Great follow up - Rated 
This book is the follow up to the hugely enjoyable 'Resenting The Hero' by the same author and it very much helps to have read the first book before embarking on this one. With the same two central characters, Dunleavy Mallorough and Shintaro Karish, this time the Source and Shield find themselves in a rather different situation. Rather than having to face a great number of natural disasters to avert using their combined powers, when this story takes place the city of High Scape has settled down and they haven't had to do anything for ages. When the weather starts behaving rather oddly - something they can't change - the Source and Shield Pairs begin to find that their talents aren't appreciated by the local population.
Both Dunleavy's and Shintaro's mothers make an appearance in this book, both displaying how one's parents don't always get it right. In the case of Dunleavy's mother, her difficulties are very clear to the reader - Lee is a strange daughter, self-possessed and not needing anyone else's help, and living in a completely different world to that of the rest of her family; Shintaro's mother's behaviour is quite amazingly appalling and in this book we learn a great deal more about his past and why he's become such a charming and engaging chap.
At the end of the last book Taro had managed to abjure his title as Duke of Westsea but in this book he finds it coming back to trouble him. He not only has to head off his mother's demands for him to take the title, supported by the Prince, and the problems in the local population with the weather, as well as Lee's insistence that he carries out healings and tries to deflect the weather, but he also is at risk from a crazed killer who is targetting aristocrats, as well as the weird religion that tries to sacrifice the High Landed people to appease their god and prevent natural disasters.
There are many different aspects drawn together in this book and it was always really enjoyable. There didn't seem to be as much going on in this story as the previous one, part of the situation for the Pairs is that the natural disasters seem to have stopped and therefore they're not really doing anything, but in the lulls in action we learn more about Taro, and to some extent Lee, and it's very interesting. The potential romance doesn't move much further forward, although there are further hints that Taro's life isn't quite the carousing one that Lee believes, and Lee also finds a potential love interest (other than Taro) at the end, but it's a satisfying read with some great characters, particularly Taro and his mother, and an interesting world on which the story is based.
i absolutely loved this book - Rated
i just recently read the books resenting the hero and the hero strikes back... these books were brilliant. i enjoyed them and loved all the teasing and jokes between the characters. i love fantasy fiction from eddings to jordan. these books are definitely worth the read. dont judge the books by there covers cos the covers are a bit wierd looking... the covers are a little funny lucky but inside them is where the fantasy and laughs are... so enjoy!!!!!
one of the best ever! - Rated
this book was really really amazing.there is something so disturbing going on but it is woven in so well you dont notice.dont worry its not horror or gory but you must read this. we miss the full power of Dunleaveys narration at the beginning but it does pick up later.this book is fantastic and my review doesnt do it justice but read anyway
Instead of having a main plot, there are lots of smaller strands, but most of them turn out to be connected in the end.it is set in High scape, where the weather has gone weird and for some reason, the regulars expect pairs to do something about it.
there is a lot of stuff that is never cleared up, though and i'm not sure it ever will be.
Enjoyable sequel - Rated
I loved this book just as much as I loved the first one! It keeps you hooked to the end just like 'Resenting the Hero'. I highly recommend it! If you haven't read the first book, then read it, then read this one. And join the queue for the next Moira J. Moore book!
Excellent sequel to "Resenting the Hero" - Rated
In which Lee and Shintaro have problems with weather, scheming mothers, lunatics and plotters ...
This is the even more amusing sequel to Moira Moore's highly entertaining debut book, "Resenting the Hero." It begins a few months after the first book finishes. There is a third book, "Heroes Adrift" which follows this one.
All three books are set on a far future human colony world, where the population can only be protected against frequent natural disasters by the special talents of two groups of people - "Sources" and "Shields".
Sources can "channel" natural forces and dispel coming disasters: Shields protect the Sources and stop them dying or going insane while they do so. Both groups are taken from their families at an early age and intensively trained to use their special talents.
In principle any source can work with any shield, but in practice most sources form a spontaneous natural bond with one particular shield. The bond is involuntary, neither partner having any choice about who they form a pair with, and once formed it lasts for the rest of the life of both partners. The bond is so strong that the death of either source or shield within a "pair" causes the demise of the other.
Most pairs form a friendly and professional relationship, some ignore the advice of their training college by becoming lovers, and others find themselves tied for life to someone they can't stand.
Shintaro Karish, who renounced the title of Duke of Westsea in the first book, is a Source. He is heroic, brave, virile, talented, charming, exciting, disgustingly handsome, and apart from being something of a rake, far too good to be true. Every young shield, expecially the female ones, hoped to bond with him, except for the narrator of both books, Dunleavy Mallorough (Lee), a practical merchant's daughter and Shield. She wanted to work with someone calm, steady, and reliable. So guess who she got stuck with.
A large part of the first book followed the response of the practical merchant's daughter to being yoked for life to someone she initially percieved as a brilliant but pampered and arrogant aristocrat. However, by the start of the second book Lee and Shintaro have established a strong working relationship and become very close friends.
However, they have scarcely surmounted one set of problems when a whole new set arise. Someone is kidnapping and murdering nobles, and Lee is afraid that Shintaro may be one of their targets. There is a group of fanatical extremists who believe that the way to prevent natural disasters is the ritual human sacrifice of aristocrats - are they behind the murders, or are they, as they seem, too mad and incompetent to organise a revolution at a children's tea party?
Then there is the weather - not the natural disasters which sources and shields are trained to deal with, but very unusual weather such as snow in midsummer. Strange weather is wrecking the livelihoods of local people, who want Shintaro, Lee and their colleagues to do something.
Worst of all, both Lee's and Shintaro's mothers descend on them. Cackhanded attempts by Lee's mother to find her a husband are bad enough. Shintaro's virago of a mother, the Dowager Duchess of Westsea, is furious at his renunciation of the title, and determined to get him to break his promise to the empress that he would never seek to reclaim it. Her plotting is all too likely to get them both killed ...
There are two groups of readers who might not like these books. Those who prefer their sci/fi or fantasy to be highly serious may not appreciate them. And some male readers - though not all, I loved both books - may feel there is not enough action and too much interest in relationships.
If you're the sort of male reader who didn't like Sarah Zettel's books or those of Linnea Sinclair, because you think that sort of book is for women, you may not like Moira Moore's first three books either.
However, I found these stories very highly entertaining and strongly recommend them.
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