursing and suggestive content. The book is very well edited, as I found no mistakes while I was reading it. With all that being said, I give The Fourth Kinetic 3 out of 4 stars. The way certain aspects were handled is the main reason why I decided not to give it a perfect four.
******
The Fourth Kinetic
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
Latest Review: The Fourth Kinetic by Brady Moore
