Novels

Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (New York: Random House, 2000). [From the publisher: With this brilliant novel, the bestselling author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys gives us an exhilarating triumph of language and invention, a stunning novel in which the tragicomic adventures of a couple of boy geniuses reveal much about what happened to America in the middle of the twentieth century. Like Phillip Roth's American Pastoral or Don DeLillo's Underworld, Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a superb novel with epic sweep, spanning continents and eras, a masterwork by one of America's finest writers. It is New York City in 1939. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague. He is looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a collaborator to create the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Out of their fantasies, fears, and dreams, Joe and Sammy weave the legend of that unforgettable champion the Escapist. And inspired by the beautiful and elusive Rosa Saks, a woman who will be linked to both men by powerful ties of desire, love, and shame, they create the otherworldly mistress of the night, Luna Moth. As the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe and the world, the Golden Age of comic books has begun. The brilliant writing that has led critics to compare Michael Chabon to John Cheever and Vladimir Nabokov is everywhere apparent in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Chabon writes "like a magical spider, effortlessly spinning out elaborate webs of words that ensnare the reader," wrote Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times about Wonder Boys--and here he has created, in Joe Kavalier, a hero for the century.]

Tom De Haven, It's Superman! (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2005). [From the publisher: The world's most popular and enduring super hero and acclaimed novelist Tom De Haven come together to create the extraordinary It's Superman!—a novel that reinvents the early years of the Man of Steel. Opening with the young Clark Kent on a date, the novel takes an entirely fresh approach to the emergence of his superpowers and the start of his newspaper career, following him from rural 1930s Kansas across america to Hollywood in its golden age, and then to New York City. He meets a worldly Lois Lane and conniving political boss Lex Luthor, and begins his battles against criminal masterminds, mad scientists, and supervillains inspired by fascists. Sure to appeal to fans of the TV show Smallville and the novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, as well as devoted comic book readers, It's Superman is a fun and fast-paced novel of thrilling invention, heroic escapades, ill-fitting costumes, and super-sized coming-of-age angst.]

Minister Faust, From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain (New York: Del Rey Books, 2007). [From the publisher: They’re Earth’s mightiest superteam–and dysfunctional as hell. OMNIPOTENT MAN–a body with the density of steel, and a brain to match. THE FLYING SQUIRREL–aging playboy industrialist by day, avenging krypto-fascist by night. IRON LASS–mythology’s greatest warrior–but the world might be safer if she had a husband. X-MAN–formerly of the League of Angry Blackmen . . . but not formerly enough. THE BROTHERFLY–radioactively fly. POWER GRRRL–perpetually deciding between fighting crime or promoting her latest album, clothing line, or sex scandal. Having finally defeated all archenemies, the members of the Fantastic Order of Justice are reduced to engaging in toxic office politics that could very well lead to a superpowered civil war. Only one woman can save them from themselves: Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman, aka Dr. Brain, the world’s leading therapist for the extraordinarily abled.]

Jonathan Lethem, The Fortress of Solitude (New York: Doubleday, 2003). [From the publisher: This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude. They are friends and neighbors, but because Dylan is white and Mingus is black, their friendship is not simple. This is the story of their Brooklyn neighborhood, which is almost exclusively black despite the first whispers of something that will become known as "gentrification." This is the story of 1970s America, a time when the most simple human decisions—what music you listen to, whether to speak to the kid in the seat next to you, whether to give up your lunch money—are laden with potential political, social and racial disaster. This is the story of 1990s America, when no one cared anymore. This is the story of punk, that easy white rebellion, and crack, that monstrous plague. This is the story of the loneliness of the avant-garde artist and the exuberance of the graffiti artist. This is the story of what would happen if two teenaged boys obsessed with comic book heroes actually had superpowers: They would screw up their lives. This is the story of joyous afternoons of stickball and dreaded years of schoolyard extortion. This is the story of belonging to a society that doesn't accept you. This is the story of prison and of college, of Brooklyn and Berkeley, of soul and rap, of murder and redemption. This is the story Jonathan Lethem was born to tell. This is THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE.]

Robert Mayer, Superfolks (New York: Doubleday, 1977; reprinted Thousand Oaks CA: About Comics, 2003). [From the publisher: Superfolks, the prose novel that was an influential precursor to the sort of non-traditional view of superheroes seen in comics like Watchmen and Astro City, is being brought back into print for the first time in decades. This new limited edition, announced by About Comics at Comic-Con International San Diego, features a new introduction and a new cover drawn by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons. This 1977 novel by Robert Mayer tells the tale of the last survivor of the planet Cronk, the greatest superhero of his time. However, the time of superheroes has passed, and he has retired from action. When a world crisis causes him to dig out his old and ill-fitting costume one more time, he is split between the exciting world of adventure and the middle-class and middle-aged suburban existence he has settled into. Can he ferret out the identity of the dark master behind the crisis while dealing with his own confusions and lusts? Grant Morrison calls the book “visionary” and Kurt Busiek admits that “without Superfolks, I doubt there’d ever have been an Astro City,” and yet there is more to this novel than just a fresh view of superheroes. It is a satiric comedy, raucous and politically incorrect, and yet it’s a thoughtful look at the compromises that come with middle age. The New York Post called it “a hilarious thriller”, and Newsday gushed “It is gorgeous. It is splendid. It is funny as hell. He writes like an angel.” “I’d been hearing about Superfolks for years,” explains Nat Gertler, head honcho at About Comics. “But when I finally dug up a copy and read it, it wasn’t just entertaining, it was a revelation. Here’s a novelist that was pushing the superhero form in ways that comic books never had. When word got out that I had a copy, I had various people in the comics business asking to borrow my copy. The novel is hard to find in the used book market, and when you do find it the price is often over $100. A good book, an important book, and one that’s in demand – as a publisher, I couldn’t ask for anything more. Unfortunately, I could only get the rights for a limited edition, so we’re releasing only 2000 copies, and those are earmarked exclusively to direct market comics shops.” Author Robert Mayer is a former journalist and won the National Headliner Award as the U.S.’s most outstanding feature columnist. His non-fiction Notes of a Baseball Dreamer: A Memoir has recently been reissued by Houghton Mifflin.]

