Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
With Great Power..., 23 Jun 2008
'Superpowers' is a comic book but without any pictures, which frankly ought not to work but thanks to David J. Schwartz's fast moving prose, it does. Five college students wake up one morning and discover that they have acquired various (and typical for the genre) superpowers. Unlike many superhero tales 'Superpowers' does not rely on Good Vs Evil to drive its plot. Indeed, the novel's central message is that good and evil largely depends on perspective.
'Superpowers' explores the moral obligations of those imbued with supernatural ability in a far more effective way than having Tobey 'Spiderman' Macguire banging on about 'great power coming with great responsibility' every five seconds. The attempts of Schwartz's characters to come to terms with their powers and their responsibilities is very well actualised and extremely human.
Schwartz also tackles, with great sensitivity, humanity's failings and the feelings of inadequacy we all feel from time to time. By using, larger superpowered examples, he offers us a microscope with which to look at our own motives and ambitions. As the tension in the novel builds, real world events also impact on the group, distorting their world view even further. Their response, is an excellent (if thinly veiled) metaphor for the American led response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
All in all, I found 'Superpowers' to be a very satisfying read. The novel is well paced and manages to be describe the supernatural and yet remain believable. Excellent stuff.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite a supernovel, 12 Jul 2008
This book tells the story of five US college students who inexplicably acquire superpowers overnight, following a heavy session on the homebrew. The novel focuses on how the individuals come to terms and utilise their new gifts of super strength, speed, flight, invisibility and telepathy.
This is in the 'Heroes' mould and may appeal to fans of that show; having said which, neither this novel nor 'Heroes' treads very new ground - superheroes have, of course, been struggling to come to terms with their gifts/curses for decades in comic books.
The plot, such as it is, is quite thin; without givng the storyline away, the novel looks at the difficulty of being a hero and doing good, exposing the limitations of superpowers in sorting the world out.
I would recommend this to anyone drawn by the subject matter, as it's a quick and light read. I do wish, though, that Schwartz had let his characters (and readers) have a bit more fun with those superpowers, instead of cutting almost immediately to the anguished motif of 'it's no cakewalk being a superhero'.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Not the greatest novel but quite entertaining, 28 Jan 2009
I like comic books and books, TV shows and movies about heroes, like most of my generation, I have grown up with super-heroes movies and I when I saw the book I was curious about how the author was going to develop the idea, that was both simple and attractive.
It is the usual beginning for a comic book, five college students, let's say, five friends, each one with their issues and background stories of sorrow and pain, get super powers and try to help a world that is amazed and fears them.
It has some very good points, showing us the human side of these heroes, how they get to terms with what they are living, the author doesn't make the mistake of going all the way with the comic book genre, and has some brilliant moments, like when they get together to decide whether they will be superheroes or not.
The book is told by a "journalist" that gives his point of view all the time and the chapters are short, easy to read and fast.
Even if you don't love comics or haven't read one in your life, the author explains everything in a simple way. It is not a challenging book but a fairly entertaining one.
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