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A review by apatrick
All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault by James Alan Gardner
4.0
The title caught my eye at the library, and of course after I read the blurb about superheroes and vampires, I had to check it out. Plus, the first paragraph talks about which Earth you (the reader) are in. It hits so many things I like: Superheros, a la Austin Grossman and Carrie Vaughn; possibilities of a multiverse; science-y sci-fi.
It's tongue in cheek, and doesn't take itself too seriously, but at the same time, it deals with really personal issues like identity and friendship, and how we relate to one another, and it deals with those questions on deeper than a surface level. The conflicts the characters experience are a mix of things we never have to deal with (whose jurisdiction for saving the world are we in?) and things that everyone has had to deal with (when to ask your friends for help; how to deal with an ex; being a geek). I'm excited for the second installment, because I came to really like the narrator and her friends.
A few favorite things about this book: 1) The superheroes are science students, in keeping with comic book tradition. 2) The narrator is a gender-queer Chinese Canadian. I like different perspectives! 3) The fun mix of occult-type stuff and science-fiction type stuff. 4) As a geology student, the narrator titles her chapters with geologic words and phrases, and (bonus) they actually relate to the part of the story happening in that chapter.
It's tongue in cheek, and doesn't take itself too seriously, but at the same time, it deals with really personal issues like identity and friendship, and how we relate to one another, and it deals with those questions on deeper than a surface level. The conflicts the characters experience are a mix of things we never have to deal with (whose jurisdiction for saving the world are we in?) and things that everyone has had to deal with (when to ask your friends for help; how to deal with an ex; being a geek). I'm excited for the second installment, because I came to really like the narrator and her friends.
A few favorite things about this book: 1) The superheroes are science students, in keeping with comic book tradition. 2) The narrator is a gender-queer Chinese Canadian. I like different perspectives! 3) The fun mix of occult-type stuff and science-fiction type stuff. 4) As a geology student, the narrator titles her chapters with geologic words and phrases, and (bonus) they actually relate to the part of the story happening in that chapter.