Soon I Will Be Invincible: A Novel [Hardcover]

Austin Grossman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2007

Doctor Impossible—evil genius, diabolical scientist, wannabe world dominator—languishes in a federal detention facility. He's lost his freedom, his girlfriend, and his hidden island fortress.

Over the years he's tried to take over the world in every way imaginable: doomsday devices of all varieties (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological) and mass mind control. He's traveled backwards in time to change history, forward in time to escape it. He's commanded robot armies, insect armies, and dinosaur armies. Fungus army. Army of fish. Of rodents. Alien invasions. All failures. But not this time. This time it’s going to be different...

Fatale is a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world's most famous superteam. She's a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built to be the next generation of warfare. Filling the void left by a slain former member, we watch as Fatale joins a team struggling with a damaged past, having to come together in the face of unthinkable evil.

Soon I Will Be Invincible is a thrilling first novel; a fantastical adventure that gives new meaning to the notions of power, glory, responsibility, and (of course) good and evil.

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.

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1 edition (June 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375424865
• ISBN-13: 978-0375424861
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (157 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pitch Perfect Send-Up of Comic Book Standards, September 28, 2008

By 

Michael Lima (Fresno, California USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soon I Will be Invincible (Vintage) (Paperback)

It's pretty clear that Austin Grossman has spent a lot of time reading comic books. Only someone who has spent countless hours reading Miller, Moore, Byrne, Stern, Gaiman, et. al. would be able to take comic book conventions and turn them into a great piece of literary fiction. Fortunately for all of us, Soon I Will Be Invincible is proof that Grossman spent his time, and learned his lessons, well.

The best decision that Grossman made was to focus the story on one super villain and one superhero. By focusing the story so narrowly, Grossman is able to infuse a humanity into these characters that one wouldn't typically associate with archetypes. Narrowing the story also gives Grossman the freedom to explore and poke fun at some of the more hallowed "sacred cows" in comic book storylines, like why do super villains always lose to superheroes, no matter how smart/strong/prepared they are?

While he's certainly willing to overturn the medium's conventions, Grossman clearly has a fondness for the genre. As a result, the skewering never morphs into cynical satire; but, retains an enthusiasm that's completely appropriate for the style. That enthusiasm infects the writing with a playfulness and humor that makes reading Soon I Will Be Invincible a pleasure.

Soon I Will Be Invincible reads so well that it's easy to forget that writing a semi-serious book about a subject as caricatured as superheroes is not an easy task. Consequently, Grossman deserves a lot of credit for creating a wonderful homage to comic books that retains the wide-eyed innocence of the medium while incorporating the humanistic touches of the genre's current writers.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

thersites - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soon I Will be Invincible (Vintage) (Paperback)

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.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Think of It As...Diet Watchmen, January 7, 2010

By 

Zo "Zo" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soon I Will be Invincible (Vintage) (Paperback)

As any comic fan can tell you, PART of what made the original Watchmen series so enjoyable is that it brought superheroes down to our level. It gave them human emotions, motivations and neurosis similar to what most normal people encounter every day. A man who dons a mask and fights crime to avenge the death of a loved one is something we might aspire to. A man who dons a mask because it's the only place he feels safe is something we can understand.

In that way 'Soon I Will Be Invincible' does what Watchmen succeeded to spectacularly at...albeit in a much lighter way.

The book's approach to the world of superheroes is to mix 2 parts conventional superhero story with one part US Weekly. The characters are all stand-ins for other...copyrighted...characters you'll quickly recognize. They depart from their comic book alter egos with the more human portrayals they receive. They are the insecure, impatient, entitled people...all hiding behind agents and publicists...that they would be if they existed in the real world. The main character, Fatale, is an appropriate stand in for us. She never seems to get in the way of the plot and asks all the same questions we might ask if we were in her role.

Her counterpart, Dr. Impossible, is like a cross between Lex Luthor, Dr. Doom and Hannibal Lector. His goals and means are absurd but his motivations are ones that anyone who's been bullied on a playground can understand.

This probably isn't a book for everybody...but then what is? If you've ever sort of wondered if Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman act like a bunch of jerks after the credits roll on an episode of Super Friends then this might be a book for you.