The Superhero Literature thread

[Richard Writhen]

Technically everything is written one letter at a time, though it would certainly speed the process considerably if that was not the case lawl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I want to read the two Dance of Dragons novellas first before his other stuff. One's in Rogues and the other IDK.

[beniowa]

The newer books are available as ebooks, though. So my question is: Can someone who has a general knowledge of the universe start with those? And if so, what is the best jumping on point?

Sure.  The new books are essentially a reboot starting with a new generation in the near present day.  It's mostly newer characters, though some older ones do pop in a bit.  If you've read the first five or six books you'll have a pretty good handle on things.  Inside Straight is probably the best place to start. 

[C.T. Phipps]

The newer books are available as ebooks, though. So my question is: Can someone who has a general knowledge of the universe start with those? And if so, what is the best jumping on point?

Inside Straight seems written to basically "update" the setting and give a new entry point into the series, which is something comic books do on a frequent basis like with the various Criseses and Civil War and so on.

 

So, yeah, Inside Straight is a perfectly good starting point.

 

The books are mostly self-contained too.

[MisterOJ]

So has anyone read the new Peter Clines book Ex-Isle yet? I liked the first three books in the series a lot, but the fourth one was pretty "meh." Just wondering if this latest one is better, or if the last one was the beginning of a downward trend. 

[peterbound]

So has anyone read the new Peter Clines book Ex-Isle yet? I liked the first three books in the series a lot, but the fourth one was pretty "meh." Just wondering if this latest one is better, or if the last one was the beginning of a downward trend. 

It's in my queue. Reading it next.

[Muwhahaha]

I'm about 25% in.  It's better than the last book but it's not as good as Ex-Heroes and Ex-Communication - I didn't care for Ex-Patriots or Ex-Purgatory.  The shitty attitudes and villainous villains annoy the shit out of me though.  He doesn't do gray well.

[Muwhahaha]

60% in and I almost want to put it down.  The villains are too villainy and the assholes, too assholey.  It's really annoying.

[Muwhahaha]

Finished with Ex-Isle.  I didn't like it.  Bad guys bad for the sake of being bad.  Not believable, even in the superhero/zombie world.  It's tied for worst in the series.

[Mars447]

The Girl in the Box series by Robert J. Crane is pretty good.  A teenaged metahuman who has been imprisoned in her home for all of her life is drafted into a quasi-governmental agency to fight metahuman crime.  Fun popcorn, and while the heroine is pretty up there in the power scale she still has the character flaws in spades to avoid being a Mary Sue.

It helps that she's not an invulnerable Superman epxy (hey Astra and St. George!).

[James Arryn]

I really didn't enjoy Wild Cards. It felt like half of a dorky dialogue about superhero realism that didn't matter to me. Once you get that things 'realistically' wouldn't work out along smooth lines, there's not much left there. The idea of morphing it into McCarthyism also felt a bit played out. Dunno, was really excited about a new 'genre' because of ASoIaF, but have felt no urge to repeat the experience since.

 

Given those concerns, is there a particular Cape Wave* novel you'd put at the top of the list in the event of one last gapsp?

 

(edited to reflect aesthetic parallel).

 

 

[C.T. Phipps]

Just read Steelheart for the first time.

Bought the other two books immediately thereafter.

 

[Liffguard]

Not gonna lie, I personallly found Steelheart unreadable. Got maybe fifty or so pages in then gave up. But then, I don't really like Sanderson's writing style in general.

[C.T. Phipps]

47 minutes ago, Liffguard said:

Not gonna lie, I personallly found Steelheart unreadable. Got maybe fifty or so pages in then gave up. But then, I don't really like Sanderson's writing style in general.

The fifty first pages were the hardest for me but for a different reason as decades of the X-men have brainwashed me into believing any Muggles out to kill superpowered people are evil racists.

Here's my review

http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2016/11/steelheart-by-brandon-sanderson-review.html

[Liffguard]

I had no problem with the premise. I just really dislike Sanderson's prose. It's very clunky and has no real flow. He's constantly stopping the narrative to gleefuly explain some minor point of worldbuilding that I have no reason to care about, rather than making it an organic part of the story. The dialogue is stilted at best and cringeworthy at worst. Sorry, this book really wasn't my cup of tea.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. He'd be really good at writing RPG sourcebooks and building gaming environments. As a novellist I think he's way out of his depth.

