Scan barcode
nyhylyst's review against another edition
3.0
Slow book, a solid read but it went on way to long. I was also more interested in the extraneous characters than I was in the main characters.
The ending was just blah...
The ending was just blah...
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
San Ventura is helpless against super villain The Cowl's reign of terror and even its resident superheroes, the Seven Wonders, are powerless to stop him. However, the Cowl's powers begin to wane as a retail wage slave named Tony Prosdocimi finds himself gaining more powers by the day. Will Tony take down the Cowl and join the Seven Wonders?
For months now, I've been looking for a good superhero novel. Now I've found it!
Seven Wonders is a lot deeper than my quick summary indicates. Nothing is black and white. The familiar Spider-Man quote "With great power comes great responsibility" would have made a great title for it.
The characters are an interesting bunch. Tony Prosdocmi is a slacker that sells electronics at a chain store and wakes up with super powers one day. The Cowl is an analogue of both Batman and Superman and is the villain of the piece but is much more than that. He's by far the most interesting character in the first half of the book. The Cowl's sidekick, The Blackbird, is also his lover and tech expert. The members of The Seven Wonders, Aurora's Light, Sand Cat, the Dragon Star, Linnear, Hephasteus, SMART, and Bluebell, are meant to be analogues of the Justice League or The Avengers. I would have liked to see them more developed. Aurora's Light and Linnear are clearly meant to be Superman and The Flash. The others are a little harder to identify. The linchpin characters, however, are Sam Millar and Joe Milano, members of San Ventura's SuperCrime unit.
The story covers a lot of comic book ground in it's 400-something pages. Tony's story initially reminds me of Spider-Man as he learns to use his powers. The Cowl's is the story of decline and redemption. Millar and Milano's story is a lot like Gotham Central at the beginning. As for the Seven Wonders, I can't help but think of works like Watchmen and Garth Ennis's The Boys. Somewhere around the halfway mark, the stakes raise dramatically and it becomes one of those huge mega-crossovers where the world is at stake.
The writing is as you would expect for fiction of this type but Adam Christopher delivers the goods with the tools he has. He has a lot of balls in the air and boggles them a couple times toward the end but all in all does a spectacular job. I like this a lot more than his previous book, [b:Empire State|10795257|Empire State|Adam Christopher|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312876745s/10795257.jpg|15707870].
Seven Wonders should be a pleasing read for all super hero fans. Four easy stars. I'd like to see what Adam Christopher could do writing the Justice League or the Avengers.
For months now, I've been looking for a good superhero novel. Now I've found it!
Seven Wonders is a lot deeper than my quick summary indicates. Nothing is black and white. The familiar Spider-Man quote "With great power comes great responsibility" would have made a great title for it.
The characters are an interesting bunch. Tony Prosdocmi is a slacker that sells electronics at a chain store and wakes up with super powers one day. The Cowl is an analogue of both Batman and Superman and is the villain of the piece but is much more than that. He's by far the most interesting character in the first half of the book. The Cowl's sidekick, The Blackbird, is also his lover and tech expert. The members of The Seven Wonders, Aurora's Light, Sand Cat, the Dragon Star, Linnear, Hephasteus, SMART, and Bluebell, are meant to be analogues of the Justice League or The Avengers. I would have liked to see them more developed. Aurora's Light and Linnear are clearly meant to be Superman and The Flash. The others are a little harder to identify. The linchpin characters, however, are Sam Millar and Joe Milano, members of San Ventura's SuperCrime unit.
The story covers a lot of comic book ground in it's 400-something pages. Tony's story initially reminds me of Spider-Man as he learns to use his powers. The Cowl's is the story of decline and redemption. Millar and Milano's story is a lot like Gotham Central at the beginning. As for the Seven Wonders, I can't help but think of works like Watchmen and Garth Ennis's The Boys. Somewhere around the halfway mark, the stakes raise dramatically and it becomes one of those huge mega-crossovers where the world is at stake.
The writing is as you would expect for fiction of this type but Adam Christopher delivers the goods with the tools he has. He has a lot of balls in the air and boggles them a couple times toward the end but all in all does a spectacular job.
Spoiler
My favorite parts of the book are Tony's rise and fall and the Cowl's fall and redemption. Great stuff.Seven Wonders should be a pleasing read for all super hero fans. Four easy stars. I'd like to see what Adam Christopher could do writing the Justice League or the Avengers.
mxsallybend's review against another edition
4.0
Growing up, I was an absolutely huge fan of comic books. Every Wednesday and every Friday we'd either grab our bikes or hop on the bus downtown to pick up the newest releases. Although I was primarily a Marvel man (The Amazing Spider-Man, The Uncanny X-Men, Excalibur, and The Incredible Hulk were my must-haves), I regularly hopped shelves into DC territory or some of the independents. At some point, however, I began to lose interest. Part of it was frustration with the expensive gimmicks of variant covers, foil covers, bagged editions, etc, but a bigger part of it was sheer boredom. I got the point where I could recognize all the rehashed story lines, and the novelty of massive reboots quickly began to wear thin.
