I feel like I should be wearing a cape as I write this. I am now enamored of all things Superhero. And it is Austin Grossman's fault. I loved, loved, LOVED, his book
Soon I Will Be Invincible. I'll have a chance to tell him in person, since he'll be at our Hawthorne store for
a reading on June 21.
The book opens with Doctor Impossible (with a name like that do I have to tell you that he's a bad guy?) in jail for the twelfth time. He's philosophical about getting caught again. Super evil geniuses take that sort of setback in stride. We soon meet a superhero ? the book swings between good and evil (sort of like Brockman) ? Fatale is a decommissioned super-soldier who wants to join a Superteam.
Grossman's writing is smart and funny. The characters feel real. We get a look behind the scenes ? superhero B.O.? Who knew? But, yes, indeed, the Superteam headquarters gets a bit ripe when the whole team is assembled. Even if you never read comic books as a kid, even if you only saw the first Batman movie, you'll enjoy Soon I Will Be Invincible.
If the Supergadgets interest you more, you should pick up Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived by Daniel Wilson. It's an enlightening and surprisingly funny look at what people of the past thought future technology would be. It might depend on how old you are, but back in the day "Jetsons" technology didn't seem that far-fetched.
Wilson breaks the book into themes: transportation, entertainment and home technology, to name a few. He explains why we aren't all commuting to work via jetpack; why there are no underwater hotels (OK, there's one) and why robots are not cleaning our houses (OK, robots do clean my house. I have two Roombas). The history of the ideas is fascinating. I didn't know that Robert Heinlein thought up moving sidewalks. The science of them is equally interesting ? do you want to know why moving sidewalks move so damned slow? Read the book.