Paragon in Print: Heroes And Villains In Proper Books (with typefaces and everything)

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

We haven't had a book thread in a while (as in, y'know, the ones with lines of text an' all with no pictures, and you have to imagine your own speech bubbles. Bit weird, but some people like 'em.)

 

Reason being: John Scalzi, of Old Man's War fame and burritos-of-mass-destruction infamy, is releasing a book that couldn't be more up my street if he parked there.

 

Our hapless hero Charlie, a failing substitute teacher, is whisked across country to take over his late uncle's business, resulting in love, confusion, and general hijinks. So far, so Hallmark Christmas flick.

 

Except that this business comes with a volcano lair, terrifying henchmen, an army of hyperintelligent talking spy cats... oh, and some very nasty enemies, including a polished-but-soulless bunch of vulture capitalists who give corporate raiding a whole new meaning.

Ladies and gentlemen: Starter Villain.

 

I've also previously recommended Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman, which is narrated from the points of view of chronic Malign Hypercognition Disorder patient Doctor Impossible (redside, but genial and extremely nerdy) and Fatale, (blueside...ish cyborg). 

 

What other capery might you bring to my attention?

[Ulysses Dare]

I'm quite fond of the Wearing the Cape series by Marion G. Harmon. Fairly straight forward super hijinks but with thought given to how all of this would really work if it happened in the real world.

[Techwright]

Can it be a trench coat instead of a cape?

 

This is an old one, but remains in my personal library;

 

Dick Tracy: The Secret Files

 

It's an anthology book, or as Amazon puts it:  A collection of tales involving the comic strip detective encompasses stories by such renowned writers as Isaac Asimov, Stuart Kaminsky, Ed Gorman, F. Paul Wilson, Wayne Dundee, and Richard Myers

 

Personal favorites include a great kidnapping story that's somewhat dark for a Dick Tracy story, and one involving classic Tracy villain Mumbles in a rockabilly story.  Oh, and one of my favorite Tracy villain names of all time:  Natty Bumpoff, the nattily-dressed assassin.  (The name is a pun on James Fenimore Cooper's hero Nathaniel "Natty" Bumpo, aka "Hawkeye")

[SnoBahr]

I hope I can toot my own horn here... but I've started uploading my superhero stories to Kindle Vella. My Vox Veritas character(s) on Everlasting are based on the Vox Veritas in my stories. And there's also a book of really bad poetry in there, too (not superhero related). https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B085XRKV3D

 is my author profile on Amazon 🥰

Edited September 19, 2023 by SnoBahr

[Coin]

I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the excellent Femme Fatales book by our own John Ford. 

 

After writing two of his own novels (The excellent Songbird series) he wrote a book that is basically City of Heroes without any of the COH IP in it at all, and it's great fun.

 

I am slightly biased in that he used the actual characters created many of the people who played our beloved game, including my own main, Coin, 🙂

 

It's out on Kindle dead cheap as well, for those who want to read it, as well as on paperback and hardback for the luddite dead-tree-edition lovers out there 😉

 

https://mybook.to/TheScorchedSky

 

And, while you are at it, check out his songbird series as well 😉

 

 

 

[Panache]

V.E. Schwab has two books ('Vicious' and 'Vengeful') that are fun, poppy entrants into the 'first generation of superpowered humans' party. They are solidly and stolidly YA books, FWIW.