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Captain Freedom: A Superhero's Quest for Truth, Justice, and the Celebrity He So Richly Deserves

by G. Xavier Robillard

Captain Freedom: A Superhero's Quest for Truth, Justice, and the Celebrity He So Richly Deserves Cover

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Freedom's fifteen minutes are over!

Software pirates! Mostly extinct dinosaurs! Giant barbarians! Crooning criminals! Captain Freedom's beat them all, saved the world, and looked fantastic doing it — but he couldn't fend off middle management.

The Superhero lifestyle is all that Captain Freedom has ever known. What's he supposed to do now? Enter politics? Write a children's book?

Freedom's in a bad way and he's only a stint in rehab away from a lifetime of celebrity reality shows. But with the guidance of his new life coach, maybe Freedom can stumble in a new direction — even if it means having to make peace with his parents... or finally commit to a single long-term archenemy.

Review:

"What do you get when you give a metrosexual superhero a sidekick, an identity crisis and the ability to predict the weather? The answer: Captain Freedom, the lovable hero of Robillard's debut novel. Once a popular superhero, Freedom's celebrity is on the wane, and instead of going quietly into retirement, he goes in search of his origin. Along the way, Freedom visits with a life coach, tries to find his lost father and writes his memoirs. He also laments his lack of a completing other half: an arch-nemesis. Causing trouble for Freedom, meanwhile, is the sniveling journalist/would-be superhero Skip Goodwin, whose antagonistic history dates back to the superhero school he and Freedom attended. Although Freedom manages to maintain a successful career into retirement and stay in the public eye, he also has a lot to learn about personal relationships. Robillard keeps the satire fast and furious, with laugh-out-loud moments competing with strangely insightful quips. It's funny and smart, and even readers who've long given up comic books will enjoy the ride." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Captain Freedom is a truly funny and energetic romp of a social satire, a terrific send up of not only of super heroes, but the cult of personality in general. And G. Xavier Robillard isn't stingy with the ideas, which indicates there's good things to come. I can't wait." Christopher Moore, Author of Lamb and Practical Demonkeeping

Review:

"We've seen alcoholic superheroes, closeted gay superheroes, even homicidal superheroes. But we've never seen the superhero as neurotic hipster fame whore. Robillard's hilarious satire goes somewhere new and surprising." Neal Pollack, author of Alternadad

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About the Author

G. Xavier Robillard writes for several humor sites, including McSweeney's Internet Tendency and Comedy Central. He lives in Boston. Captain Freedom is his first novel.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
stina8753, May 5, 2009 (view all comments by stina8753)
Captain Freedom is easily one of the sharpest, wittiest books I've read in a long time. It combines enough goofy humor with really cutting observations to make a brilliant critique on the ideas of celebrities, heroes, and public image. This is definitely a fantastic, fun read, and I've been recommending it to everyone I know, including my college professors. Very well done.
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(2 of 8 readers found this comment helpful)
Terrence, March 22, 2009 (view all comments by Terrence)
The initial reviews I read about this book looked very promising and I actually liked the concept. The writing style was disjointed and not well thought through. I purchased "Soon I Will Be Invincible" at the same time and that's turning out to be a much better book.
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(2 of 11 readers found this comment helpful)
christopher.horne, February 17, 2009 (view all comments by christopher.horne)
G.X. Robillard has created a fast-paced; funny comic book into a novel full of bits of biting social satire. Through the medium of his character, a shallow, ambitious, two-dimensional super-hero who flies off the comic pages and onto the public stage, he provides a frame for his rapid-fire send-up of popular culture, the cult of celebrity life, politics, the arts, and the general steady decline of the West. Even though this could become annoyingl; there are so many trenchant gags,puns and little humourous pieces that the reader is ultimately charmed. In time, our hero even has room to learn to relate to a significant other -- a nemesis. Bravo.
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(5 of 14 readers found this comment helpful)
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780061650680
Subtitle:
A Superhero's Quest for Truth, Justice, and the Celebrity He So Richly Deserves
Author:
Robillard, G. Xavier
Author:
Robillard, Gregory Xavier
Author:
by Gregory Xavier Robillard
Publisher:
Harper Paperbacks
Subject:
General
Subject:
Job Hunting
Subject:
Satire
Publication Date:
February 2009
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
258
Dimensions:
8.00x5.34x.69 in. .45 lbs.

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