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a delight Nov 27, 2008 (6 of 6 found this helpful)
I'm amazed by the negative reviews, and glad to see them in the minority. I found this book a delight, and was amazed to see it was a first novel. The book consists of two intertwined stories - one told by a super-villian, the other by a new super-hero. I found the super-villian chapters a total delight, a real joy - the super-hero chapters are interesting, but much less so - that's why i give 4 stars instead of 5. Overall definitely a very good and fun read.
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Less depth and character than most comic books Jul 10, 2007 (45 of 64 found this helpful)
I bought this book based on a strong review, and was quite disappointed. Any reviewer who praises this book's imagination clearly hasn't read a comic book within the last 5-10 years. The settings, characters, and powers all seem to have been lifted wholesale out of Marvel's least inspired 80s B-list comics.
I will grant that there is some amusement to be found in Dr. Impossible's story. His wry, matter-of fact viewpoint is often entertaining, and the telling of a comic book tale from the villain's side is at least a bit unusual, if not unheard of (see Astro City: The Tarnished Angel, for one particularly fine example). Unfortunately, Dr. Impossible's side of things only occupies half the book. The rest of it is told from Fatale's perspective, and she's an absolute bore. A cyborg with a lost past, she doesn't seem to be terribly passionate about anything. The most she ever manages is some uninspired teenage-esque angst that her character seems much too old for.
In fact, the Dr. Impossible/Fatale contrast is indicative of a larger problem with the book. Grossman has some fun poking into the psychologies and histories of his villains, people with frightening powers living with the perpetual cognitive dissonance that exists between their world-conquering ambitions and inevitable humiliating defeats. He has no such insight, however, into the minds of his heroes. None of them spend any time pondering why they chose to put on tights and fight crime. Dr. Impossible wonders why he didn't choose to become a hero instead, but none of the heroes ever ponder why they didn't choose to just go rob a bank and retire to a tropical island. None of them appear to get any particular enjoyment from fighting crime, or derive any pleasure from helping others, so why do they do it? This book has no answers, so it does its best to dodge the question. Worse, Grossman attempts to substitute angst and bickering amongst his heroes in place of psychological depth. The New Champions, the super team that Fatale joins, bicker and sulk like a car full of high school students reluctantly dragged on a field trip, rarely displaying a single likable trait between the seven of them.
Worse still, this book reads more like a first draft than a published work. The writing is sloppy and inconsistent, and the whole thing seems to have been untouched by an editor. Descriptions are few and far between; it reads more like a comic book script than a novel, still waiting for an imaginative artist to draw in the undefined settings, faces, and costumes. Characters repeat observations several time throughout the book, each time as if they're new. The book is riddled with inconsistencies and dangling plot threads. Dr. Impossible sometimes talks as if he loathes magic and does his best to avoid it, and sometimes comfortably mentions incorporating it into past and future plans. Fatale observes that a hammer weighs a couple hundred pounds, then, several paragraphs later, picks it up and finds it "surprisingly heavy." Conflicts are set up, but never pay off. Other conflicts seem to appear out of nowhere. A scene in which Fatale accuses a mystical teammate of not being a real fairy comes entirely out of left field; one scene later, the conflict is completely forgotten, and is never mentioned again.
Character voices are also wildly inconsistent. Everyone sounds the same in conversation, and no one sounds particularly interesting. Dr. Impossible, an evil genius, comes the closest to having a unique voice, but even he bounces unpredictably between occasionally inspired bits and inexplicably juvenile lines such as, "Whatever. Just don't think you can stop me." Most dismayingly, the two narrators sound remarkably similar for most of the book, with the only distinct difference being that Fatale's utterly flat sections lack the occasional moments of inspiration that sparingly pepper Dr. Impossible's narrati
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Soon I Will Dissolve in My Own Irony Jul 24, 2009 (4 of 5 found this helpful)
Dr. Impossible is your classic under-achieving super-villain, the kind Terry Pratchett mocked mercilessly with Evil Harry Dread and His Shed of Doom in The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable. Impossible's tried twelve times already to take over the world, and the pesky super heros have defeated him every time. So as he ramps up for the 13th effort, there's not much question what's going to happen this time; only how it's going to happen. You have to be a very good writer to carry suspense in that situation, better than Mr. Grossman, I fear.
