What Fire Cannot Burn

If you read the first book and hated it, don't worry--Ridley realized that his main character was impossible to root for, and figured out a rather impressive solution to the problem. If you didn't read the first book, you may actually be in for a treat--enjoy the slaughter of the mutants, and get ready to choke on whatever you're eating when the full situation becomes clear. Here's hoping there's a book 3!

Soledad O'Roark is a police officer in Los Angeles with MTac, a group of special cops whose purpose in life is to rid the world of "freaks." Freaks are evolved human beings with superpowers and they are officially called metanormals. They can change shapes, pick up locomotive engines, toss cars around and any number of other amazing feats. Each metanormal usually has one paranormal function. Or at least that's how it used to be. Paranormals are now showing up with more than one function that makes the job of MTac a lot more risky. Soledad, a star on the MTac team, takes the challenge seriously, even after being hurt in a fight with a metanormal who took out two of her team members and injured her and Eddi Aoki. Eddi Aoki is a female cop who admires and envies Soledad and wants to be just like her. There is also something corrupt going on in the police department and while Soledad recovers from her injury, she is approached by Internal Affairs to look into the corruption. Vin loves her, but she is so into her job, she hasn't the time for him. She doesn't even have time for her parents who call her regularly from their home in the east. She ignores their phone calls but something so serious is going on in her family that her mother comes to Los Angeles to see her in person. Soledad is not happy. She will be even unhappier after the visit. WHAT FIRE CANNOT BURN is a complicated story of love and loss and the dangers of police work in Los Angeles. The writing style is interesting but sometimes distracting. John Ridley writes just the way some people talk - repeating words or phrases. While realistic, it is somewhat unsettling when an entire book is written this way. The characters are well-developed and you get the feeling that you actually know the chilly, non-emotional Soledad and you find yourself wanting to slap her awake to the realities of life outside the police department. It was an challenging read that science fiction lovers would find fascinating. Reviewed by Alice Holman of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Soledad O'Roark and Eddi Aoki are cops on the LAPD's Pacific MTac team, the city's best mutant-hunter unit. At twenty-nine, Soledad is a streetwise veteran; Eddi, the young but talented protege--or rival. Their weapons--Soledad's custom-made O'Dwyer VLe handgun and Eddi's Hibben Bowie--and their deadliness are making them into infamous members of the police force. Unfortunately, the two women rarely finish a conversation without clashing; both are proud and angry. And too busy fighting to survive to waste time on talk. Metanormals, mutants who have a superhuman ability, have infiltrated the city. The LAPD is losing good officers in vastly unequal fights. A relentless killer is littering the city with bodies. And the LAPD is wracked with internal power struggles and might contain a secret society of vigilantes. Meanwhile, Soledad is deciding whether to marry Vin, an injured cop; her mother is fighting a life-threatening illness; and an Internal Affairs officer is trying to recruit her to spy on her fellow cops. In a wild series of clashes with mutants, Eddi burns through a lot of ammunition while trying to keep herself and her team alive. These plotlines add up to an entertaining, albeit dark, story, and the novel is an excellent read. John Ridley writes in a frenetic, jazzy voice, and he layers a social critique of corporate greed, cultural conformity, and bureaucratic incompetence into this story. Because Ridley weaves excerpts from Soledad's and Eddi's journals into the narrative, we get to know both women very well. We care about them and about what happens to them, which is one reason why this novel is riveting. Life is fragile and survival uncertain in this world, and we're still learning who can be trusted, who lives, and who has a secret even onto the novel's final page. Armchair Interviews says: What Fire Cannot Burn will surprise you. Ridley is a writer willing to take risks, and he presents us with a story that seems like a simple morality tale at first but quickly deepens into an exploration of fear, evil, and human nature.

The paperback cover of two scantily clad armed women might lead one to expect a light action-adventure, possibly with sexual overtones. Ridley's book is more serious than the cover leads you to expect. Ridley's _What Fire Cannot Burn_ appears to be a sequel, but works well as a stand-alone novel. The background is a society where metahumans existed, then were outlawed after a brawl destroyed most of San Francisco. On the surface, it is a typical police story about a tough cop accidentally disabled and asked by Internal Affairs to investigate a possible vigilante within an intelligence unit. Lively characters and multiple twists keep the plot moving nicely. The ending is a bit too well foreshadowed, but most of the other twists work well -- at least one comes as a major surprise. Beneath that, there are themes about the reactions and over-reactions of society in the post-9/11 era and questions about minority rights, as well as wrestling with death, dying, and disability. The major characters are engaging and well-drawn. Certainly worth a read.

During the Age of Heroes, mankind was willing to let the metanormals be the policeman for mankind but when two of them fought and destroyed half of San Francisco and killed six hundred thousand people, humanity turned on them with a vengeance. Overnight, they were declared non-human, their rights stripped away and those that turned themselves in were sent to a special facility or transported out of the country. Soledad O'Roark of the Pacific MTac, a division of the LAPD, is dedicated to fighting and killing mutants, but is injured during a nasty battle. While she recovers, she is transferred to the DIA, the unit that gathers Intel on mutants and hands it over to MTac for them to catch or kill. A man from I. A. approaches Soledad asking that she infiltrate a rogue cell within DIA that is killing mutants illegally. She infiltrates the group because she believes she can gather real Intel; the mission goes south so Soledad's comrade in MTac, Eddi Aoki, takes her place and finds she is dealing with a serial killer and an illegal cabal with a vision much different than the powers that be. John Ridley is an expert when it comes to writing excellent, exciting, and entertaining urban fantasy. Humanity is already questioning the laws that says metanormals are not human (just like today many are questioning the Patriot Act) believing it is biased and overkill since there are many good metanormals who want to live ordinary lives and help humanity just like there are bad mutants who use their powers for their own gain. This is an action created work but the characters are fully developed so that the audience feels as if we are part of a very special reading experience.