Author: David Bussell
Publisher: David Bussell
Rating: WORTHY!
Errata:
Footnote 28 on page 67 has "... who' d returned come back to life...". It can be 'returned' or 'come back', but it can't be both!
Page 77 "I guess it was the third wall he knocked me through that I realized something was off." Isn't quite right. Maybe, "I guess it was the third wall he knocked me through that made me realize something was off."?
Daphne from Frasier Benny Hill (which is true) p141, p221 (repetition).
"...Men's Warehouse..." should be " Men's Wearhouse" p259. Same letters, different order.
"...which would of course by quite small)..." should be "...which would of course be quite small)..."p266.
"...part of the Heroes Code..." is missing an apostrophe: "... part of the Heroes' Code..." p314.
"...klieg lights..." should be "Klieg lights" since the Kleig part (actually Kleigl) is someone's name. p350.
"Now there was a plan I could hang my coat off." Hang my coat off?! p357.
"... into Miss Transit, kiping her teleportation power" is nonsensical (kiping isn't a word. Should it be 'keeping'? 'crippling'? p396
This is the second of three super hero novels I'm reviewing one after another. The review of the other novel, Barry Vs The Apocalypse is here. Note that unlike yesterday's Jupiter's legacy this is not a graphic novel.
I really liked this story but it took some getting used to! Note that the version I read of this combined all four original parts into one story. It's written in first person PoV, which is far from my favorite voice, but here it works. Also note that this is not a story for the faint-hearted, and I say that not because it's scary or anything, but because it's a very adult story where both strong language and graphic sexual imagery as well as a plethora of gross-out comments are gainfully employed, but there's an odd fastidiousness to the bad language.
The narrator, Captain Might, has no problem with typing "goddamned" but refuses to type "shit" or "fuck" without replacing the vowel with a symbol - a skull and crossbones for the 'i' and a lightning bolt for the 'u'. I didn't get the logic there; the author seems at times to be quite religious (although I may have that wrong!), but if that's the case, why baulk at the F and the S words, but write 'goddamned' without hesitation? I don't know! I didn't get the mentality there, but in the end, it's not that important.
I used the word "typing" back there because that's exactly what the font looks like: thirteen point Courier with a ragged right edge, too, like this was actually typed on a typewriter, which I also didn't get. It wasn't an appealing font, and that can make a difference to a reader. Plus it was large - The conceit is that the super hero is typing this out himself, which (given how he spends his time fantasizing about fighting super villains) doesn't seem to fit - why would he waste time typing? Why not dictate or have a ghost writer? Who knows?
That said, my last comment about the presentation also extends to the extensive footnotes: they felt out of place in the type-written scenario which had been created here, especially since they were in a different font. They were often funny, but I wasn't keen on the one which ran to a second page, where it was the only thing on page 34 and occupied only two lines at the bottom of it. This happened several times.
Those gripes aside, I did like the tone and voice despite it being the detested first person, but I did find myself hoping, knowing from the author what was coming, that this pugnacious braggart would find some humility. Here's one example of a Captain Might sarcastic comment:
I watched Mimix through the interview room's one-way mirror (and it is one-way, guys, a two-way mirror would be glass).
That puncturing of misguided convention definitely hit my funny bone. One of the most amusing things in the early pages is the plethora of ridiculous super-hero names (and let's face it, other than the true comic book addicts, who really can take super-hero names seriously?).
Here we're treated to hilarious ones (at least they seemed hilarious to me) such as The Caped Crouton, Executie, Hot Flash: America's Only Menopausal Superhero, Mother Load, Nocturnal Emission, Polterguy: The World's Strongest Ghost, and Vaginamite among others. One of the funniest parts was where the narrator, flying overhead, points out five superheroes at a donut shop, lined up so their chest logos spelled "DICKS". These heroes had perfectly ordinary super-hero style names, which is why it was funny: Dynamo, Impervious, Cascade, Kilowatt and Switchback. And that's not to mention an LGBT team named Homo Superior....
So yes, loved the humor. Not too keen on the hero to begin with, but despite his obnoxiousness, he did kind of grow on me the more I read. He was an arrogant braggart, very full of himself and dismissive towards others. He reminded me of the guy in this one poem I wrote which I published in Poem y Granite.
So let's cut to the chase: Captain Might squares off against Professor D'eath, his nemesis, and the Professor has some serious new tricks up his sleeve, one of which is the ability to strip Captain Might of his super powers. What's he gonna do without them, and more importantly, what will happen to his ego?
Note in passing that Abe Lincoln never said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I'll spend the first four sharpening the axe" - not according to a search of the complete works of Lincoln here. I think it's simply a folk tale as are many of the things attributed to Lincoln in the hope that people will much more readily take to heart something which Lincoln reputedly said than anything the author who "quotes" Lincoln is saying. This is a huge problem with hero worship. It's delusional! Besides, I seriously doubt that someone as able as Abe was with his hands, would take four hours to sharpen an ax.
Of course, this story is being told in first person, so the author can get away with mis-quotes and bad quotes, and even non-existent quotes - depending on how said author wants his character to appear. If he wants him well-read and smart, then he'll get his quotes right, otherwise, the character will get them wrong and look dumb, arrogant ill-educated, or up to something! This is important to keep in mind when writing in first person. Your character is only as educated as your writing and research!
Describing the Mandroids' armament as Gatling guns makes them seem a bit out-dated. Maybe that was intended. But the Gatling gun was a hand-cranked rapid fire gun. If the gun is something that's automated, it really needs to be a Maxim gun, or more modernly, a Vulcan or a minigun. Again minor matter of taste and of course, of the writer's intended aim - especially if it's a gun we're dealing with!
I cheered when I read this footnote, however: "...That said, I do believe there are some people who deserve to be rounded up and caged off from the rest of us, namely Creationists, people who use the word 'methinks', and whoever it is watching 2 Broke Girls...". Methinks I agree with only one of the three for sure, since I've never seen 2 Broke Girls, but if it's anything remotely like your typical American sitcom, it probably sucks like a starving fly on the Inevitable Bulk's last will and excrement.
So yes, super and heroic this story was, and I recommend it for readers with a strong stomach!
