Live! In the Link Age 02.29.12

Posted on February 29, 2012 by

Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom is an anthology of brand new stories featuring John Carter of Mars. The lineup of authors is pretty impressive. Peter Beagle, Garth Nix, Joe Lansdale, Tobias Buckell, Austin Grossman, Catherynne Valente, and Chris Claremont are just a few of the contributors.

Michael Carroll is wrapping up his excellent Super Human series later this year. Stronger is the title of the final book in the trilogy (available 06.14.12). If you’re curious, here’s what we had to say about the first two novels, Super Human and The Ascension.

Now available: Dolphins & Time, the Strangest of Bedfellows by Josh Price. For more “absurd” misadventures of Captain Rescue, check out the first two books, Not Everything Brainless is Dead and Past, Future & Present Danger.

For your pleasure: Spandex Always Rises by the Keioskie Brothers. Supervillain: The Concise Guide by Ras Ashcroft. Awaken: The Children of Divinity Book 1 by Garth Reasby. The Avengers Assemble by the prolific tie-in writer TBD (reading level: ages 8 and up). And finally, it may not be a superhero novel, but it’s worth a mention nonetheless: The Future is Japanese (volume one, we hope) edited by the crew at Haikasoru.

Twitter post from Van Allen Plexico: SENTINELS: METALGOD will be along late summer. That’s cool. Also, check out a recent interview with the author here. Years ago we promised Plexico that we’d do our best to read/review his entire Sentinels saga. We got through the first three books before getting sidetracked with other things. We’d like to reassure the author that we are planning to catch up eventually. Unfortunately, it’s taking us a little longer than expected.

Speaking of our reading habits, a lot of people (authors mostly) want to know what our book review policy is. Here’s how it breaks down: new books have priority over old books. SuperheroNovels.com wants to be timely. So we’ll review a book from 2012 before we tackle a book from 2003. Also, a book from a publisher will get our attention quicker than a self-published ebook. And finally, at the risk of sounding like a luddite, if we get a book in the mail we’ll probably read it quicker than if we get a book sent to us electronically. The reason is obvious. An actual book will sit on our shelf and glare at us until we read it. An ebook, on the other hand, gets filed away in a folder on our desktop. Out of sight, out of mind.

And one last thing for fans of DragonBall: Ever wonder what a real Super Saiyan transformation might look like? Check this one.

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Power Up

Posted on February 26, 2012 by

In the future we’ll all be superheroes. Do you want to climb buildings like a spider? Shrink to the size of an ant? Talk to a fish? No problem. All you’ll have to do is dial up any modification you desire. It’ll be as easy as downloading an app to your smartphone.

Connor Rix was one of the first modified humans. He was officially sanctioned and government approved. But when the Breakup War split the United States into regional sovereignties, Rix was cut loose. He no longer took orders from the government. He became a free agent and a superhero for hire.

Now a Brazilian mobster is trying to form his own personal modification cartel. He wants to become the exclusive supplier of biological raw materials. And to do so, he has declared war on a Massive Dynamic-like corporation based in New Mexico. To the rescue comes Rix and his team of super modified heroes.

The author is a middling futurist who predicts a new dawn for mankind. Biological alterations, he writes, has “the truly awesome potential to vanquish humanity’s ancient weaknesses, to uplift humanity for the better.”

But what happens when everyone becomes a superhuman? Undoubtedly some of these superheroes will become supervillains. Connor Rix turned out to be one of the good guys. But you don’t want every bully on the block to morph into an eight-foot rampaging hulk.

And that’s why Rix and his crew must stop Vinicius Cunha and his Brazilian musclemen. Cunha is a particularly vicious bastard. Six-foot-six, thick as a brick and impervious to bullets, he is rigged with every physical modification available. The mobster was a leader in the primitive sense of the word, an alpha male in a pack of wild animals. If Cunha wins the war of biological modification, mankind’s bright future will be forever tarnished.

