Turbulence by Samit Basu

[polishgenius]

I was going to just mention it in the 'reading in June' topic but I've decided I loved it and have decided to bang the drum for it a little bit... :P

It's a superhero novel from India. And it's AWESOME. It's basically an origin story- bunch of people get off a plane after weird dreams with superpowers. Try to figure out what to do with themselves. Trying to explain the plot without going into spoiling details makes it sound generic, and it does have a lot of the things you'd usually expect from a superhero story- but the execution is absolutely superb, and often managed to surprise me. It's got basically everything. It's a funny book, reminds me of Neil Gaiman at his wittiest in some ways, but it's also sad, joyful, angry, tense... the characters are engaging, and the action is skillfully executed. It helps its own cause immensely by the fact that, although the obvious showy superpowers are present, a lot of focus is given to those who have got less traditionally punchy ones, and in smart ways.

Basically I loved every bit of it.

Anyone else read it? Apparently it's the author's fourth book, but the first published outside of India (though his three earlier books, an epic fantasy trilogy, seem to have ebooks up as of late last year). I'm looking forward to more from him, and I highly recommend this one.

[mormont]

I read it about six months back. I enjoyed it a great deal: it's entertaining, energetic and very fast-paced, with an unusual take on the genre. Nice setup for a sequel, too. Not perfect, I didn't love everything about it as you did, but it's a lot of fun.