Future Friction Review
Future Friction by Ken Sanchez | My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Future Friction: Chemistry
Chemistry ignites between the two love interests in this urban fantasy superhero love story. Future Friction by Ken Sanchez is a superhero magic urban fantasy that brings comic book action and banter to the MM romance genre. The main love interests, Marcus and Julien see each other and feel an immediate pull, but that doesn’t mean things are smooth sailing for the superhero couple. A lot has to happen for them to agree to even work together, let alone be together.
Part of a Series: Shadowguards
Future Friction is the second and a half book in the Shadowguards series. I didn’t know it was part of a series when I downloaded the arc. Consequently, I felt like I was playing catch-up as I worked through this story. Like most series, previously established characters were popping back up, who potentially have stories of their own. But I was learning who they were for the first time, and sometimes there was no ‘recap’ so the story would mention someone’s name without much introduction, so I was figuring out who the established characters were in the world, while at the same time absorbing the building story of this installment.
Superhero Meets Magic
The urban fantasy world of Future Friction juxtaposes a modern New York City with a world of superheroes, magic, the Greek pantheon, and a bit of the fated-mates trope from alpha/omega stories thrown in there for good measure.
A lot was going on, because of this confluence of many tropes and genres, and sometimes the plot got a bit muddy because of it.
Overused Descriptions
The same descriptions and phrases appear just a few times too many. For example, “this was… not how this was supposed to happen” is used several times. The lines appear close enough together that it was noticeable.
Another thing that pops up more than once is someone looking at another person “with an expression that was both exasperated and fond.” Repeat phrases extremely selectively in a novel, because readers will notice things like that. I do.
Similes Galore
Woah Nelly lots of similes. I could have done without so many. They have their place in a superhero story, I feel. But fewer of them would have made the story flow more. I found myself stuck on the descriptions. Some similes appear more than once. There just gets to be a point where you gloss over similes as you read, or you’ll get stuck on so many of them.
Beyond similies the descriptions and the dialogue in Future Friction are very, I don’t know how to put it exactly, comic boo. I mean, it is a superhero sort of book. But the author tends to lean into the cheesy, snappy ‘clever’ humor pretty heavily. That might not be everyone’s jam. I liked it for the most part but I felt my eyes rolling a few times.
Passage of Time
Sometimes the passage of time seemed off, where I thought it was the next day. For example, after the first time Marcus sees Julien he goes to Julien’s business to sus him out. They are antagonistic towards one another, but it’s fairly mild. I didn’t see them as being enemies, like ever.
Antagonism
But then their antagonism is the starting point of their relationship and I guess I just didn’t see it that way. It was the opposite, in fact. I saw their relationship as edging on the sort of the insta-love that I don’t get on board with in romance books. Probably because I am more demi or asexual I can’t see insta-love being plausible. But they are also “fated-mates” so that insta-love is explained that way.
Back to Passage of Time
So anyway, the passage of time. Parts of the story referenced more time passing than I thought had done. Scenes were missing, maybe that had been edited away. Because of this, the passage of time was unclear.
After the initial club scene, Marcus goes to find out about Julien. I thought it was the immediate next day, right after the incident in the club. But while they talk Marcus mentions something about “that night” in the club. Wait, pause. I’m confused. Wouldn’t someone say “last night” instead of “that night” if it was just the previous evening? Or maybe time had passed but it wasn’t clear how much. I took Alex’s imperative to mean that Marcus needed to look into what Julien was up to with some urgency, not wait for a while before meandering over to Julien’s place of business to chat. Maybe I just misunderstood that part.
Other times it seemed like characters referenced interactions that I didn’t remember happening. At one point Julien comments that just a few weeks ago he would have never seen himself working with the Shadowguards but look at him now. But at that point in the story, I didn’t recall him actually working with the Shadowguards. Things like this made it seem like I’d missed a time-jump or whole scenes. But I did not skim this book, I read it pretty carefully, even going back and re-reading when something confused me.
Continuity in Future Friction
An editor could look over Future Friction, specifically looking at continuity, to improve and ensure time passes logically. A different set of eyes could pick out potentially confusing time jumps and suggest ways to deal with them by more specifically referencing the passage of time. Sometimes it’s harder for an author to do this to their own story. Because they have a good idea of the story in their head, they need a different set of eyes to see where the story requires fleshing out. Sometimes the story in the author’s head isn’t quite on the page but because the author knows their story, they think it is. I’ve done this myself, so even in the fanfiction world this is why beta readers are the best. And in the publishing world, editors exist for this purpose.
Marcus and Julien
Full disclosure: I am not a huge fan of the fated-mates trope. I feel like it allows writers to omit entire relationship development and conveniently be like ‘oh look they’re fated mates they are in love now’.
Because I am not a huge fan, I enjoyed how the fated-mates trope is handled in Future Friction. That’s not what happened in this book. Julien and Marcus, even when they know they are fated mates, aren’t fully on board with everything that entails. Not right away. So the characters feel that pull, that insta-love, but they still have the wherewithal to question whether their feelings are because of the fated-mates thing intertwining their destiny or actual emotions that develop naturally.
This book was a fun read, and I plan to read the rest of the series now.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I write reviews on my blog, Goodreads, Bookbub, Amazon, and more. If you want me to read and review your upcoming novel read my review policy and submit a contact form.
