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Temper A Novel Nicky Drayden Books

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Temper A Novel Nicky Drayden Books

Temper is about twin brothers, Auben and Kasim Mtuze. Set in a fictional analogue of southern Africa, they live in a society that is made up of primarily twins. As a coming-of-age ceremony, these twins are assessed and assigned a mixture of the seven vices.

Normally, it's common for the twins to split along a three to four ratio. Sometimes, it can be five to two. The Mtuzes are rare in that Auben has six and Kasim only has one.

Kasim has embraced his bad-boy lifestyle. He flirts with the girls. Classes are meant to be missed, right? Also, he isn't afraid to supplement his lifestyle with a little bit of theft.

But, as the year turns, Auben starts to hear voices. They're pushing him to go beyond petty fun-seeking and move into more serious misdeeds. Also, he's starting to crave the taste of blood.

Overall, I really liked Temper quite a bit! This was Nicky Drayden's second effort, and I'm going to add her to my category of "to-read-upon-release."

First, I loved that the story was a standalone. There's nothing wrong with a series. But, sometimes, looking at the book store's shelves, I think that the stand alone speculative fiction novel is a lost art. It's nice to find a story that fits into less than four hundred pages.

I also liked the social structure of the world. Peoples' social status depended on how many vices they had. Since Auben had six, he wasn't looking at the rosiest of futures. Kasim was looking at the reverse. He expects to climb to a respectable position on the social ladder. Auben, though, can expect to live in a ghetto called a comfy.

Also, I liked the idea of a society of twins. There's a very specific world building reason that this happens that I won't get into here. But, in addition to the male/female paradigm, the twin effect has added the kigen gender, which was an interesting thing to think about.

The world of the story is going through an intense debate about religion and secularism. The two sides have very strongly drawn boundaries. Also, mechanical devices are verboten, due to cultural exploitation from machine-using conquerors.

The Mtuze's mother is strongly secularist, and she's raised her boys to be such as well. When they choose to explore religion as a means of understanding what's happening, she reacts strongly.

I love the sense of humor in the story. Auben revels in the funny. His uncle-in-law, Pabio, illustrates not-safe-for-work "childrens" books, such as an octopus with mouth-herpes. There are other examples, too, but some of them give away a bit too much of the story.

I was a little less thrilled with the use of language in the book. It's written in the first-person, present tense. No issues with the first-person voice -- I love it in general. It's just a touch jarring to read at first. Whenever I came back to the book, it took a few minutes to get back into the swing of the text.

Also, the chapters were really long. It was sometimes hard to find a good stopping point, particularly when I started dozing off in bed. If the chapter subsections had been a bit more clearly labeled, it would have been easier going.

Overall, though, those are some minor nitpicks. I highly recommend this for people interested in reading fantasy set in Africa (something sorely lacking at the moment), and also people interested in drama between family members.


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Temper A Novel Nicky Drayden Books Reviews

*I received an ecopy of this book via Edelweiss. This has not influenced my review.*

This was a unique fantasy book involving twins, possessions, vices, virtues, gods, and unexpected twists, all taking place in an African-based setting. I'm not sure if I should classify it as paranormal/urban fantasy or high fantasy or magical realism or mythology or maybe even metaphysical & visionary since it took place in a land very similar to ours in some ways but very different in others. But whatever it was, it explored some interesting concepts and ideas. However, I did have a few issues, so this seems like a good time for some lists.

Likes

- I know it was because of the proximity aspect of the twin bond, how being physically close actually made them feel physically better, but I loved seeing Auben and Kasim holding each other, putting an arm around the other, huddling close in a bed, seeking comfort with each other, etc. without any sense of toxic masculinity.

- I also loved the brother relationship in general and how much Auben loved and cared about Kasim and didn't want them to drift apart. But they also had their issues, so it wasn't always a perfect relationship.

- Auben cracked me up sometimes. He was the lesser twin with all the vices and did bad things sometimes, but I couldn't help but like him. And I loved that, even though he was the more misbehaved and mischievous one, he didn't fall into any stereotype and was also really smart when he wanted to be and did have some good in him.

- The African-based setting was interesting.

- There were some thought-provoking themes/messages in the end, especially in regards to the vices and virtues.

Dislikes

- My biggest issue was that I was confused about so many things. Almost nothing was explained, you were just supposed to figure it out from context, but this was a completely different world, and I needed more explanation about how the twinning and vices/virtues worked. I was also confused about the world and who was affected by the things that happened. Considering certain things, it stands to reason the whole world should've been affected, except it sounded like only two small cities were. I'm not even sure there was a whole world.