I've tried getting back into comics and graphic novels over the years, particularly with the Dark Tower adaptations and the comic book seasons of Buffy and Angel, but it just wasn't the same. I still like the stories, but the medium just didn't work for me anymore. So, with that in mind, the idea of a comic book novel began to seem very appealing.
Enter Seven Wonders by Adam Christopher - not the first comic book novel I've read, but certainly one of the strongest. The first thing that struck me about it, right from the opening chapters, is that this was a more realistic take on superheroes, and one seemingly tailored for a maturing audience. It's dark, a little gritty, and surprisingly bloody. People actually die, violently and permanently. More than that, it's a bit cynical and jaded, with a city being oppressed by the last remaining super-villain, and supposedly protected by a team of superheroes who aren't in any rush to put their lives on the line to stop each and every act of villainy being perpetrated.
Oddly enough, for a book called Seven Wonders, the heroes are the least interesting part of the novel. Instead, for me, it was the conflict between Tony and The Cowl that kept me reading. Here you have an ordinary guy slowly acquiring superpowers, freeing him from the shroud of terror under which he's lived for years, and the last remaining super-villain, just as slowly losing his superpowers, putting his ultimate end-game for San Ventura (and the Seven Wonders) in jeopardy. The balance between police drama and superhero drama was a nice touch as well, deliberately contrasting themes of heroism, responsibility, and accountability throughout.
I did say it's dark, gritty, cynical, and jaded, but it's also romantic (sometimes in a creepy sort of way), humorous (often in an ironic or sarcastic sort of way), and absolutely action-packed (with very real consequences to those actions). There is also a surprising amount of character development involved, with Tony nearly unrecognizable by the end, and The Cowl and Blackbird . . . well, I'll refrain from saying any more about that pairing, for fear of spoiling one of the most interesting developments in the story. Given that we're dealing with prose, and can't actually see the costumes, I must say Christopher does a solid job of differentiating the Seven Wonders themselves, which I expected to be a major challenge.
In terms of plotting, the book reads very much like a comic book, completely with chapter-ending cliffhangers and twists that seem to come out of nowhere. The same with the narrative, where dialogue 'bubbles' that are regularly broken up with descriptive 'blocks' as we move from imaginary panel to panel. It's awkward at first, and has the potential to annoy some readers, but it also helps preserve that comic book feel.
If you like your superheroes all perfect and shiny, your mortality clear-cut, and the lines between good and evil explicitly defined, this may not be the novel for you. Similarly, if you're just looking for more of the same in terms of Dark Knight grimness and grittiness, this may take you in directions you're not comfortable going. However, if you're a comic book fan with an appreciation for all the different flavours of superheroes, and an avid reader with an appreciation for a novel that does something new (and does it well), then this is definitely worth a read.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
I've tried getting back into comics and graphic novels over the years, particularly with the Dark Tower adaptations and the comic book seasons of Buffy and Angel, but it just wasn't the same. I still like the stories, but the medium just didn't work for me anymore. So, with that in mind, the idea of a comic book novel began to seem very appealing.
Enter Seven Wonders by Adam Christopher - not the first comic book novel I've read, but certainly one of the strongest. The first thing that struck me about it, right from the opening chapters, is that this was a more realistic take on superheroes, and one seemingly tailored for a maturing audience. It's dark, a little gritty, and surprisingly bloody. People actually die, violently and permanently. More than that, it's a bit cynical and jaded, with a city being oppressed by the last remaining super-villain, and supposedly protected by a team of superheroes who aren't in any rush to put their lives on the line to stop each and every act of villainy being perpetrated.
Oddly enough, for a book called Seven Wonders, the heroes are the least interesting part of the novel. Instead, for me, it was the conflict between Tony and The Cowl that kept me reading. Here you have an ordinary guy slowly acquiring superpowers, freeing him from the shroud of terror under which he's lived for years, and the last remaining super-villain, just as slowly losing his superpowers, putting his ultimate end-game for San Ventura (and the Seven Wonders) in jeopardy. The balance between police drama and superhero drama was a nice touch as well, deliberately contrasting themes of heroism, responsibility, and accountability throughout.
