DusterBoy Posted October 5, 2008 Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 A book I'm reading right now is "Superpowers" by David J Schwartz. It's the story of five college students who acquire a superpower each after a house party during a fierce storm and some whack homemade beer. It is not a conventional superhero story by any means. Yes, they wear lycra costumes, but there are no big battles, no supervillains, no melodramatic speeches. It's more a character study than anything else, very street-level and relentlessly unglamorous. It's not a happy story either, but I would recommend it as a non-genre alternative to the comics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaft Posted October 5, 2008 Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 Re: "Superpowers" novel Another good supers novel is The Amazing Adventures of the Sensational Squirrel-Man. http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Adventures-Sensational-Squirrelman/dp/0977100553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223239255&sr=8-1 Squirrel-Man is an obvious homage to Spider-Man, but the book is a real page turner and the writing is excellent. The novel captures the "City of Heroes" feel that makes the video game so popular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Re: "Superpowers" novel I tried looking up Superpowers (the book) and got this website instead. Go fig! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DusterBoy Posted September 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Re: "Superpowers" novel I tried looking up Superpowers (the book) and got this website instead. Go fig! Try Amazon, Staff. Amazon never fails. Well, very rarely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikesama Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Re: "Superpowers" novel Also for perusal in the Super Heroes in books see "Soon I will be Invincible!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Publius Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Re: "Superpowers" novel I recently picked up Black and White on Kindle (at Amazon here). It was pretty well done. I also loved Soon I will be Invincible as a pastiche-character study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Re: "Superpowers" novel Also for perusal in the Super Heroes in books see "Soon I will be Invincible!" I liked that one too! I also really liked Devil's Cape.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yansuf Posted September 4, 2009 Report Share Posted September 4, 2009 Re: "Superpowers" novel Also for perusal in the Super Heroes in books see "Soon I will be Invincible!" I heartily recommend that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted September 5, 2009 Report Share Posted September 5, 2009 Re: "Superpowers" novel I read Soon I will be Invincible! earlier this year and enjoyed it a lot. Another one I just got from the library (just yesterday) is Who Can Save Us Now?, an anthology of superhero short stories by 22 different writers. So far it's pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tribe Posted September 6, 2009 Report Share Posted September 6, 2009 Re: "Superpowers" novel Devil's Cape by Rob Rogers. 'Nuff said! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theron Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Re: "Superpowers" novel Devil's Cape was quite good. On the other hand, I very sincerely DON'T recommend Captain Freedom by Gabriel X. Robillard. Mr. Robillard is a web humorist who writes for McSweeney's and Comedy Central. Captain Freedom, subtitled "A Superhero's Quest For Truth, Justice, And The Celebrity He So Richly Deserves" is his first novel. Despite a glowing cover blurb by Christopher Moore, this is not a very good novel. Nor is it a very good work of humor or satire. The plot, such as it is (the memoir of a superhero forced into retirement by his corporate comic book masters) is weak. The main character is an unlikeable d-bag, which I suppose is actually the point of the book, but it makes large swaths of it a very painful read. The best bits are those which are more or less pure throwaway, like a reference to Washington DC's Beltway being an actual magical zone that prevents the truth from passing through it. Or Clandestine, a tiny country nestled between Syria and Jordan, where wealthy people with a need to lay low tend to dwell. But most of it is the sort of superficial cheap shots that pass for satire in the "Mad TV" stripe, rather than something more cutting, like "South Park" or the "Daily Show." In fact, the whole thing reads a bit like an SNL skit that got pitched with one sentence and runs five minutes after it stopped being funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoloOfEarth Posted September 11, 2009 Report Share Posted September 11, 2009 Re: "Superpowers" novel On the other hand' date=' I very sincerely DON'T recommend [i']Captain Freedom[/i] by Gabriel X. Robillard. Mr. Robillard is a web humorist who writes for McSweeney's and Comedy Central. Captain Freedom, subtitled "A Superhero's Quest For Truth, Justice, And The Celebrity He So Richly Deserves" is his first novel. Bummer. Wish Robillard had chosen a different name. I like the Captain Freedom from Hill Street Blues. A likeable, ernest, fairly crazy guy. Loved his interactions with Belker. And the Captain died a hero, taking the heat off a bunch of cops in a gunfight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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