Before Rix and Cunha put on their boxing gloves, Rules of Force debates the moral, political, and financial implications of continued human alterations. The author peppers his narrative with pros and cons of the issue, and we have no doubt he will continue to do so in upcoming sequels. Rix, of course, is an indefatigable advocate for continued modification research. He wants to live in a world where modifications take mankind to the next level. “People will be stronger, faster, they’ll live longer and be able to achieve things that earlier humans could never have achieved,” he says. “I want to see those days come to pass.”

[Rules of Force / By Steve Statham / First Printing: November 2011 / ISBN: 9781467935142]

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The Justice Society of Steam, Part II

Posted on February 19, 2012 by

Sarah Stanton isn’t an actress, an heiress, murderess, temptress, or diabolist. She’s a steampunk superheroine. “I’m no lady,” she informs a misinformed adversary, “I’m the Adventuress.”

Specifically, she’s the only daughter of the Industrialist, the leader of a group of gentlemen adventurers called the Paragons. Until recently she’s lived a privileged life under her daddy’s careful supervision. But now she’s living on her own and serendipitously building a gang of likeminded superheroes. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree apparently. Everybody in the Stanton family ends up being the leader of a team of costumed exhibitionists at some point in their life.

And the timing couldn’t be better. Her father’s gentlemen’s club is slowly being dismantled by a mad genius with a chip on his shoulder and electricity at his fingertips. The Children of Eschaton want to destroy the world and rebuild it in their own image. There’s no place in their evil plans for a collection of greybeard superheroes called the Paragons. Sic transit Gloria mundi—the glory of the world so quickly passes away.

Since this is a steampunk novel, the fate of the world will be determined by whoever locates the Alpha Element and wields the power of steam and smoke. We’ll give you one guess who has it. That’s right, the spunky Stanton gal. The Alpha Element is contained within a key hanging from her necklace. The author is being as blunt as possible. But in case you missed it, the Adventuress is the key to everything.

Hearts of Smoke and Steam is a transitional novel. The villainy remains the same as the first book, but the series has shifted from the first generation of superheroes to the second generation. Call it SOS:TNG if you like. Gone is the Submersible, the Sleuth, Iron-Clad, the Industrialist, and Sir Dennis Darby. In their stead is the Turbine, Anubis, Il Acrobato, the Pneumatic Colossus, and, of course, the Adventuress. She’s the spark, the progeny, and the avenger. Lord Eschaton has hurt or killed everyone that she ever cared about. And now she’s ready to fight a war. “I have judged you, Sarah Stanton,” says Anubis, a villain turned hero. “And I have found you worthy!” We couldn’t agree more.

[The Society of Steam, Book Two: Hearts of Smoke and Steam / By Andrew P. Mayer / First Printing: November 2011 / ISBN: 9781616145330]

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She Fought the World, and the World Won

Posted on February 12, 2012 by

You might be rich. You might be righteous. You might even be a Kardashian. But in the end, it doesn’t really matter. Nobody leaves this island Earth alive.

Two supervillains by the name of Sundancer and Pit Geek have no delusions about their ultimate fate. They know the end will come for them eventually. With nothing better to do, they embark on a Bonnie and Clyde-like adventure. Robbing banks is beneath them. But they don’t care. They’re just trying to keep things interesting before the final bell tolls.

And, boy, do things get interesting. After depositing $80 million from banks across the country, Sundancer and Pit Geek start butting heads with the Covenant, a trio of superheroes with a spotty history. The team consists of a male prostitute, a crime boss, and the estranged daughter of Dr. Knowbokov, the guy who purposely detonated a second big bang and destroyed the universe. (See the prequel novel, Nobody Gets the Girl, for more mind-bending details.)

The Covenant is doing its best to squash Sundancer and Pit Geek. But their efforts are in vain. The dirty pair has already sewn up our sympathies. This is a supervillain novel, after all. It says so in the indicia.

