Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Superhero Novel Ever, August 16, 2003
By A Customer
...I'm thrilled to finally find a superhero novel that is a great read from cover to cover. Nobody Gets the Girl is the best superhero novel ever. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is a huge hit and will spawn imitators half this good. It a tough novel to talk about without giving away the plot. There are surprises in every chapter. It's also a tough book to put down. I read the whole book in a weekend and was never bored for a second. The biggest surprise for me was how funny the book was. The dialogue is sharp and clever. It's the sort of book I keep quoting passages from to my friends. The only thing that I worried about in the plot is that early on the bad guys are this group of international terrorists. I kind of rolled my eyes at this use of the current pop culture boogey man. But, later in the book the master terrorist get center stage for a couple of chapters and it's one of the biggest surprises of the book that his character is so three dimensional and thought out. These aren't typical cardboard bad guys. The whole book winds up being a kind of critique of the current war on terrorism. The good guys go to such extremes to stop their enemies that it gets difficult to tell whether or not they might be a bigger [danger] than the bad guys. This book is thought-provoking, action packed, and funny. Highly recommended.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just when you think you've got it figured out..., November 1, 2003
This novel has a definite comic-book feel, with larger-than-life heroes, villians and situations... but don't expect the plot or characters to be limited to simple bold colors, there's *lots* of shading here. I must have 'figured out' this novel three times while I was reading it, and I was ever so slightly (but critically) wrong each time. The plot always remained one step ahead of me, with just a *bit* more twist than I expected. I read lots of SF, and seldom find as many genuine surprises as I found in here.There's also plenty of hard-hitting superhero action inside, including one scene that tops anything Superman (or any nemesis of his) would ever dare attempt... you'll know it when you see it, and it *will* force you to think. I made the mistake of picking this book up at bedtime, and ended up missing *lots* of sleep. I read it cover-to-cover in one sitting. Open it only when you've got some time to spend!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining novel, September 29, 2003
James Maxey paints a colorful, imaginative portrait of an unwilling superhero amid other heroes who have serious issues. The plot was engaging, the characters interesting if not always likeable, and the moral themes were complex. Don't let the broad heroic strokes fool you - this story has a lot of layers. There were, however, a few glitches: there's a romantic situation which seems to spring from nowhere, and as a result I really couldn't buy it. Since the romantic situation is closely tied to the overall plot, this created a bit of a problem for me. I also felt the protagonist needed a bit more fleshing out - I felt that some of his actions were out-of-how-I-perceived-his-character; in retrospect I have the feeling that Maxey simply did some mental shorthand that not all readers will grasp. But don't let those put you off buying the novel - it's a lot of fun, and it'll make you think. I'm looking forward to more of Maxey's work.
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