[peterbound]

I can't stand anything the dude has written after Mistborn (the first one, I think they have subtitles now?).  I can't understand the slavish following he has in some corners of the interwebs. 

[C.T. Phipps]

15 hours ago, Liffguard said:

I had not problem with the premise. I just really dislike Sanderson's prose. It's very clunky and has no real flow. He's constantly stopping the narrative to gleefuly explain some minor point of worldbuilding that I have no reason to care about, rather than making it an organic part of the story. The dialogue is stilted at best and cringeworthy at worst. Sorry, this book really wasn't my cup of tea.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. He'd be really good at writing RPG sourcebooks and building gaming environments. As a novellist I think he's way out of his depth.

I've been a tabletop gamer since the 6th grade so that didn't bother me. In fact, I think I enjoyed it more for the fact he devoted a large part of the text to explaining how everything worked.

So, YMMV I guess.

[MisterOJ]

10 hours ago, peterbound said:

I can't stand anything the dude has written after Mistborn (the first one, I think they have subtitles now?).  I can't understand the slavish following he has in some corners of the interwebs. 

I think a large part of why he has such a "slavish" following is because of a couple of reasons.

1) He is extremely prolific and churns out lots for his fans to read. No unlike what helped Stephen King reach his level of popularity.

and 2) He "gets" the SFF community. He's actively involved in it and comes across as just a normal nerd, who happens to be pretty good at writing stories. His social media persona is spot on for his niche.

[Maithanet]

I liked Steelheart a lot, although it was definitely a bubblegum read.  The world he was describing was just fun to read about, and that covered up a lot of shortcomings.  Some of the dialogue was horrific, but for all it's flaws I still enjoyed the book, and raced through it in just a couple of days.  The second book wasn't as good, but still a fine, easy read.  By the third book the flaws were getting worse, and the strengths of the series were fading away.  I barely even finished it.  As a result, I have trouble really recommending the trilogy, although the first book was a lot of fun.   

[Liffguard]

8 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

I've been a tabletop gamer since the 6th grade so that didn't bother me. In fact, I think I enjoyed it more for the fact he devoted a large part of the text to explaining how everything worked.

So, YMMV I guess.

Eh, fair enough. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with intricate and detailed world building per se. It's that he does it in such an inorganic way. It's pretty clear he cares more about magic systems and the rules of how his settings work more than he cares about characterisation, dialogue, prose or just storytelling generally.

 

18 hours ago, peterbound said:

I can't understand the slavish following he has in some corners of the interwebs. 

 

7 hours ago, MisterOJ said:

I think a large part of why he has such a "slavish" following is because of a couple of reasons.

1) He is extremely prolific and churns out lots for his fans to read. No unlike what helped Stephen King reach his level of popularity.

and 2) He "gets" the SFF community. He's actively involved in it and comes across as just a normal nerd, who happens to be pretty good at writing stories. His social media persona is spot on for his niche.

I have my own theory, which is probably not going to be too popular and relies a lot on generalisations, but whatever. There's a certain type of internet geek that values consistency of detail, complex rules and nitpicking above all else. We all probably know a couple of people like that. Those guys ready to instantly jump on any "plot hole" or wonder why character X didn't just do that one obvious thing to resolve the whole story. D&D munchkins basically. The guys who love to quote Sanderson's law as if it was storytelling gospel. There almost certainly aren't enough of them to explain all of Sanderson's success, but they're probably responsible for a lot of his vocal internet fandom.

[stonebender]

I haven't read Sanderson yet, but based on reviews it seems like he's inherited the mantle of PG-13 fantasy defined by easy breezy prose, fun banter driven characters, and cool world backdrops.  In addition to the readers he inherited from WOT, I assume a lot of younger readers are finding him as that first in-depth series they get hooked on.  Especially since stuff that filled that role in the past isn't what it once was.  No more new Jordan novels obviously.  Terry Brooks said one reason he went with MTV for the series was because kids and teens weren't reading him anymore.  Forgotten Realms novels are all but dead.  Plus Sanderson's marketing seems to be on point.  Way of Kings in particular stood out on the shelf.