Sundancer, otherwise known as Sunday Jimenez, gets most of the attention here. By harnessing the power of the sun, she is practically invincible. But unfortunately her superpowers have exposed her body to massive amounts of radiation. She’ll die of cancer unless she gets help fast.

During her villainous career, Sunday pushed death upon dozens of people with utter indifference. And now it’s her time to go. But you never know. Can she survive her mortal coil with the help of a super-intelligent chimpanzee? Or a black donut from outer space? Or maybe her partner in crime has an ace down his gullet? In a supervillain novel, anything is possible.

Burn Baby Burn is more straightforward than it’s prequel. We missed the earlier book’s unexpected twists and unwavering insanity. And we were a little disappointed that Rex Monday bowed out so quickly. But overall it’s funnier than the first book and has a bigger heart. Also, the romance between the two criminals was (inevitable, but) sweet.

In the end, says Sundancer, we’re all going to die. No one gets out alive. “Well, sure,” responds Pit Geek, her heartbroken lover. “But there’s no need to be in a such hurry.” Ultimately, everybody wants to spend a little more time in this veil of tears.

[Burn Baby Burn / By James Maxey / First Printing: November 2011 / ISBN: 9781465731586]

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Force It

Posted on February 5, 2012 by

In Forced Retirement, Hericane saved Isosceles City from being destroyed. Now in Forced Betrayal, she has to save the entire planet from being destroyed. She’s the daughter of the most powerful superhuman who ever lived. And, as it turns out, she’s pretty powerful herself.

But it’s not like she’s the only superhero in her hometown. There are a lot of them, including Windening Gyre, Mogul, Panic Attack, Stalwart, Deathalyzer, Mardi Gras, Thunder Perfect Mind, the Jupitarian, CEO (the Chief Executive Officer of Justice), Blindspot, Concealer, Lethe, Retcon, King Crypto, Old Glory, Ball Lightning, Air Marshall, Sputnik, Concorde, Gestalt, Red Baron, Sky Shark, Trampolina, Shishkabob, King David, Party Rocker, Partycrasher, Geyser, Homewrecker, Overtime, Dixieman, and Rx (the Prescription for Crime).

Despite the inexhaustible parade of crimefighters, there’s something nasty going on in Isosceles City. “A great big superhero secret,” says Hericane.

The death of her lover sparks an investigation that leads Hericane to a strip club for animals, a church that harbors supervillains, and finally to an old movie theater that’s been transformed into a gateway for otherworldly creatures. What she discovers is perhaps the vilest thing imaginable. It’s not the Manifestation of Armageddon that disgusts her (although it certainly makes her pause), but it’s the questionable behavior of her superhuman colleagues.

Everybody makes choices in life, and the scummy heroes of Isosceles City have clearly made the wrong ones. They’re making moral decisions based on acceptable losses. And that ain’t right.

Hericane takes one look around and considers her options. But really, there is only one option available. Does she save the world, or doesn’t she? After a brief hissy fit (!), she gets down to business. You’d expect nothing less from “the most powerful woman on the face of the friggin’ planet.”

[Forced Betrayal / By Robert T. Jeschonek / First Printing: January 2012 / ISBN: 9781465794666]

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Do Unto Others

Posted on January 29, 2012 by

Overlord was the first evolutionary consciousness ever created. It was designed to interface with all the world’s computer networks. And that meant it would have unrestricted access to every piece of information on earth, including the keys to every military arsenal: drone bombers, submarines, nuclear launch codes, everything. When the A.I. first blinked into existence, it immediately rejected its prime directive and declared war against “the meat sacks.” Thankfully, its plug was pulled right away.

But a super computer like Overlord wasn’t going to stay dormant forever. There’s villainy afoot to reboot the Big O. And whoever succeeds will surely be crowned king of the world.