- Auben's romantic feelings jumped around too much to be believable. [Hidden spoiler can be found in my review on my blog or Goodreads.]

Mixed Feelings

- The writing was kind of matter-of-fact. It took me a bit of getting used to, but I did get used to it and started to enjoy it more as the story went on.

- I felt like the gender stuff in the book might be a bit problematic since, even though there were more than two genders, they were still assigned based on body type, and one character's pronouns changed when their body type changed. But there was a trans character, and near the end, Auben had a realization that gender is about more than body type.

Overall Thoughts

Despite the confusion, this was not a bad book. I would've liked more world-building and explanations, but I thought the story was unique, thought-provoking, and surprising, and other people might easily enjoy it more than I did.

Rating 3 Stars

Original Review @ Metaphors and Moonlight (link in profile)
Enjoyed writing style, original story line and subtle humor. Also listened to audio book which was great. Will read a third time because it required me more than one reading to understand some key points, especially the social commentary.
This has a superhero feel with a little more depth. Not normally a genre I read, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Temper reveals a brilliant world filled with magic, both good and evil, that paints a vivid portrait of a deeply flawed society. Drayden’s use of class structure examines the struggles of the real world and the implications of poverty on a child’s future. Complete with an epic clash between religion and science, and a fast-paced narrative, Temper is a must read.
I was not really a sci-fi/fantasy fan until I read the books by Nicky Drayden. The Prey of the Gods was the first and now Temper. It has a little of everything from a little humor, terror and most of all the bond and emotional connection of the twin brothers. I definitely would recommend this one.
Temper is about twin brothers, Auben and Kasim Mtuze. Set in a fictional analogue of southern Africa, they live in a society that is made up of primarily twins. As a coming-of-age ceremony, these twins are assessed and assigned a mixture of the seven vices.

Normally, it's common for the twins to split along a three to four ratio. Sometimes, it can be five to two. The Mtuzes are rare in that Auben has six and Kasim only has one.

Kasim has embraced his bad-boy lifestyle. He flirts with the girls. Classes are meant to be missed, right? Also, he isn't afraid to supplement his lifestyle with a little bit of theft.

But, as the year turns, Auben starts to hear voices. They're pushing him to go beyond petty fun-seeking and move into more serious misdeeds. Also, he's starting to crave the taste of blood.

Overall, I really liked Temper quite a bit! This was Nicky Drayden's second effort, and I'm going to add her to my category of "to-read-upon-release."

First, I loved that the story was a standalone. There's nothing wrong with a series. But, sometimes, looking at the book store's shelves, I think that the stand alone speculative fiction novel is a lost art. It's nice to find a story that fits into less than four hundred pages.

I also liked the social structure of the world. Peoples' social status depended on how many vices they had. Since Auben had six, he wasn't looking at the rosiest of futures. Kasim was looking at the reverse. He expects to climb to a respectable position on the social ladder. Auben, though, can expect to live in a ghetto called a comfy.

Also, I liked the idea of a society of twins. There's a very specific world building reason that this happens that I won't get into here. But, in addition to the male/female paradigm, the twin effect has added the kigen gender, which was an interesting thing to think about.

The world of the story is going through an intense debate about religion and secularism. The two sides have very strongly drawn boundaries. Also, mechanical devices are verboten, due to cultural exploitation from machine-using conquerors.

The Mtuze's mother is strongly secularist, and she's raised her boys to be such as well. When they choose to explore religion as a means of understanding what's happening, she reacts strongly.

I love the sense of humor in the story. Auben revels in the funny. His uncle-in-law, Pabio, illustrates not-safe-for-work "childrens" books, such as an octopus with mouth-herpes. There are other examples, too, but some of them give away a bit too much of the story.

I was a little less thrilled with the use of language in the book. It's written in the first-person, present tense. No issues with the first-person voice -- I love it in general. It's just a touch jarring to read at first. Whenever I came back to the book, it took a few minutes to get back into the swing of the text.

Also, the chapters were really long. It was sometimes hard to find a good stopping point, particularly when I started dozing off in bed. If the chapter subsections had been a bit more clearly labeled, it would have been easier going.

Overall, though, those are some minor nitpicks. I highly recommend this for people interested in reading fantasy set in Africa (something sorely lacking at the moment), and also people interested in drama between family members.