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A review by bellatora
Dreams of the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn
5.0
When I read [b:After the Golden Age|8665134|After the Golden Age (Golden Age, #1)|Carrie Vaughn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1408489200s/8665134.jpg|13536680] I was desperate for a sequel. I loved the story of Celia, the powerless daughter of superheroes. And I especially loved her sweet, beautiful romance with superhero Doctor Arthur Mentis. I kept looking for other equally engrossing superhero books but never found any. Well, I finally got a sequel. Not the one I had wanted, but I loved it anyway.
I thought the sequel would pick up shortly after the first book ended. Nope. Instead, it’s about 17 years later and Celia and Arthur are happily married with two daughters. The book switches POVs between Celia, now head of West Corp., and Anna, her teenage daughter who is hiding the fact that she has a superpower. I love Celia and I loved hearing her story again, even if she was much older than I thought she would be. Anna I was more wary about. Yet another angsty teen? After the Golden Age didn't cover Celia’s angsty teen years, instead introducing her as a young adult, and I liked that. Thankfully, Vaughn knows how to handle Anna's storyline so that it never grates.
Anna’s story is pretty typical for a YA heroine. Her parents don’t understand her. She has an annoying younger sibling. She’s unpopular, with a group of similarly unpopular friends. Her male friend likes her. She develops a crush on a hot, mysterious dude. She has a falling out with her best friend. But there are slight twists to these typical plot points that keep it from being too ordinary.
First of all, Anna is the daughter of famous parents (a respected superhero and a powerful corporate executive) and the granddaughter of an even more famous couple (the most popular superheroes in the city), and must handle all the pressure that standing in the shadows of that much fame brings. Also, Anna’s male friend/romantic interest is her partner superhero and her best friend and her have a falling out because her best friend wants to be much more public with her powers than Anna feels comfortable. As the story moved closer to the climax I liked Anna’s story more and more. And I liked that her parents were far less clueless than they seemed. 99% of adults in young adult fiction have no idea and, often, little interest that their children are being sucked into some crazy world of sparkling vampires or what-have-you.
I still adored Celia’s story more and could’ve done with another book just from her POV. She’s a meddling do-gooder – she may not be the shadowy, nefarious Executive that Danton Majors accuses her of being, and she always has the best interests of Commerce City at heart, but Celia does secretly influence people and events. And good intuition and a clear heart have always been Celia's superpowers. Being the CEO of West Corp. and using her influence there to fight crime and help the city is every bit as valuable as the superheroes on the street. Vaughn has done a very nice job of evolving Celia from a determined young woman to a determined mother and business woman.
One of the joys of the Golden Age series is that they play so well with classic comic book tropes. Kidnapped hostage! Heroes coming together to save the day! Overly complicated death traps! Crazed supervillain! It was all kinds of fun. And oddly moving.
Dreams of the Golden Age does what good sequels do: provide a fresh story that feels like an organic evolution from the previous book. Here’s to more books in this series.
I thought the sequel would pick up shortly after the first book ended. Nope. Instead, it’s about 17 years later and Celia and Arthur are happily married with two daughters. The book switches POVs between Celia, now head of West Corp., and Anna, her teenage daughter who is hiding the fact that she has a superpower. I love Celia and I loved hearing her story again, even if she was much older than I thought she would be. Anna I was more wary about. Yet another angsty teen? After the Golden Age didn't cover Celia’s angsty teen years, instead introducing her as a young adult, and I liked that. Thankfully, Vaughn knows how to handle Anna's storyline so that it never grates.
Anna’s story is pretty typical for a YA heroine. Her parents don’t understand her. She has an annoying younger sibling. She’s unpopular, with a group of similarly unpopular friends. Her male friend likes her. She develops a crush on a hot, mysterious dude. She has a falling out with her best friend. But there are slight twists to these typical plot points that keep it from being too ordinary.
First of all, Anna is the daughter of famous parents (a respected superhero and a powerful corporate executive) and the granddaughter of an even more famous couple (the most popular superheroes in the city), and must handle all the pressure that standing in the shadows of that much fame brings. Also, Anna’s male friend/romantic interest is her partner superhero and her best friend and her have a falling out because her best friend wants to be much more public with her powers than Anna feels comfortable. As the story moved closer to the climax I liked Anna’s story more and more. And I liked that her parents were far less clueless than they seemed. 99% of adults in young adult fiction have no idea and, often, little interest that their children are being sucked into some crazy world of sparkling vampires or what-have-you.
I still adored Celia’s story more and could’ve done with another book just from her POV. She’s a meddling do-gooder – she may not be the shadowy, nefarious Executive that Danton Majors accuses her of being, and she always has the best interests of Commerce City at heart, but Celia does secretly influence people and events. And good intuition and a clear heart have always been Celia's superpowers. Being the CEO of West Corp. and using her influence there to fight crime and help the city is every bit as valuable as the superheroes on the street. Vaughn has done a very nice job of evolving Celia from a determined young woman to a determined mother and business woman.
One of the joys of the Golden Age series is that they play so well with classic comic book tropes. Kidnapped hostage! Heroes coming together to save the day! Overly complicated death traps! Crazed supervillain! It was all kinds of fun. And oddly moving.
Dreams of the Golden Age does what good sequels do: provide a fresh story that feels like an organic evolution from the previous book. Here’s to more books in this series.