Soon I Will be Invincible (Vintage) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: doctor impossible, crisis room, zeta beam, Mister Mystic, Super Squadron, Rainbow Triumph (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The realm of comic book heroes and villains gets a dose of realism in this whimsical debut from game design consultant Grossman. The story shifts between the perspectives of Doctor Impossible, a brilliant scientist turned world's greatest menace, and Fatale, a lonely cyborg and the newest addition to the venerable group of heroes known as the Champions. Though he's been out of commission for a while, Doctor Impossible hatches a scheme to knock the planet out of orbit ("As the Earth grows colder, my power becomes apparent, and the nations submit," he reasons). Meanwhile, Champions leader Corefire goes missing, and Fatale has to learn the ropes of superherodom as the conventional climactic showdown (at Doctor Impossible's secret lair) draws near. However fantastical, the characters (including a "genetic metahuman" and "an elite fairy guard") are thoughtfully portrayed, with Fatale—stuck in a perpetual existential crisis—bemused over the Champions' purpose, and Doctor Impossible wondering "whether the smartest man in the world has done the smartest thing he could with his life." Grossman dabbles in a host of themes—power, greed, fame, the pitfalls of ego—in this engrossing page-turner, broadening the appeal of an already inviting scenario. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Austin Grossman, Berkeley grad student, game designer, and comic-book connoisseur, offers a fresh take on the hidden realm of contemporary superheroes. Critics compare the novel favorably to Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude, the prime-time, sci-fi soap opera Heroes, and the animated big-screen hit The Incredibles. Although the plot and Grossman's sense of humor wear thin for some critics, Soon I Will Be Invincible is certainly a worthwhile diversion, a flight of fancy with heart, and the perfect vehicle for a sequel. Even Impossible's voice has the ring of truth-in a world-weary, villainous sort of way, of course: "Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." Impossible's aphorism contains as relevant a metaphor for life as a reader is likely to find anywhere these days.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (June 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307279863
• ISBN-13: 978-0307279866
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (125 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #55,909 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a delight, November 26, 2008

By	thersites - See all my reviews

I'm amazed by the negative reviews, and glad to see them in the minority. I found this book a delight, and was amazed to see it was a first novel. The book consists of two intertwined stories - one told by a super-villian, the other by a new super-hero. I found the super-villian chapters a total delight, a real joy - the super-hero chapters are interesting, but much less so - that's why i give 4 stars instead of 5. Overall definitely a very good and fun read.

45 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Less depth and character than most comic books, July 10, 2007

By	D. Ben Flasher - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Soon I Will Be Invincible: A Novel (Hardcover)

I bought this book based on a strong review, and was quite disappointed. Any reviewer who praises this book's imagination clearly hasn't read a comic book within the last 5-10 years. The settings, characters, and powers all seem to have been lifted wholesale out of Marvel's least inspired 80s B-list comics.

I will grant that there is some amusement to be found in Dr. Impossible's story. His wry, matter-of fact viewpoint is often entertaining, and the telling of a comic book tale from the villain's side is at least a bit unusual, if not unheard of (see Astro City: The Tarnished Angel, for one particularly fine example). Unfortunately, Dr. Impossible's side of things only occupies half the book. The rest of it is told from Fatale's perspective, and she's an absolute bore. A cyborg with a lost past, she doesn't seem to be terribly passionate about anything. The most she ever manages is some uninspired teenage-esque angst that her character seems much too old for.

In fact, the Dr. Impossible/Fatale contrast is indicative of a larger problem with the book. Grossman has some fun poking into the psychologies and histories of his villains, people with frightening powers living with the perpetual cognitive dissonance that exists between their world-conquering ambitions and inevitable humiliating defeats. He has no such insight, however, into the minds of his heroes. None of them spend any time pondering why they chose to put on tights and fight crime. Dr. Impossible wonders why he didn't choose to become a hero instead, but none of the heroes ever ponder why they didn't choose to just go rob a bank and retire to a tropical island. None of them appear to get any particular enjoyment from fighting crime, or derive any pleasure from helping others, so why do they do it? This book has no answers, so it does its best to dodge the question. Worse, Grossman attempts to substitute angst and bickering amongst his heroes in place of psychological depth. The New Champions, the super team that Fatale joins, bicker and sulk like a car full of high school students reluctantly dragged on a field trip, rarely displaying a single likable trait between the seven of them.

