After the Golden Age [Hardcover]

Carrie Vaughn (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 12, 2011

It's not easy being a superhero's daughter....

Carrie Vaughn has captured legions of fans with her wildly popular Kitty Norville novels. Now she uses her extraordinary wit and imagination to tell a sensational new story about superhuman heroes—and the people who have to live with them.

Most people dream of having superheroes for parents, but not Celia West. The only daughter of Captain Olympus and Spark, the world's greatest champions, she has no powers of her own, and the most exciting thing she's ever done is win a silver medal in a high school swim meet. Meanwhile, she's the favorite hostage of every crime boss and supervillain in Comemrce City. She doesn't have a code name, but if she did, it would probably be Bait Girl, the Captive Wonder.

Rejecting her famous family and its legacy, Celia has worked hard to create a life for herself beyond the shadow of their capes, becoming a skilled forensic accountant. But when her parents' archenemy, the Destructor, faces justice in the "Trial of the Century," Celia finds herself sucked back into the more-than-mortal world of Captain Olympus—and forced to confront a secret that she hoped would stay buried forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Vaughn (Discord's Apple) delivers a loving homage to classic superheroes, throwing in layers of darkness and realism while avoiding the cynical satire and deconstruction common in contemporary comics. Forensic accountant Celia West is the powerless and estranged daughter of two of Commerce City's great heroes, Captain Olympus and Spark. When the city prosecutes the evil Destructor for tax evasion, Celia gets pulled in to track down evidence. As a new crime spree creates tension between the city's heroes and the police force, Celia's investigation uncovers long-buried secrets about her family and the city. Vaughn throws in elements of romance and humor, but the drama between Celia and her father really drives the story. The story is very accessible to readers who have never picked up a comic book while boasting plenty of clever in-jokes for fans of golden age superheroics. (Apr.)
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Review

Praise for Carrie Vaughn:

“Brilliantly structured, beautifully written…. Vaughn brings together mythology, fairy tales, and very human lives, immersing readers in the stories these complex characters tell themselves to make sense of their war-torn worlds.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review, on Discord’s Apple

“Carrie Vaughn weaves a gorgeous tapestry of the human condition in a post-apocalyptic world filled with mystery, magic, and immortals. Her world-building is masterful!”
—L.A. Banks, New York Times bestselling author of The Thirteenth, on Discord’s Apple

“Carrie Vaughn masterfully weaves together comic books, Greek gods, King Arthur, and a world on the brink of nuclear war. Discord’s Apple is phenomenal!” —Jackie Kessler, co-author of Shades of Gray, on Discord’s Apple

“Enough excitement, astonishment, pathos, and victory to satisfy any reader.”
—Charlaine Harris on Kitty and the Midnight Hour

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (April 12, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765325551
• ISBN-13: 978-0765325556
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #923,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in California, but grew up all over the country, a bona fide Air Force Brat. I currently live in Colorado, with my miniature American Eskimo dog, Lily. I have a Masters in English Lit, love to travel, love movies, plays, music, just about anything, and am known to occasionally pick up a rapier.

I've never been a DJ, but I love writing about one.

Here's my website: www.carrievaughn.com

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#84 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#84 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Child of superpowers February 17, 2011

By E. A Solinas HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Imagine if your parents were world-famous superheroes... and you were an accountant with no special abilities whatsoever.

Yeah, the issues resulting from that would be legion. And "After The Golden Age" devotes itself to one such situation -- Carrie Vaughn carefully explores what it would be like to be the powerless child of superheroes, and manages to avoid anything too cartoonish. The characters are well-fleshed out, the writing is strong, and the story is original.

Commerce City is constantly guarded by the Olympiad, headed by Captain Olympus and the beautiful Spark, who protect it from the Destructor and various other supervillains. And since she was born without powers, Celia West (daughter of Spark and Olympus) has spent her whole life being kidnapped, wooed by the enemy, and feuding with her parents. She just tries to be normal.

Now the Destructor is about to be convicted for tax fraud, and Celia is involved in the case -- which is putting some tension between her and her dad. But after Celia's past with the Destructor is revealed, she ends up in a bizarre quest to discover what his true plan is -- and ends up uncovering a retired superhero, the origin of the superhuman powers, and her own "ordinary" abilities.

The plot of "After the Golden Age" is one of those stories that could have gone either way: a bad author would have turned it into a sad cartoonish mess, and a good author could make it an engaging fantasy about what it is to be "ordinary." Fortunately, Carrie Vaughn has definitely achieved the latter -- and I'd love to see it as a graphic novel.

