2024 Re-Read
Since it seems that we're only going to get two stories out of the four roommates who have acquired super powers, I'm grateful that Jools/Ninety-Nine was one of them. I just love her. She's used to being the fuck-up of the four women, drinking too much, sleeping around, getting kicked off the university hockey team, flunking tests. Becoming Ninety-Nine gives her the intelligence that she longs for and the competence to do all kinds of things with it. Plus, she can summon her glowing green hockey and then “it's Hockey Night in Canada, bitches!”
It all begins as Jools returns to Waterloo after Christmas in Edmonton. She is shanghaied when the plane lands and learns of the existence of a crystalline bazooka, purported to belong to the villain Diamond. With the help of Zircon, Aria, and Dakini, the bazooka is acquired and the adventure begins. Because the Light, which creates Sparks with super powers to begin with, thrives on maximum drama.
Of course there is a Spark named Robin Hood with his band of Merry Sparks. This is Jools' story, so you know that she will spend time in his Sherwood Lair. I'd forgotten about his role here, but it's kind of cool to have an impulse read fit obliquely into my Summer in Sherwood project.
We learn quickly that Jools really cares about her roomies. Her tough-girl act fools some people, but K, Miranda and Shar figure it out. I had to laugh at the end, when Jools decides that communication rings are too easily taken away by the bad guys--she's going to make them communication IUDs! Brilliant, Mr. Gardner!
Now I will moan that there's no Miranda or Shar volumes to continue on with. Tor, what kind of publisher are you? I got to meet Gardner at a conference a few years ago, and I know he had plans for them (I asked). So much disappointment!
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