Worse still, this book reads more like a first draft than a published work. The writing is sloppy and inconsistent, and the whole thing seems to have been untouched by an editor. Descriptions are few and far between; it reads more like a comic book script than a novel, still waiting for an imaginative artist to draw in the undefined settings, faces, and costumes. Characters repeat observations several time throughout the book, each time as if they're new. The book is riddled with inconsistencies and dangling plot threads. Dr. Impossible sometimes talks as if he loathes magic and does his best to avoid it, and sometimes comfortably mentions incorporating it into past and future plans. Fatale observes that a hammer weighs a couple hundred pounds, then, several paragraphs later, picks it up and finds it "surprisingly heavy." Conflicts are set up, but never pay off. Other conflicts seem to appear out of nowhere. A scene in which Fatale accuses a mystical teammate of not being a real fairy comes entirely out of left field; one scene later, the conflict is completely forgotten, and is never mentioned again.

Character voices are also wildly inconsistent. Everyone sounds the same in conversation, and no one sounds particularly interesting. Dr. Impossible, an evil genius, comes the closest to having a unique voice, but even he bounces unpredictably between occasionally inspired bits and inexplicably juvenile lines such as, "Whatever. Just don't think you can stop me." Most dismayingly, the two narrators sound remarkably similar for most of the book, with the only distinct difference being that Fatale's utterly flat sections lack the occasional moments of inspiration that sparingly pepper Dr. Impossible's narrative.

This book is an "adult" take on superheroes only when compared to the simplistic comics of the 30s-50s. The story and dialog ibook don't hold a candle to the clever and insightful works of such modern-day comics writers as Kurt Busiek, Brian Michael Bendis, and Neil Gaiman. The novel format tries to sell this as a more adult and literary take on comic books, but it's ultimately just a pale and surprisingly shallow imitation of the real thing.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Soon I Will Dissolve in My Own Irony, July 24, 2009

By	James D. DeWitt "Alaska Fan" (Fairbanks, AK United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Soon I Will Be Invincible: A Novel (Hardcover)

Dr. Impossible is your classic under-achieving super-villain, the kind Terry Pratchett mocked mercilessly with Evil Harry Dread and His Shed of Doom in The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable. Impossible's tried twelve times already to take over the world, and the pesky super heros have defeated him every time. So as he ramps up for the 13th effort, there's not much question what's going to happen this time; only how it's going to happen. You have to be a very good writer to carry suspense in that situation, better than Mr. Grossman, I fear.

The narrative voice shifts back and forth between the villainous Dr. Impossible and newly minted superhero(ine) Fatale, a angst-ridden cyborg. A writer needs to be able to establish and maintain two distinct narrative voices to bring this trick off. As other reviewers have noted, Mr. Grossman's efforts are only spottily successful. Many of the favorable reviews are from the audio version, where the narrator can do the work the author should have done.

Much of the novel is given over to the characters backstories, but between the current superheroes and super-villains, and older, retired or defeated superheroes and villains, you really need the character table at the end of the book to even half way keep track of what's going on.

And you need a strong story. But the actual story here is minimalist.

But the great problem facing Mr. Grossman is that he cannot establish and maintain a consistent narrative tone. One page might read like a satiric pastiche of bad 1950's comic books; the next page threatens to dissolve in its own irony. Even the super bad guy, Dr. Impossible, waffles badly between arrogant James Bond villain and karking, whiny petulance. Sometimes in the same paragraph.

Sure, the author successfully parodies comic books, but that's a pretty easy target. They very nearly do it to themselves. Beyond that, it's pretty disappointing. Save your money, or go to the secondhand bookstore. I love fantasy and science fiction, and grew up on comics, but this is just poorly written.