Jodi Picoult, The Tenth Circle (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006). [From the publisher: "Jodi Picoult, the New York Times bestselling author of Vanishing Acts, offers her most powerful chronicle yet of an American family with a story that probes the unbreakable bond between parent and child — and the dangerous repercussions of trying to play the hero. Trixie Stone is fourteen years old and in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father's life — a straight-A student; a freshman in high school who is pretty and popular; a girl who's always looked up to Daniel Stone as a hero. Until, that is, her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. . . and suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family — and herself — seems to be a lie. For fifteen years, Daniel Stone has been an even-tempered, mild-mannered man: a stay-at-home dad to Trixie and a husband who has put his own career as a comic book artist behind that of his wife, Laura, who teaches Dante's Inferno at a local college. But years ago, he was completely different: growing up as the only white boy in an Eskimo village, he was teased mercilessly for the color of his skin. He learned to fight back: stealing, drinking, robbing, and cheating his way out of the Alaskan bush. To become part of a family, he reinvented himself, channeling his rage onto the page and burying his past completely. . . until now. Could the young boy who once made Trixie's face fill with light when he came to the door have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a man with a history he has hidden even from his family, venture to helland back in order to protect his daughter. The Tenth Circle looks at that delicate moment when a child learns that her parents don't know all of the answers and when being a good parent means letting go of your child. It asks whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime or if your mistakes are carried forever — if life is, as in any good comic book, a struggle to control good and evil, or if good and evil control you.]

John Ridley, Those Who Walk in Darkness (New York: Warner, 2003). [From the publisher: "It's a Bird. It's a Plane-It's a Freak!" Writer John Ridley's acclaimed work-including the novels The Drift and A Conversation with the Mann, the screenplay for the hit movie Undercover Brother, and the story for the film Three Kings-cross-wires genres, boundaries, and audience expectations to innovative and stunning effect. Now Ridley presents a gritty, brutal vision of a world where comic book icons are real…and where Americans have turned against their heroes. Officer Soledad "Bullet" O'Roark loathes her nickname-and the notoriety it represents. She didn't join L.A.P.D's elite M-Tac squad to fight the Brass or make rookie cops idolize her. She joined M-Tac to kill freaks. Freaks, muties, metanormals-back in the day, they were called superheroes. They had amazing powers, lurid costumes, and snappy names: Nightshift, Civil Warrior, Nubian Princess, The Giggler. They seemed to be saviors and gods. But where there are heroes, there are villains. When a clash of superheroes and supervillains destroys San Francisco, the normal human population decides it will no longer live like spectators at the foot of Mt. Olympus. Superhumans are now outlawed and hunted by cops. But it isn't easy to take down beings who are invulnerable or intangible, have super-strength or super-speed, or can throw flames from their body or telepathically control minds. The mortality rate for M-Tac units is nearly fifty percent-per mission. That's why Soledad has customized hi-tech, unauthorized, very special ammo. Each freak has a different weakness, and her color-coded clips are designed to exploit every one of them. Soon Soledad is racking up a body count that makes her a legend on the force-and a nightmare in the freak underground. But when Soledad guns down a radiant woman who can heal the sick, reverse catastrophes, and then fly away on great white wings, the cop may be starting the final war between normals and metanormals. Because Bullet O'Roark didn't just shoot down a freak. According to all witnesses, she's killed an angel. ]

John Ridley, What Fire Cannot Burns (New York: Warner, 2006). [From the publisher: "APD's top mutant-hunter, Soledad O'Roark has outfought telepaths, human flamethrowers, men with steel skin, and every other kind of freakish super-powered thing. But her high-tech firepower is no match for teammate-and rival-Eddi Aoki's attempts at friendship, which endlessly irritate the solitary Soledad. When a vigilante starts killing metanormals without mercy, Soledad and Eddi end up working the same case…in a way that neither could imagine. And the hunt for answers pits Soledad and Eddi against a cabal inside the LAPD as well as a serial killer who's slaughtering mutants, cops, and anyone else who gets in his way.]

Herbert Thomas, The Superlative Man (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997). [From the publisher: This tightly wound thriller unerringly evokes the world of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett with an altogether contemporary dash of irony. The Superlative Man soars overhead, coming to the rescue of people in danger. The tabloids splash his every exploit across the front pages. The entire metropolis is in awe of him-except for Harvey Gander, whose parents died in a freak automobile accident caused by the Superlative Man as he was dashing off to another adventure. Gander is a lonesome cub reporter for the Metropolitan Meteor, and when he is assigned a story about people saved by the Superlative Man, he stumbles on a conspiracy to expose the hero as a fake. The stakes are raised when two heavies threaten him just for interviewing Natasha Nyle, a footloose blonde from the Outer Borough. As the young reporter chases stories through the city's dark byways, moons over a slip of a girl named Violet Hayes, and falls under the spell of the wizened newshound Elmo Jade, he uncovers dark truths about the American superhero, while struggling to prove that he is, in his own way, a superlative man. Herbert Thomas's delightful first book is both an affectionate homage to the classics of noir and a gripping novel in its own right. Witty, suspenseful, and fun, it keeps the reader spellbound, waiting for the Superlative Man to swoop down from the sky once again.]