Customer Reviews

Playing For Keeps

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

PERSPECTIVE: sci-fi, fantasy, and comic book fan

This, Mur Lafferty's first published novel, takes the tropes of comic book-style superheroes and villains, and brilliantly upends them to explore what lies underneath. The world of Playing for Keeps not only contains the previously mentioned costumed characters, but also a group of relatively normal folk - "third wavers" - who have special abilities too esoteric and underpowered to be useful for daring or mischief... or so it seems. What follows is a story that explores the complexities behind what it truly means to be a "hero," even when society has deemed that you are not.

Playing for Keeps is at turns epic and human, with everyday, flawed characters that are forced to contend with extraordinary challenges in which there is often no "right answer." Mur's prose is deft and evocative, making this a compelling, engrossing read to the very end.

FINAL WORD: A HIGH five of five stars, and a must read not only for fans of genre fiction, but anyone who enjoys an excellent tale. Highest recommendation.

I have to admit - I purchased this book based on the impressive array of highly eloquent five-star reviews. I'm a longtime fan of the superhero novel genre and I'm usually very impressed by the likes of, just as examples, Austin Grossman, who wrote 'Soon I Will Be Invincible', that 'Devil's Cape' book whose author I forget and James Maxey's 'Nobody Gets the Girl'. I'm always looking for new ones and somewhat naively figured that if so many people liked this one I couldn't go wrong.

Unfortunately this book isn't very good. It's so not-good that I was actually moved to write a review about it, so that perhaps other people out there wouldn't waste their money the same way I did mine. The story's premise is serviceable enough: two groups of super-powered individuals, those with powers natural or otherwise deemed suitable for government exploitation become costumed heroes, while those with more modest abilities (such as spraying excrement from one's hands, which in her own way Lafferty does her best to handle with a certain amount of sensitivity) merely attempt to live their lives. The sort-of title character, Keepsie, who has the power to never lose anything, runs a bar for the latter group where they can relate to each other about how it sucks to have superpowers without getting respect or having the great responsibility that the government heroes do. One day, however, due to her powers, Keepsie is entrusted by a super-villain with an object that the superheroes seem at great pains to recover, and determines to get to the bottom of the story herself. These are the broad strokes, anyway.

The problem is that this novel is not fun to read. For one thing, Lafferty has no ear for dialogue. In particular the banter between her protagonists sounds like someone earnestly attempting to create a spoken shorthand between longtime friends by someone who understands both friendship and banter on a purely intellectual level, and most of the witticisms seem painfully contrived. For another, the motivations and actions taken by the characters are arbitrary, as if Lafferty had an outline of the novel's story beats in her hand when writing the book which went something like 'these guys at the bar go to point A, and do B, then go to point C, where they discover D, and then do E and then everyone goes back to the bar again, and then Keepsie goes catatonic for some reason', and then couldn't quite figure out how to get them there in a way that didn't seem forced or artificial. In fact, it seems like Lafferty goes to great lengths to make sure that Keepsie's Bar is in the story as often as possible, as if the idea that the novel's gimmick was a 'superhero-story-meets-Cheers' scenario was consciously foremost in her mind, and to sideline or marginalize this bar in the novel's story would have, I don't know, compromised the novel's back-copy. In short, nothing about this novel is remotely organic or feels like it develops naturally. Many of these reviewers talk about how this novel 'takes superhero tropes and puts them on their head' and whatnot, but in my opinion, she cut a bunch of superhero and pop-culture cliches out of a magazine, tried to paste them together, and slapped a $15 price tag on whatever came out.

I read an earlier reviewer who claimed that the bulk of the positive reviews are written by people in Lafferty's "New Media" circle, who write glowing reviews of each other's output in order to bolster their sales and credibility. It sounds like a grand conspiracy theory, but quite frankly, considering the quality of this book it is the most likely explanation. For the one or two people who may actually read this review - someday - I'd be happy to sit down, book in my hand, and cite specific examples of the criticisms I've discussed above, and more, and I would do this for no other reason than I am pissed off that these people outright swindled me out of my $15 and I would not wish the same on anyone else. It's not like I can get rid of this book either. I took it to Hastings to trade it and the UPC code doesn't scan, so they wouldn't take it. I'm STUCK with it unless I decide to chuck it in the trash. So I might as well put it to good use to prevent others from wasting their money as well.

What makes someone a hero? What are a hero's responsibilities? Heroes are good, right? Who decides who gets to be a hero and who has to stand on the sidelines? Why do they always have super cool powers? Or do they? What do you do when you find yourself on the wrong side of the law? You'll ask yourself these questions and more.