The narrative voice shifts back and forth between the villainous Dr. Impossible and newly minted superhero(ine) Fatale, a angst-ridden cyborg. A writer needs to be able to establish and maintain two distinct narrative voices to bring this trick off. As other reviewers have noted, Mr. Grossman's efforts are only spottily successful. Many of the favorable reviews are from the audio version, where the narrator can do the work the author should have done.
Much of the novel is given over to the characters backstories, but between the current superheroes and super-villains, and older, retired or defeated superheroes and villains, you really need the character table at the end of the book to even half way keep track of what's going on.
And you need a strong story. But the actual story here is minimalist.
But the great problem facing Mr. Grossman is that he cannot establish and maintain a consistent narrative tone. One page might read like a satiric pastiche of bad 1950's comic books; the next page threatens to dissolve in its own irony. Even the super bad guy, Dr. Impossible, waffles badly between arrogant James Bond villain and karking, whiny petulance. Sometimes in the same paragraph.
Sure, the author successfully parodies comic books, but that's a pretty easy target. They very nearly do it to themselves. Beyond that, it's pretty disappointing. Save your money, or go to the secondhand bookstore. I love fantasy and science fiction, and grew up on comics, but this is just poorly written.
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Soon I Will Be Mediocre Mar 31, 2009 (1 of 1 found this helpful)
The title and premise sounded fascinating, but this book simply didn't live up to its promise. Grossman's novel follows the adventures of experienced, hyperintelligent supervillian Dr. Impossible and newbie superhero Fatale.
Following the disappearance of the world's greatest hero Corefire, Dr. Impossible breaks out of prison and prepares his latest in a series of bids for world domination. Following these events from the other team is Fatale, a cyborg newly initiated into the Champions super-team.
The Champions include Black Wolf (bearing a strong resemblance to a certain wealthy resident of Gotham), Damsel, Elphin (a holdover from faerie, the last elfish warrior), Feral (the mind of a man, the strength, agility and aggression of a tiger), Mr. Mystic, Rainbow Triumph, and Lilly (an apparently reformed supervillian--transluscent, amazingly strong and nearly impervious to harm).
The book explores the dynamics of a superhero team and the resentful inferiority complex motivating men (and supermen) such as Dr. Impossible, as well as how superheroes and supervillians may be more closely linked than we are often aware. But there seems little real reflection on the genre here and very little that comic books haven't done already. Even the surprise twist at the end (which I won't ruin for you) doesn't change the way I read the characters and situation.
Soon I Will Be Invincible is occasionally humorous, but merely taking the perspective of a bad guy is no longer an innovation, and Grossman doesn't add much to the basics of the genre. A much more interesting book along similar lines is Nobody Gets the Girl by James Maxey. If you're interested in other media, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is wonderfully weird.
Overall, I won't say this book is bad, but it's just not that good either.
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Half a good book Nov 13, 2008 (1 of 1 found this helpful)
The first half of this book is excellent as we really get into Dr Impossible and how he became a supervillain/evil genius. Unfortunately, the logic of his relationship with his Superman like nemesis and Lois Lane secret love just falls apart during the second half. As does his poorly thought out scheme to defeat the Justice League knockoff and rule the world.
The parts of the book following Femme Fatale are also largely disposable. She's supposed to be our POV character but the POV is pretty bland, we care a lot more about Dr Impossible then her.
I suggest anyone who thinks this might be interesting check out Josh Whedons' Dr Horrible Musical starring Neil Patrick Harris as Dr Horrible available free online. The plots fairly similar but is much more consistent.