I did say it's dark, gritty, cynical, and jaded, but it's also romantic (sometimes in a creepy sort of way), humorous (often in an ironic or sarcastic sort of way), and absolutely action-packed (with very real consequences to those actions). There is also a surprising amount of character development involved, with Tony nearly unrecognizable by the end, and The Cowl and Blackbird . . . well, I'll refrain from saying any more about that pairing, for fear of spoiling one of the most interesting developments in the story. Given that we're dealing with prose, and can't actually see the costumes, I must say Christopher does a solid job of differentiating the Seven Wonders themselves, which I expected to be a major challenge.
In terms of plotting, the book reads very much like a comic book, completely with chapter-ending cliffhangers and twists that seem to come out of nowhere. The same with the narrative, where dialogue 'bubbles' that are regularly broken up with descriptive 'blocks' as we move from imaginary panel to panel. It's awkward at first, and has the potential to annoy some readers, but it also helps preserve that comic book feel.
If you like your superheroes all perfect and shiny, your mortality clear-cut, and the lines between good and evil explicitly defined, this may not be the novel for you. Similarly, if you're just looking for more of the same in terms of Dark Knight grimness and grittiness, this may take you in directions you're not comfortable going. However, if you're a comic book fan with an appreciation for all the different flavours of superheroes, and an avid reader with an appreciation for a novel that does something new (and does it well), then this is definitely worth a read.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
yourfriendryanj's review against another edition
2.0
Not a terrible book, but not one I felt like I really wanted to finish. The first half set up a lot of cool ideas, but it really started dragging halfway through. Also, and twists were choreographed poorly way in advance and had little to no impact. Can't recommend this one.
tasharobinson's review against another edition
2.0
The latest in a growing wave of superhero novels starts off with a young man who's suddenly developing superpowers, to his delight, especially when it means he can join the fight against The Cowl, the horrific, murderous supervillain who's terrorized his city for years. But once he gets involved, he finds out the Seven Wonders, the superheroes who supposedly protect his city, aren't what they appear to be, and they've been consciously tolerating the status quo for years.
This sounds like a great plot, but this book doesn't carry it out past the setup. The prose is frustratingly focused on tiny details that are irrelevant to the story and the action that's going on — during a conversation between two people, the author will keep pausing over and over to note when one of them takes a sip of a drink or a bite of food, for instance — at the expense of the important details. All of the significant characters are incredibly inconsistent in their characterizations and motivations, with major plotlines petering out into nothing without explanation — for instance, one major character seeks revenge against another for the murder of her parents and taking life-changing steps for both of them as a result, but then neither of them ever actually addresses it again, and they even work together again without reaching any catharsis, confrontation, or conclusion. All the excess detail makes the book move irritatingly slowly for a novel full of action, and yet most of the action comes from abruptly, with little to no motivation, changing bad guys into good guys and vice versa, sometimes repeatedly. I could almost hear the author thinking "What a twist!" as he flip-flopped the sides yet again, but by that time, I didn't believe in any of these characters. There's a lot of excitement and energy and action going on in this book, but I wish it had stuck with developing the story it started with — or for that matter, any of the many subplots it laid out after abandoning that one.
This sounds like a great plot, but this book doesn't carry it out past the setup. The prose is frustratingly focused on tiny details that are irrelevant to the story and the action that's going on — during a conversation between two people, the author will keep pausing over and over to note when one of them takes a sip of a drink or a bite of food, for instance — at the expense of the important details. All of the significant characters are incredibly inconsistent in their characterizations and motivations, with major plotlines petering out into nothing without explanation — for instance, one major character seeks revenge against another for the murder of her parents and taking life-changing steps for both of them as a result, but then neither of them ever actually addresses it again, and they even work together again without reaching any catharsis, confrontation, or conclusion. All the excess detail makes the book move irritatingly slowly for a novel full of action, and yet most of the action comes from abruptly, with little to no motivation, changing bad guys into good guys and vice versa, sometimes repeatedly. I could almost hear the author thinking "What a twist!" as he flip-flopped the sides yet again, but by that time, I didn't believe in any of these characters. There's a lot of excitement and energy and action going on in this book, but I wish it had stuck with developing the story it started with — or for that matter, any of the many subplots it laid out after abandoning that one.
upbeatmetaphor's review against another edition
3.0
When I first started reading Seven Wonders I was struck with the horror that I may have accidentally picked up another police procedural novel. Thankfully that wasn't the case, and while some of the rich cast of characters were indeed police officers and detectives, it was actions in the narrative that defined character, not job roles or background.
There's a major change of direction at the middle of the book, and I think I made the mistake of pausing there, and didn't much feel like coming back. Yes, properties and characters from the first half of the book return and carry on through to the end, but the story is so different from that point that it almost feels like two separate books.
