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tarotsystem's review
adventurous
medium-paced
4.75
For the tl;dr crowd: This is a great and fun book about superheroes, with a sprinkling of grammatical humor. If you like either of those things at all, you'll enjoy it!
***
I was anticipating the release of Verbosity's Vengeance with no little excitement. Way back in the day, when I first discovered the existence of Tony Noland (the author), he had posted a piece of flash fiction. Said piece of flash fiction was a superhero and a villain facing off, using grammatically-based powers.
As you may have surmised, this story was the birth of the idea for the novel.
Years later, after waiting patiently and enthusiastically through his writing and rewriting and rerewriting, I finally got my hands on the Actual Book. I was not disappointed.
The Grammarian is sort of a Batman-meets-Iron Man superhero; dark cloaked costume, intimidating Hero voice, detective skills, buttloads of money, super-advanced technology he made himself. He's just also got really awesome superpowers, which essentially take punctuation and grammar concepts and impose their effects on reality. A . can stop people, for example. (My one regret, which I admittedly only thought of just now, is that there was no use of ! to make an explosion.)
The original flash fiction piece got reworked into the opening scene of the novel and I have got to say, for the word/grammar nerds out there (like me) that opening scene is the ultimate hook. The wordplay, alliteration, and grammatical puns that effectively make up the entire section are brilliantly dense and put me in the mind of such writing geniuses as P.G. Wodehouse. The one and only one point against this fantastic opening battle is that it set me up a bit for disappointment. The rest of the novel has about the level of wordplay and grammar puns that I originally expected (and they are all good), but it is nowhere near as dense as the introduction – not even for the later battles.
But don't let that discourage you, because it is a great book. It's got a good sprinkling of humor, like in my opinion any good superhero story should, but it's also got plenty of seriousness and deals with things like getting injured on the field. The combat scenes – which are, let's face it, absolutely integral to any sort of action novel such as a superhero novel – are excellently done. I kept finding myself thinking about how well the scene would work as a movie – only to realize with sadness that the whole grammar/punctuation thing really wouldn't translate well to visual. The action does, though. Especially the scene on the docks, when the new superhero shows up.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys superheroes – even if you don't consider yourself a “fan” – and to anyone who is a bit of a grammar geek. For those of us who like both? Consider it the jackpot.
***
I was anticipating the release of Verbosity's Vengeance with no little excitement. Way back in the day, when I first discovered the existence of Tony Noland (the author), he had posted a piece of flash fiction. Said piece of flash fiction was a superhero and a villain facing off, using grammatically-based powers.
As you may have surmised, this story was the birth of the idea for the novel.
Years later, after waiting patiently and enthusiastically through his writing and rewriting and rerewriting, I finally got my hands on the Actual Book. I was not disappointed.
The Grammarian is sort of a Batman-meets-Iron Man superhero; dark cloaked costume, intimidating Hero voice, detective skills, buttloads of money, super-advanced technology he made himself. He's just also got really awesome superpowers, which essentially take punctuation and grammar concepts and impose their effects on reality. A . can stop people, for example. (My one regret, which I admittedly only thought of just now, is that there was no use of ! to make an explosion.)
The original flash fiction piece got reworked into the opening scene of the novel and I have got to say, for the word/grammar nerds out there (like me) that opening scene is the ultimate hook. The wordplay, alliteration, and grammatical puns that effectively make up the entire section are brilliantly dense and put me in the mind of such writing geniuses as P.G. Wodehouse. The one and only one point against this fantastic opening battle is that it set me up a bit for disappointment. The rest of the novel has about the level of wordplay and grammar puns that I originally expected (and they are all good), but it is nowhere near as dense as the introduction – not even for the later battles.
But don't let that discourage you, because it is a great book. It's got a good sprinkling of humor, like in my opinion any good superhero story should, but it's also got plenty of seriousness and deals with things like getting injured on the field. The combat scenes – which are, let's face it, absolutely integral to any sort of action novel such as a superhero novel – are excellently done. I kept finding myself thinking about how well the scene would work as a movie – only to realize with sadness that the whole grammar/punctuation thing really wouldn't translate well to visual. The action does, though. Especially the scene on the docks, when the new superhero shows up.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys superheroes – even if you don't consider yourself a “fan” – and to anyone who is a bit of a grammar geek. For those of us who like both? Consider it the jackpot.
eyrea's review
4.0
Verbosity’s Vengeance (Tony Noland’s debut novel) is a tale that follows proudly in the steps of tragicomic superheroes, going right back to Thor (the god, not the Marvel character) and Odysseus. That might seem like a rather highfalutin beginning to a review of a novel about superheroes, but that’s to give a heads-up to those who would normally notice the cape-and-mask trope and run away. There’s substance here, and it’s a rewarding read.
The novel starts with a 1930s-style depiction of yet another skirmish between local supervillain Professor Verbosity and his heroic nemesis, the Grammarian. This is one time boundless alliteration is actually fun, and it left me wishing for an audio book version of the novel. I could easily imagine this passage read in the nasal tone of Up’s newsreel scene. The Grammarian uses the power of language to defeat his nefarious foes, like a grown-up version of Silent E Man from The Electric Company TV show. Instead of ripping a sigil off his chest to turn a “plan” into a “plane”, this superhero uses the power of his foes’ words against them.
Once the initial battle is over, the novel shifts gracefully to a more down-to-earth tone. The Grammarian is in many ways a reluctant superhero, and the logistics of keeping a secret identity in the age of cell phones and social media are portrayed with wry humour. Imagine if instead of the Tick, Arthur was the lead and not the sidekick (except with a better fitness regimen). The Grammarian has to deal with inept superhero colleagues, clueless liaison officers from the mayor’s office, and a super-helping of issues in his dating life. One suspects defeating nefarious villains could almost be seen as a welcome break from the mundane. The overall effect is similar to Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will be Invincible -- the characters are perfectly aware of the absurdity of their situation, but just because it’s absurd doesn’t mean it isn’t exciting or dangerous.
The plot has fun with the standard superhero arcs. Sometimes it follows them, and sometimes it cheerfully takes a left turn and leads the reader to a new place. The result is a fresh, engaging story that is respectful of established traditions without following them blindly.
The novel starts with a 1930s-style depiction of yet another skirmish between local supervillain Professor Verbosity and his heroic nemesis, the Grammarian. This is one time boundless alliteration is actually fun, and it left me wishing for an audio book version of the novel. I could easily imagine this passage read in the nasal tone of Up’s newsreel scene. The Grammarian uses the power of language to defeat his nefarious foes, like a grown-up version of Silent E Man from The Electric Company TV show. Instead of ripping a sigil off his chest to turn a “plan” into a “plane”, this superhero uses the power of his foes’ words against them.
Once the initial battle is over, the novel shifts gracefully to a more down-to-earth tone. The Grammarian is in many ways a reluctant superhero, and the logistics of keeping a secret identity in the age of cell phones and social media are portrayed with wry humour. Imagine if instead of the Tick, Arthur was the lead and not the sidekick (except with a better fitness regimen). The Grammarian has to deal with inept superhero colleagues, clueless liaison officers from the mayor’s office, and a super-helping of issues in his dating life. One suspects defeating nefarious villains could almost be seen as a welcome break from the mundane. The overall effect is similar to Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will be Invincible -- the characters are perfectly aware of the absurdity of their situation, but just because it’s absurd doesn’t mean it isn’t exciting or dangerous.
The plot has fun with the standard superhero arcs. Sometimes it follows them, and sometimes it cheerfully takes a left turn and leads the reader to a new place. The result is a fresh, engaging story that is respectful of established traditions without following them blindly.
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