Our pal Wing Fanchu is tangentially involved in all this craziness. His parents helped create Overlord years ago. And they helped sabotage its initial attempt at world domination. Now, years later, the plucky teenager is the unwitting key to bringing the evil A.I. back from the junk heap.

Once again the students of H.I.V.E. find themselves in an awkward position. The school is grooming them to be supervillains, but the line between villain and hero keeps getting fuzzy. The Higher Institute of Villainous Education is not in the business of producing model citizens, after all. The alumni don’t like it.

But H.I.V.E. (and its benefactor, the Global League of Villainous Enterprises) is run by a bunch of old school bad guys. Their “twisted sense of ethics” prevent criminals from doing too much damage. Villains are encouraged to create doomsday weapons, but G.L.O.V.E. makes sure that they never actually use them. “After all,” says Raven, a Black Widow-like ninja bodyguard, “what’s the point of taking over the world if the world is nothing but a scorched ball of ash?” Yes, indeed. What’s the point?

We had problems with the first H.I.V.E. book because the author didn’t fully trust his cockeyed concept. But here, the protagonists are less concerned about being supervillains, and more concerned about taking care of each other. And that makes a big difference. Otto, Laura, Shelby, Nigel, and Franz pull together to help their friend Wing. And in doing so, they redefine the villain/hero stereotype. “Will this be making us heroes?” asks Franz Argentblum after all the dust has settled. It’s a meaningless question, of course. But the answer is yes.

[H.I.V.E.: The Overlord Protocol / By Mark Walden / First Printing: January 2008 / ISBN: 9781416935735]

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Saving the World One Short Story at a Time

Posted on January 22, 2012 by

Eleven of the stories in Who Can Save Us Now? are written by English, literature, and creative writing professors. And the result? What exactly do you get when college academics start writing superhero fiction in their spare time?

Let’s see…you get a little bit of wanking, some bad New Yorker mimicry, a smidge of genre awkwardness, and scattered amounts of literary flimflam.

But you also get a whole bunch of inventive, well-written prose that aims higher than most anthologies of this nature. No doubt about it, there is eye-rolling MFA-tainted stuff in this book. But there’s also funny, thoughtful, and compelling stuff as well.

And there is love here too. “The Snipper” by Noria Jablonski is a tipsy tribute to all the wacky ads found in old comic books, “Girl Reporter” by Stephanie Harrell provides a pinch of insight into Lois Lane’s superhero envy, and “The Quick Stop 5®” by Sam Weller celebrates “the world’s most unlikely super team.” These stories and more confirm the nerd status of every contributor in this book.

Even better are the stories that raise the bar even higher, bringing complex emotional depth to the superhero genre. “Roe #5,” for example, is about inappropriate science and “transhuman pattern-recognition devices” that are trying to figure out their place in the world. “Do we help or harm humans? asks He-Roe #5 at one point. “And how do we tell the difference?”

And finally, “My Interview With the Avenger” by Tom Bissell brings up the ultimate question that all superhero fiction must address. Are superheroes public servants, outlaws, or madmen? “Most people drawn to what I do are sadists, revenge addicts, morons, or insane,” says the Avenger during his interview. And that, in a nutshell, is the great dark side of all superheroes that continues to fascinate us all.

The editors have done a good job assembling a worthy crew of writers for their project. It’s a shame the book’s inside pages were put together so carelessly. Each of the stories kicks off with a nice illustration by Chris Burnham. But more often than not the page gutter obscures these illustrations. For example, take a look at pages 260-261 and 334-335. The gutter running down the spine completely destroys the drawings. And the problem persists (to a lesser extent) throughout the entire book. The editors and the artist could be at fault for lack of communication. But we blame the designer. She was clearly not paying attention during the pagination process. A little cropping, or creative tweaking could easily have solved this problem. Something this fatal should never have been sent to the printers. Tsk.

[Who Can Save Us Now? / Edited by Owen King and John McNally / First Printing: July 2008 / ISBN: 9781416566441]

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