A powerful bad guy with moral standards who’s well-rounded and highly entertaining.
In a world of superheroes acting as citizens’ protectors, Earth’s salvation from certain ruin may lie in the hands of a brilliant supervillain in this debut adventure.
When genius Terry Markham lost his little brother, Bobby, he adopted a superhero persona his sibling had created for him. But as his brother’s death was the indirect result of a superhero not interceding during a terrorist attack (to preserve his secret identity), Terry goes the villain route. As Doctor Fid, he dons powered-armor suits and habitually faces off against superheroes in the United States. His ultimate goal is to reveal to the public its heroes’ flaws, or maybe inspire someone to become a better mighty defender and legitimately earn the citizens’ unconditional trust and praise. Terry even believes a superhero orchestrated the senseless murder of a retired supervillain. Doctor Fid doesn’t belong to any of the numerous superhero/villain groups and encounters nefarious individuals from both sides. But there may be a common enemy with a diabolical plan to either conquer or destroy the world. Terry makes alliances with adversaries and, with help from an android girl, Whisper, sets out to combat Earth’s greatest threat, all in an effort to save citizens that fear and hate Doctor Fid. Reiss incorporates into his tale genre trademarks, like explosive hero/villain battles, that occasionally fall into familiar terrain (Fid’s myriad suit variations are akin to Iron Man’s). But more relatable subplots elevate the narrative: Terry steps into the role of big brother once again with Whisper, whose “Daddy” is missing; and someone attempts to oust him from the biotech company he founded. Similarly, the story humanizes the super-characters: Terry, for one, knows nearly everyone’s real name, despite successfully hiding his own. Nevertheless, dry, understated humor fills the pages. For example, Terry contemplates a new liver with “programmable functionality” to balance the alcohol/buzz ratio. And his combat drones expertly capture footage he leaks to the internet (specially edited to humiliate his superhero rivals).
A powerful bad guy with moral standards who’s well-rounded and highly entertaining.Pub Date: March 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-980530-21-3
Page Count: 369
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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