The characters are all deep, believable and well written, but the changes they undergo are quite instant instead of gradual. As such they have no real grand narratives, so it's hard to look back from the end of the book to the start in a "how far we've come" sort of way.
Seven Wonders perfectly captures the inconstant nature of human (or indeed alien) decision. We like to think that we would use superpowers for good, or that some might use them for evil, but the truth is those decisions would exist only momentarily, until we made our next good/evil choice. There are no heroes or villains, just a constant procession of decisions.
Thematically the book is a lot like a DC Comics story arc, with broad, strong archetypal characters and a preference for spandex over armor. Just like DC, nothing seems to go as the characters would hope or intend, and ultimately solutions present themselves a bit too conveniently, though not before a coming together for a massive roll call. I'm a sucker for a roll call.
I look forward to reading more Adam Christopher, and hope he explores character and human decision as realistically in his other books.
Nick
xx
There's a major change of direction at the middle of the book, and I think I made the mistake of pausing there, and didn't much feel like coming back. Yes, properties and characters from the first half of the book return and carry on through to the end, but the story is so different from that point that it almost feels like two separate books.
The characters are all deep, believable and well written, but the changes they undergo are quite instant instead of gradual. As such they have no real grand narratives, so it's hard to look back from the end of the book to the start in a "how far we've come" sort of way.
Seven Wonders perfectly captures the inconstant nature of human (or indeed alien) decision. We like to think that we would use superpowers for good, or that some might use them for evil, but the truth is those decisions would exist only momentarily, until we made our next good/evil choice. There are no heroes or villains, just a constant procession of decisions.
Thematically the book is a lot like a DC Comics story arc, with broad, strong archetypal characters and a preference for spandex over armor. Just like DC, nothing seems to go as the characters would hope or intend, and ultimately solutions present themselves a bit too conveniently, though not before a coming together for a massive roll call. I'm a sucker for a roll call.
I look forward to reading more Adam Christopher, and hope he explores character and human decision as realistically in his other books.
Nick
xx
jmartindf's review against another edition
4.0
I agree with this book's other reviews. This is a great prose version of a comic book story. I could picture the various costumes, expressions, characters, places, and events as I read the story and it felt very similar to the (admittedly limited number of) comic book stories that I've read.
If the book has a flaw, it's that after a while it gets tiring constantly having characters flip from good guy to bad guy. I know Adam Christopher wanted to portray moral ambiguity, but I'm not convinced he needed to use practically the entire cast of the book to do it.
Still, recommended.
If the book has a flaw, it's that after a while it gets tiring constantly having characters flip from good guy to bad guy. I know Adam Christopher wanted to portray moral ambiguity, but I'm not convinced he needed to use practically the entire cast of the book to do it.
Still, recommended.
chukg's review against another edition
4.0
I liked it but there is always something that seems lacking to me in super-hero worlds made up entirely by one person. They just aren't as detailed as something with dozens of authors over decades of stories.
That is mostly a personal nit-pick, I think -- this world does feel quite developed, and it allows for reveals about the characters' secret backstories that you couldn't get away with if you were writing Batman or Spider-Man. A few viewpoint characters but not a crazy amount and they all seem pretty well distinguished from each other. I liked this one more than his previous book but I am more of a super-hero fan so YMMV. (Also, excellent Pixies reference that I totally missed until it was pointed out in the Afterword.)
That is mostly a personal nit-pick, I think -- this world does feel quite developed, and it allows for reveals about the characters' secret backstories that you couldn't get away with if you were writing Batman or Spider-Man. A few viewpoint characters but not a crazy amount and they all seem pretty well distinguished from each other. I liked this one more than his previous book but I am more of a super-hero fan so YMMV. (Also, excellent Pixies reference that I totally missed until it was pointed out in the Afterword.)
tregina's review against another edition
2.0
At its foundation, this is a story with a lot of really interesting ideas—particularly those to do with the symbiotic roles of superhero and supervillain, and the sometimes fine line between them—but in execution it's kind of a big ol' mess. The novel that's described in the summary only lasts for maybe the first quarter of the book then it veers off into several other directions, often without much sense or transition, and most of the characters are simultaneously unlikeable and lacking any depth; the members of the Seven Wonders themselves could almost be interchangeable but for their powers.
There are also some delightful bits, like the enumeration of the remaining superheroes on the planet, but they also don't fit (especially considering what happens following their introduction). It wants to be fun, thoughtful and dark, and doesn't entirely succeed at any of them.
There are also some delightful bits, like the enumeration of the remaining superheroes on the planet, but they also don't fit (especially considering what happens following their introduction). It wants to be fun, thoughtful and dark, and doesn't entirely succeed at any of them.
califlour's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0