I used the podcast version of Playing for Keeps with my Advance English Language Conversation class at a women's university in Seoul, Korea. My students loved the story and found themselves questioning their assumptions about what makes a hero.

"Playing for Keeps" celebrates the superhero genre with its mighty chisel-chinned heroes and diabolical villains -- and then tosses the most-familiar elements of that setup on its head. The result is a delightful salute (and send up) to comic books; a world in which the good guys aren't as good as their propaganda posters proclaim ... and the villains' mission garners more sympathy than you might expect.

The book's Seventh City setting brims with super-folk, many of whom are like Keepsie, the story's lead protagonist. Sporting a power deemed too "passive" to be useful for official crimefighting by the local hero academy, Keepsie is mostly content to run her pub and scowl at the sycophantic TV reports about the city's caped crusaders. But when Seventh City's villains target her as the linchpin in a new conspiracy, Keepsie finds herself in an ethical quandary: she must either help the heroes who rejected her, or cave to the villains' whims...

...or does she? Keepsie and her pals create a third option, which forces them to stick together, stand against heroes and villains, and scrap for their lives.

It's a fun, funny and exciting romp, and author Lafferty executes the story brilliantly, crafting a city and denizens so well-defined, you'd think they were pulled from a top-selling four-color comic. Lafferty also deftly explores the ethics of superheroing, and the interpersonal conflicts that arise when blessed with such powers.

Perhaps best of all, "Playing for Keeps" reminds us that we can all be heroes -- a relevant and hopeful message for not just fans of the genre, but any reader. Highly recommended.

The destruction of the myth that superhero stories aren't suited for prose fiction continues with Mur Lafferty's Playing For Keeps. The book, which centers on people who have powers, but not powers that would exactly guarantee them membership in the JLA or the Avengers, combines the humor and humanity of Mystery Men with the superhero deconstruction of Watchmen.

Playing For Keeps Mur Lafferty's first novel is is a super-hero book with a twist. It's not the ones with the capes and masks you'll root for, it's the everyday heroes who are not quite super enough to join the officially sanctioned vigilantes.

In Seventh City, the Third Wave of metahumans are mostly working class stiffs like you and me... except that they might be able to call elevators at will, or cook a perfect cheeseburger, or perfectly balance a tray of drinks. These also-rans resent the colorful, photogenic superheroes... and the powerful Academy that sanctions them.

When the feisty owner of a local Third Wave watering hole finds herself in the middle of a grudge match between superheroes and their nemeses, Keepsie Branson and her friends discover there's more to Seventh City... and themselves... than they ever imagined.

Lafferty has fun with comic book tropes while crafting a truly rousing tale of friendship, sacrifice, and commitment. I was literally cheering out loud by the end.

I could go on about how this book is well written (which it is) with action and humor (lot's of) and accessible characters that you can't help but care about (both third-wavers and heroes), but that has and will be covered in the other reviews here.

The reason that I'm giving this book five stars (other than it's a whole lot of awesome)is simple.

It made my 'been there, read that' 15 year old interested in stories, plots and writing again, something that I feared she lost the moment she started noticing boys.

After the first few chapters, we found ourselves talking about the issues brought up in the book, what kind of powers would we want and trying to top the other's idea of the best third wave power (like the ability to absorb odors). It's the kind of book that leaves you wanting more.

It's one thing to write a book that entertains. It's a whole other thing to write one that ignites imagination.

And that's what Playing For Keeps does.

The concept of Wave 1 super-super powers and Wave 3 minor-super powers was great. However, the plot, characters, dialogue, and everything else got in the way of this being a fantastic book. Honestly, with so many 5 star reviews, I expected this to be amazing. As it is, I left it with an 'eh.'

The main gripe I have with this book is the Kindle version. This version's formatting really, really sucks. Paragraphs are split oddly, there are indentation problems, words run together, overall making it very difficult to read.

The story itself, however, was pretty good. Not great - I think the author could have cut out a few dozen pages of the heroes sitting in the bar whining about life, and some of the ancillary characters weren't developed as well as I'd like, but I'd definitely read a sequel should one come out.

Ms. Lafferty brings a new humanity to the Superhero genre. Her story is fresh, the characters engaging, and the setting comes alive in your mind. What counts is less what power you have than the way you use it.

This is an excellent book and a charming tale told by one of the rising stars in speculative fiction.