Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
ok, June 25, 2008
This review is from: Superpowers: A Novel (Paperback)
Let me start off by saying that this was an entertaining read. The characters (while neither very developed nor very interesting) are pretty plausible, the premise of the story is interesting enough, and the editorial intervention of observer Marcus Hatch is priceless.
There are some major structural problems with the story. My biggest problem is that the characters are too similar for the reader to be able to easily differentiate them. No sooner do we get introduced to the characters does Schwartz start jumping around (each character has their own third person narrative) and it often becomes extremely difficult to tell who's doing what and why. Too many names thrown around, too few differences or idiosyncrasies.
Dialogue also sometimes seems contrived in a television serial sort of way-- somewhat unnatural, unproductive filler. I'm not sure what the characters are trying to achieve.
The story develops nicely. Essentially, the All-Stars, the superpower-endowed heroes (or antiheroes?) find they have neither a know-how for being superheroes, nor a society which can afford to let them roam free. Schwartz effectively develops this quandary through the climax, an extremely confusing combination of events with dozens of different characters in which the All-Stars finally come to terms with the fact that neither they nor their society can handle their superpowers.
[POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING] The concluding chapter(s) of the book is interesting, though, because it makes us wonder about the nature of truth. Who knows what is real and what isn't real? The escapades of the All-Stars are plausible and enjoyable from an entertainment standpoint, but the concluding editorial section makes us think twice-- perhaps about the whole story. In some ways I think this ending makes the book, but then again, I feel bad that we have to wait through a hundred and fifty pages before we get there.
Solid entertainment, but too scattered and loose to be a great masterpiece of literature.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, thoughtful, and moving, August 6, 2008
This is one of those books that makes me wish I could put in half-star ratings. I am not ready to go 5 stars (it was amazing!) with this book, but it's definitely superior to other books I'd consider four stars.
I recently read and reviewed Soon I Will Be Invincible, another superhero novel. Superpowers is almost the conceptual inverse of that book.
This novel dealt in a sober and realistic way with what would happen to a group of friends who suddenly developed superpowers. There are no supervillains, no secret pacts with the police commissioner, no mighty halls of justice. Just five friends, lost, confused, and trying to deal with something they don't understand. The group decides to do what they can to help their city, but they're just as human as the rest of us, and their actions end up with real consequences.
The author doesn't reject comic book convention so much as he ignores it completely. Despite the fact that the world as described is clearly impacted by comics (Several well known DC and Marvel properties are mentioned in character discussions), I never felt like there was a list of comic book tropes to be trashed or followed. The story seemed like a logical progression of events as they would unfold. Assuming, of course, that they possessors of these powers decided to help people rather than rob banks or get rich on the talk show circuit. :)
The book's climax was gripping, moving, upsetting, and wonderful.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad, but not really all that good either, August 11, 2009
This is a genre I usually enjoy and I wanted to love this book but reading it left me cold. The story meanders around for a few hundred pages and then sort of fizzles out with no real conflict ever introduced or resolution achieved. In the absence of a compelling story arc I'd expect to see a strong focus on characterization and dialog but the novel falls even flatter on that front. The multitude of characters are one-dimensional with few distinctions. I found it difficult to keep track of who was who. They experience no growth over the plot arc and the dialog is adolescent and shallow. Quick read, and had its high points, but on the whole I found it lacking.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
