The Guardian Host: Resurrection by Andrew Goodwin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Description

In The Guardian Host: Resurrection, Vincent Vandraken is an ordinary scientist until one day he watches an alien ship crash. He receives a gift from the alien, who’s fleeing his home planet, which is under attack, and accepting it changes his life, and so much more.

Suddenly imbued with an alien life form that gives him incredible powers, Vincent vows to use those powers for good and live out his immortal life serving the better good of his city.

But he’s not without opposition. A group protesting his use of abilities forms, and he has to be careful to keep his identity a secret from the government and the average citizen, whether opposing or adoring.

Fast forward about 40 years, and the situation is much the same. Vincent is alone except for the alien he’s hosting, but that changes when he gets the nerve to talk to the cute girl at his museum. Follow that up with a visit from the government agency that’s been researching aliens with the news that the aliens Vincent’s host was avoiding is on its way to earth, and then everything turns to chaos.

The Review

The Guardian Host: Resurrection is a fun adventure superhero book, and I’d love seeing the author’s vision for the Guardian Host displayed on the cover. The pacing starts a little slow, taking us through each new ability before fast forwarding to the action. The author seemed to have a good flow after that, and the story moved along at a good clip, taking breathers when the story needed it.

Unfortunately, the book was not very well edited. Dialog from different characters were lumped into a single paragraph, words were misspelled, punctuation was off, and it was a little too often to feel like it had been professionally edited. The author is also fairly new, which is not a problem, but you can see it in some of the details, constantly naming feelings rather than immersing the reader in the feelings themselves, and inserting long descriptions about the characters and surroundings rather than weaving some of those details into the action.

Overall, not a bad book, and I enjoyed the story, but I personally found the above issues somewhat distracting, though not enough to knock it down to 3 stars. I hope the author keeps writing and learning, and I’m confident he can do quite well.

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I don’t recall any swearing, though there might have been a word or two. There is no sex, and just a few romantic interactions, though the character doesn’t shy away from admiring the female form.