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A review by thewallflower00
Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman
2.0
I feel like I just didn't get this book. I should -- it's about superheroes, and their inner lives, like Watchmen in prose. But something about it didn't work for me.
I guess the problem is that the entire thing is back story. It's almost entirely written in past perfect. Everything already happened and we're just seeing the aftereffects. There are few actual events that happen until halfway through the novel. There's a lot of "thinking/observing" where we're in the character's mind, and the characterization is glossed over -- characters have bulimia, divorces, and none of this is explored. I feel like if you separated the narrative from the dialogue, you'd have two totally different stories.
And yet despite these flaws, I still felt compelled to read it. Maybe because it's a "behind-the-scenes" of Silver Age comic books (the ones that were super ridiculous like creating a race of tiny lizard-men or alien boys cause a ruckus). When Lex Luthor escapes prison, where does he go? What does he do while he rebuilds? What do superhero teams do when they're not fighting crime? How do they recruit? How do newbies get accepted? How do they react when one of their own "dies"?
It's the background brought to the foreground, and maybe that's where I find it falling flat. It's a novel in inverse, and that's atypical -- it's not action-oriented. But like I said, maybe I'm looking at it in the wrong way. And someone else will enjoy it more than me.
I guess the problem is that the entire thing is back story. It's almost entirely written in past perfect. Everything already happened and we're just seeing the aftereffects. There are few actual events that happen until halfway through the novel. There's a lot of "thinking/observing" where we're in the character's mind, and the characterization is glossed over -- characters have bulimia, divorces, and none of this is explored. I feel like if you separated the narrative from the dialogue, you'd have two totally different stories.
And yet despite these flaws, I still felt compelled to read it. Maybe because it's a "behind-the-scenes" of Silver Age comic books (the ones that were super ridiculous like creating a race of tiny lizard-men or alien boys cause a ruckus). When Lex Luthor escapes prison, where does he go? What does he do while he rebuilds? What do superhero teams do when they're not fighting crime? How do they recruit? How do newbies get accepted? How do they react when one of their own "dies"?
It's the background brought to the foreground, and maybe that's where I find it falling flat. It's a novel in inverse, and that's atypical -- it's not action-oriented. But like I said, maybe I'm looking at it in the wrong way. And someone else will enjoy it more than me.