Vaughn experimented with flashback-filled narratives in "Discord's Apple," and she continues to do that here, exploring some of the past history of Celia and the Olympiad in flashbacks. The plot goes rather slowly at times, but Vaughn's prose is strong and polished, with some intriguing ideas of what it would be like to live in a world with superheroes.

And Celia is a great underdog heroine for this kind of story -- she's an "ordinary" person permanently tied to the superhuman world, and has a checkered past of abduction, teen rebellion, and even a brief stint as the Destructor's sidekick. All of her feelings and experiences seem incredibly... well, "realistic" isn't quite the right word, but "plausible" works very nicely.

Carrie Vaughn seems like just the right author to give a new spin on superhero life, and "After the Golden Age" is a solid addition to her increasingly impressive bibliography. It's not the best of her standalone books thus far, but it's a very solid one.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The Not-So-Incredibles March 10, 2011

By BJ Fraser VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Sometimes it's a good thing not to write reviews right away. I was all set to give this book four stars. Then nature called and while taking care of business, the realization hit me: most of this plot was meaningless! All the digging for clues and setting things up didn't matter at all because in the end the villain calls our hero to tell her exactly where--and who--he is. What the heck is that?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that really this could have been chopped into a short story because the rest winds up being filler. Setting up all these relationships, what did it really matter? All but one of the superheroes wasn't even present for the grand finale!

The mostly unimportant story is like "The Incredibles" if the kids didn't have superpowers. Captain Olympus is like Superman and his wife Spark is like the Human Torch, only a girl. They have a daughter named Celia West who doesn't have any powers, except being a hostage. She's kidnapped about six times before the book starts.

The big nemesis is called the Destructor, who is like the resident Dr. Doom. The superheroes have caught him at last and now he's facing a trial. Celia is a forensic accountant assigned to the case despite that years ago she defected to the Destructor's side to get back at her parents. Meanwhile some new criminals are stealing priceless violins and fish (no fooling) and unleashing terror while also abducting Celia a couple more times.

The ride getting up to the big finish is interesting enough, though it never gets much deeper than the back cover flap description. This isn't in the vein of comics like "Watchmen" that try to have profound social messages.

The writing is pretty vanilla; it definitely is not going to challenge you. Celia is your typical spunky female just dying to be played by Rachael McAdams or Amy Adams in a movie adaptation. Though it's hard to have much respect for her since she gets kidnapped so many times before the story and four times DURING the story and yet still walks right into the trap at the end. Yeesh, after a while you'd think she'd get wise and start taking some precautions. And as I said, for all the digging for clues she does, it doesn't really have any impact. It would also have been nice if she hadn't been quite so whiny about her parents all the time.

The romance between her and a police detective who is also the mayor's son, like so much of the story just doesn't matter. In this case it's because another romance comes along, one that's a bit creepy.

Besides the end confrontation not being anything very exciting, the last chapter--which should have been an epilogue--quickly summarizes what happens to all the important characters. Besides limiting the sequel potential, there's nothing emotionally satisfying about these little blurbs.

In all it's comparable to the lesser superhero movies at your local multiplex. So long as you don't stop to think about it, it's not too bad.

That is all.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun read about superheroes from a different perspective February 10, 2011

By A. D. Boorman VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

If Superman and Wonder Woman had a child, you might expect Superboy or something like that. Even if they had no powers - maybe a Batgirl or something. The author here went against the 'conventional wisdom. Celia is the daughter of a Superman (Cpt Olympus) and something like a Human Torch (Spark). She has no super powers, no desire to be a superhero, and her teenage rebellion was being the henchman of a supervillain, just to honk off her father.
Anyhow, Celia grows up and becomes a CPA whose specialty is forensic accounting - sort of like a detective who only does financial records. She tries to live apart from her parents and their super friends. She is working hard to make her own life, but things don't seem to let her - her parents have been `outed,' and everybody knows who they are, and who Celia is. She gets kidnapped a lot.
She gets called in on a tax evasion case against an aging supervillian - the one whom she helped once. Most of the book is about the trial - where she gets outed as once having helped "the Destructor,' the aging supervillian. From there, Celia's life gets turned upside-down, and she has to find it within herself to fix things.

If I go further, I think I might give away a lot of the fun stuff.

Anyhow, the book is a fast read - I got through it in about a week. I liked a lot of the characters - and I liked looking at them through Celia's eyes. If you liked the Disney movie "Sky High," you'll probably like this - but it's not a kids/young adult book. People die (shooting, strangulation, drowning, radiation) - but not very graphically, and mostly `off screen.' One major character dies and although the death is described, it is not excessively violent/graphic. There are corrupt politicians in the story. There are oblique references to characters having intimate relations in the book - but again, nothing graphic.

If you like comic books, and you're looking for something different, this is neat.